HENI Equilogue: How can communities drive change?: Evidence, advocacy and on-the ground-experiences of Community Action for Health to achieve health reform for all

Speakers

• Renu Khanna (SAHAJ, Gujarat; Distinguished Fellow, The George Institute of Global Health)

  Renu Khanna brings over four decades of experience in gender equality and human rights related to health. Her multifaceted journey includes roles as a practitioner, researcher, and mentor, engaging with marginalized communities at the grassroots level, civil society organizations, and national policymakers. In 1984, she co-founded SAHAJ (Society for Health Alternatives), which initially worked with urban poor waste-picking women. Over time, SAHAJ expanded its focus to address civil and political rights issues of the urban poor, including sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR). Currently, SAHAJ collaborates on an intersectional SRHR program involving marginalized communities such as Dalit, Adivasi, trans women, and girls with disabilities.

  Renu worked for over 18 years in a tribal district with poor development indicators. During this time, she collaborated with the Public Health Department of the Bombay Municipal Corporation. As a Co-Principal Investigator, she contributed to collaborative projects with the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM) and the Royal Tropical Institute (KIT) Amsterdam. Currently, she serves as the Vice Chair of the Advisory Group of the ARISE Consortium led by LSTM.

  Additionally, Renu taught a course on Gender, Health, and Rights at Azim Premji University (for MA Development Studies students in 2021 and 2022) and guides research for students and community-based organizations. Her active involvement in feminist and SRHR movements and coalitions within India, regionally, and globally allows her to translate grassroots lessons into potential policy measures. Over the years, she has made significant contributions to several UN organizations. Currently, she serves as a Lancet Commissioner for Gender and Global Health, a member of the Gender Advisory Panel of WHO, and a Distinguished Fellow at the George Institute, Australia.

  

• Prabodh Nanda (Senior Programme Coordinator, State Health Resource Centre,Chhattisgarh)

  Prabodh Nanda pursued his Master’s in Social Work (MSW) from Utkal University, Bhubaneswar, Odisha. He has 20 years of experience in the field of academia and community development. For the last 13 years, he has been involved in public health, particularly in Community Processes activities. He is a certified National Trainer under the National Health Mission for Community Processes activities. He has several research publications on the work of Mitanin-Community Health Workers to his credit. He is a good mentor and an excellent team leader.

  

• Raj Kumar Gope (Team Lead, Ekjut, Jharkhand)

  Raj Kumar is a postgraduate in Rural Management with over two decades of experience working on health and nutrition issues through community empowerment. Currently, he serves as the Team Lead at Ekjut, a DASRA-Harvard Social Impact Leadership Fellow, and a member of the State Resource Group in Jharkhand under the National Health Mission. Additionally, he is a Leadership for Environment and Development (LEAD) Fellow. Raj Kumar has been actively involved in designing and implementing community-based and community-led programs centered around women’s groups to address health and nutritional issues. He has also co-authored several papers on the Participatory Learning and Action approach in health and nutrition. Furthermore, he contributes to capacity building for Officer Trainees at Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration, using various participatory tools.

  

• Shibanand Rath (Evaluation Manager, Ekjut, Jharkhand)

  Shibanand Rath has been working in the social development sector for the last 24 years, with 19 of those years spent at Ekjut. His work involves designing manuals, providing training, implementing and evaluating community mobilization initiatives through women’s groups. These initiatives, known as Participatory Learning and Action (PLA), have been pioneered by Ekjut. Their goal is to improve maternal and child health and nutrition, address gender-based violence, and enhance the overall health, nutrition, and well-being of adolescents.

  Shibanand is also involved in managing creches, focusing on nutrition and early childhood stimulation. He works on scaling up creche programs through the government system in various districts in Odisha, as well as through philanthropic efforts.In addition, Shibanand has led several evaluation studies in Odisha and Jharkhand to assess the impact of Participatory Learning and Action across various themes related to maternal and child health and nutrition. His research findings have been published in high-impact, peer-reviewed journals such as The Lancet, Lancet Global Health, and BMC Public Health. Furthermore, he contributes to capacity building for Officer Trainees (IAS, IPS, IRS) at Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration, using various participatory tools. Shibanand holds a Master’s degree in Sociology from Central University, Hyderabad, and has a degree in International Health and Policy Evaluation from Erasmus University, The Netherlands

  

• Shraddha Mishra (Research Assistant, The George Institute of Global Health)

  Shraddha Mishra (MPH, BHSc) is a researcher at the George Institute for Global Health with seven years of experience in health advocacy. She uses an intersectional lens to collaborate at the interface of health promotion, scholarship, and community action for health and social justice. Within SPHERE’s secretariat, Shraddha plays a leading role in research-advocacy activities distilling lessons from participatory efforts, and provides technical support to collaborators in Argentina, Kenya, Tunisia and Vietnam. Among Shraddha’s favourite activities are (un)learning and imagining liberated futures for all, both of which will continue to guide her praxis as an incoming MD/PhD student and future physician-scientist.

  

• Neymat Chadha (Research Fellow, The George Institute of Global Health)

  Neymat is a Research Fellow at the George Institute of Global Health, focusing on community action for health and social participation, health equity, primary health care, and women’s health. She also supports the Secretariat of Social Participation for Health, Engagement, Research and Empowerment (SPHERE), with a particular focus on projects in Kenya, Vietnam, Argentina, and Tunisia. Trained as a sociologist with a specialization in medical sociology, Neymat is currently pursuing her PhD in social anthropology at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in New Delhi. Her research involves an ethnographic study of early-age hysterectomies in India. Prior to joining GIGH, Neymat has worked as an independent consultant for several organizations, including Evidence Action and SPRF India. She has also served as a teaching assistant at IIT, Delhi.

  

• Devaki Nambiar (Program Director, The George Institute of Global Health, India)

  Devaki Nambiar is Program Director at the George Institute for Global Health India with appointments at the Manipal Academy of Higher Education, India, the University of New South Wales, Australia and the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, USA.  For two decades, she has led mixed methods research, technical assistance, training and capacity-strengthening related to health policy and systems, with an emphasis on health equity and the social determinants of health.  She has a passion for and commitment to social participation for health and is part of the Secretariat of the Social Participation for Health: Engagement Research and Empowerment (SPHERE) Consortium (www.spheretogether.org). She completed her doctorate from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in 2009