ICRW welcomes Pranita Achyut Back to Asia Regional Office

Will fill new role as Director, Research and Programs

The International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) is pleased to announce the appointment of Pranita Achyut to be the first Director of Research and Programs in the Asia Regional Office. In her new role, Pranita will be a member of both the Global and Asia Senior Management Teams and a key presence and participant in institutional strategic planning and decision-making.

Pranita brings 20 years of experience in applied research and program monitoring, particularly in gender, gender-based violence, adolescent health and family planning. She holds a Master’s Degree in Population Studies from the International Institute of Population Sciences in Mumbai, and Master’s Degree in Statistics from Banaras Hindu University in Varanasi, India.

“We are happy and proud to welcome Pranita back to ICRW,” said Ravi Verma, ICRW’s Asia Regional Director. “Her mixture of both applied research as well as program skills are incredibly important to ICRW as we grow our work here in the region.”

This new role marks a return to ICRW for Pranita. During her previous tenure, Pranita led some of  ICRW’s flagship programs, including Gender Equity Movement in Schools (GEMS) and Promoting Adolescent Engagement Knowledge & Health (PAnKH). Pranita has also worked extensively with USAID supported programs including Impact on Marriage: Program Assessment of Conditional Cash Transfers (IMPACCT), the evaluation of the Apni Beti Apna Dhan (ABAD) program initiated by the Government of Haryana in 1994. She worked across teams to develop knowledge products as well as organize disseminations for key audiences – stakeholders, policymakers and government agencies.

Since leaving ICRW in 2017, Pranita has been leading the research portfolio for Population Services International (PSI)’s India office. She was responsible for design and execution of exploratory and evaluative research in multiple thematic areas, including family planning, sanitation, and non-communicable diseases. Previously, Pranita has worked with UNICEF, the World Bank and the National Institute of Health and Family Welfare. At these organizations, she led many projects and provided technical and managerial support with several others on gender, gender-based violence, adolescent health, family planning and child health.

In her new leadership role at ICRW Asia, Pranita will provide technical leadership to several large projects.  She will be responsible for oversight of the four teams that represent ICRW Asia’s research agenda: Health; Violence, Rights and Inclusion; Gender, Youth and Development; and Gender, Economic Empowerment and Livelihoods.