About

A widely recognised international development professional, Meenakshi Batra has many feathers in her cap. With over three decades of multifarious experience globally, she has driven organisations across the globe to catalyse change and make a positive impact on the lives of the underprivileged and marginalised sections of societies across South and South East Asia. 

Meenakshi?s work in the development sector encompasses a wide range of aspects - from providing strategic leadership, to strengthening organizations, facilitating sustainability through corporate social responsibility (CSR) and philanthropy. Through effective campaigns, programme management and networking, she has led organisations with immense clarity of thought.    
?Currently Meenakshi is CEO of Charities Aid Foundation (CAF) India ? an organization with a mission to promote giving in India. Meenakshi?s leadership has put CAF India on an impressive growth trajectory. Upon her joining in 2012, the organization has grown by almost 600 percent.  Meenakshi initiated an organization development process - setting the vision, shaping the organization and driving it for growth and impact. This has positioned CAF India as a leading agency offering philanthropic and CSR management services to hundreds of donors and not-for-profits, year after year.??Previously, Meenakshi has served in various leadership roles in South and Southeast Asia including Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Nepal, Sri Lanka, conflict zones like Afghanistan. She has successfully led large country programmes in India, Afghanistan and Indonesia and has also worked in United Kingdom, Philippines, Vietnam and Iraq.
?Through her work, Meenakshi has emerged as a thought leader in the field of philanthropy and development. Her work has been recognised and acknowledged through several prestigious awards, such as the Indian Women Achiever Award (IWAA), NGO Women Leadership Award, Women in Leadership Award and many more. She also speaks frequently at various national and international conferences and writes frequently for media and other channels.

In her penchant for paving the way for a meaningful developmental discourse, Meenakshi has helped pen many position papers such as ?Achieving Inclusive and Sustainable Industrialization by Promoting SMEs?, ?Strengthening growth of not-for-profits through Inclusive Partnerships?, ?Online Giving in India: Insights to Improve Results?, ?Study on Corporate Foundations- An Emerging Development Paradigm?. 
?Meenakshi serves on the boards of prominent organisations such as LEPRA, Resource Alliance, Society for Promotion of Wasteland Development (SPWD), VANI (2015-17) etc. and is the convener of P6-MSD10 constituted by Bureau of Indian Standards (Government of India) to draft the requirement standards on CSR in India. She also serves on the CSR committees of Confederation of Indian Industries (CII), European Business Group (EBG), Indo-French Chamber of Commerce and Industry (IFCCI). 

She is a member of CII Committee on Affirmative Action, Regional CSR committee of CII, CSR committee of PHDCCI and UNGCNI Membership and Programs committees. She is also member of NITI Aayog?s (India?s premier thinktank) CSO committee.

Meenakshi started with a Post Graduate degree in Child Development and Family Welfare. She later undertook advanced studies in the areas of Environment Education (Centre for Environment Education), Gender and Social Development (London School of Economics and Wye College UK) and Leadership Development. She works and lives in New Delhi.