Alumni Feature | Tanya Agrawal, Master’s in Public Policy ‘16

Prior to joining the founding batch of NLSIU MPP, Tanya pursued the Teach for India fellowship followed by a stint in not-for-profit consulting where she worked extensively with governments of developing countries and the private sector to develop policies and promote strategic private sector investments that could alleviate poverty in the short to long run. She joined the MPP course to anchor her interest in policy in theory and practice under the guidance and mentorship of a pioneering faculty and institution. While at NLS, she found herself in an enthused learning environment with a deeply committed faculty, robust institutional infrastructure and keen fellow colleagues. The course was extremely well-balanced and provided equal exposure to policy theory and its application. Consequently, she found several opportunities to continue building her interest in policy design, global development and problem solving. In the two years at NLS, she engaged with a wide range of stakeholders that influence policy – from grassroot community-based organizations to government stakeholders to multilateral organizations. On reflection, she finds that the field work assigned to the MPP candidates in Rajasthan under the aegis of MKSS was one of her most enriching experiences. Her work with the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) in Sri Lanka and with Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI) were among the other influential experiences she had during the course. She also had the unique opportunity of going on a fully-funded exchange program to Oslo and Askershus University College in Oslo, Norway for a diploma in Social dimensions of poverty and participatory methodologies of investigation.

Since graduating from NLSIU MPP, Tanya has continued pursuing her passion in global development and policy. She has been working on setting-up public health and nutrition programs across several developing countries through her work in international NGOs such as Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI) and Evidence Action. She also worked briefly at Centre for Social and Behaviour Change, Ashoka University where she worked with the Government of India to set-up India’s first Behavioural Insights Unit housed within the NITI Aayog.