The power of data-driven governance has been proven in many Asian markets, including India. However, monitoring results of public programs is largely nascent in India. The barriers that prevent effective monitoring include disaggregated efforts at sub-national levels, the scale of public interventions, and the lack of knowledge/technical capabilities. This is where social impact investments can make a difference. Corporations, investors, and philanthropists have pushed the needle on how they can deliver on socio-economic outcomes. Impact investment can and is touted to play a strong role in strengthening data-driven public governance for tangible benefits across society.
We warmly invite you to be part of an upcoming AVPN India Policy Leadership Lab session discussing “The role of the private sector in strengthening data-driven governance and M&E for public sector programs in India.”
The session is the first of a series of India-focused policy dialogues that will see participation from public sector officials and private sector stakeholders from India and across key AVPN markets. Through this 90-minute cross-border discussion, AVPN would like to discuss the importance and need for strong data-driven systems that enable better monitoring and evaluation of public sector programs and eventually lead to better policy programming as such. The session will –
- Identify key challenges in improving the monitoring and evaluation of public sector programs
- Share best practices and standards in building strong data-led governance
- Explore opportunities for collaboration with invited stakeholders
Agenda
- Welcome address
- Setting the context: Need for data driven governance in a post-pandemic setting
- Roundtable discussion:
- Lessons learned about data management and governance challenges
- Building capability and infrastructure to advance evidence-based monitoring of and by public departments
- How can data advance PPPs in priority states in India
- Identifying synergies for collaboration and partnerships
- Concluding thoughts and summary
| SPEAKERS |
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Mary Abdo Managing Director, Centre for Evidence and Implementation Mary Abdo is the Managing Director of CEI where she supports clients to maximise the impact of the programs they fund. She leads strategic projects within CEI that enable the organisation’s growth and impact. Mary has lived in Asia since 2012, supporting organisations to develop strategies and capture innovations that maximise impact across more than 25 countries.
Previously, Mary was with global strategy house L.E.K. Consulting, where she was a Senior Manager and founding member of the firm’s global education practice. She was previously Vice President at EY-Parthenon. In both institutions she led the education teams’ work with public and social impact clients, while also developing thought leadership initiatives, authoring major reports for USAID, DFID, World Bank Group, Qatar Foundation and Jacobs Foundation, among others. Before joining Parthenon in Mumbai in 2012, Mary was a manager at the Young Foundation, a social innovation think-and-do-tank in London. Mary holds a Master in Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School, where she was a Pforzheimer Fellow in Non-Profit Management, and a Master from the College of Europe, which she attended as a Fulbright Fellow. She has a Bachelor degree summa cum laude from the University of Southern California, which she attended as a Trustee Scholar. |
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Poornima Dore Head, Data Driven Governance, Tata Trusts Poornima Dore is an Economist and TAS management professional with deep experience in digital transformation, corporate and development finance. Her strengths lie in designing innovative financial structures, overseeing large projects and driving meaningful partnerships across companies, government, civil society and academia. She teaches at some of India’s prestigious management and technical institutes. As part of the Tata Group’s flagship leadership program TAS, she has worked across several group companies. She currently heads Data Driven Governance at the Tata Trusts. She has worked across the organization, and in her current role, holds pan India charge of leveraging the power of data and digital tools for better SDG outcomes – across all focus districts and cities in India. Furthermore, Poornima has led the Structured Investments vertical at Tata Capital Ltd (TCL), where she anchored landmark equity and mezzanine debt investments across sectors like auto, IT, pharma, insurance etc. and has also been part of the start up core team at TCL, setting up initial systems especially for the Commercial Finance and Infrastructure Finance businesses. She has been recognized as one of the top 100 Analytics Leaders in South Asia in 2019. She has served on a number of Government Committees and Ministerial Working Groups, the most recent being on the National Consumption Expenditure Survey, Aspirational Districts of India and Datasmart Cities. |
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Irene Basile Policy Analyst, OECD Irene Basile is a policy analyst at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), where her work is focused on social impact measurement for the social economy. Since 2017, she also contributed to the OECD Social Impact Investment initiative and, more broadly, policy research on the contribution of private finance to the sustainable development agenda.
Previously, she has worked for 10 years as external evaluator on European and national development cooperation programmes. |
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Vikram Kapur Additional Chief Secretary, Planning and Development Department, Government of Tamil Nadu Mr Vikram Kapur is a 1988 batch officer of the Indian Administrative Service, in the Tamil Nadu State cadre. He graduated in Physics (Honours) from St. Stephens College, Delhi and did his post graduation in Public Policy and Management from the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore and Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University, New York.
During his service, Mr Vikram Kapur has worked in various capacities, including that of District Collector, Dindigul, Executive Director, Tea Board, Government of India, MD & CEO, Tamil Nadu Urban Development Fund, Member Secretary, Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority, Chairman, Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board and Principal Secretary, Industries Department, Government of Tamil Nadu. He is presently posted as Additional Chief Secretary, Planning and Development Department, Government of Tamil Nadu. |
| MODERATOR |
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Aparna Krishnan Project Director, J-PAL South Asia Aparna Krishnan leads J-PAL South Asia’s Innovations in Data and Experiments for Action (IDEA) Lab, a dedicated team within J-PAL SA, with a focus on encouraging use of administrative data in research and policy.
Prior to this, Aparna was leading J-PAL South Asia’s first institutional and large-scale partnership with the State Government of Tamil Nadu (GoTN) until 2018, which she continues to be involved with in an advisory role. She served as Executive Director of J-PAL South Asia until 2012, and in this role, helped set up and manage several large-scale research projects, engaged in policy outreach and training activities with different government, multilateral and civil society agencies. Apart from her work at J-PAL, she has a few years of independent consulting experience in Monitoring and Evaluation systems and data use with the World Bank, and similar international organizations and a few NGOs. She has also worked in development and environmental policy research in India in different positions at the Madras Institute of Development Studies, and the Centre for Micro Finance at IFMR; and in Singapore at the Institute of SouthEast Asian Studies. Aparna has a Master’s in International Policy from University of California, San Diego and a Master’s in Economics from Gokhale Institute, India. |
