Meet the team

Avani is a Senior Fellow at the Centre for Policy Research (CPR) and Director of the Accountability Initiative (AI). The focus of her work has been in building evidence for policy advocacy to strengthen transparency and accountability in public financial management for service delivery. Her most recent research understands the implications of the 14th Finance Commission on social sector spending. As part of her work, she is leading research studies on health, sanitation, nutrition and education financing. She has also been anchoring the publication of the annual budget brief series and implementation of fund tracking surveys on key social sector schemes.

Before the Accountability Initiative, she worked at the Centre for Development and Human Rights (CDHR), with Dr. Arjun Sengupta, on issues of extreme poverty and the right to development. Avani has an M.Sc.in Development Studies from the London School of Economics, U.K and a B.A cum laude from Smith College, Massachusetts, USA.

Neeraj Trivedi is currently working with Pratham Education Foundation on its internal capacity building programs as well as social protection-related projects. He earlier served as the Associate Director at Evidence for Policy Design (EPoD) India at IFMR, where, apart from providing overall executive leadership to the organization, he led its capacity building portfolio focusing on policymakers and government agencies to use evidence and economic theory for decision-making. In this role, Neeraj led several training sessions with Indian Administrative Services Officers at the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration (LBSNAA) and with state and district officials in Bihar. Neeraj also led EPoD India’s policy-research engagements in the financial inclusion portfolio. Prior to joining EPoD India, Neeraj was with Pratham for seven years, where he served as Head of ASER Operations, Capacity Building and HR at ASER Centre and prior to that Operations Head for UP and Bihar programs, and in-charge of child labor related interventions in Bihar.

Neeraj graduated from the Masters in Public Administration in International Development (MPA-ID) program at the Harvard Kennedy School. At Harvard Kennedy School, Neeraj was awarded the Raymond Raymond Vernon Award for Commitment to International Development, given to a graduating student who best exemplifies the values of the MPA / ID program, as well as the Dean’s Award for Excellence in Student teaching. Neeraj also holds a postgraduate diploma in management from the Indian Institute of Management Lucknow and a degree in chemical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Madras.