EDUCATION:
2005 MSc City Design and Social Sciences, London School of Economics, London
2003 BArch, School of Planning and Architecture, Delhi
Countries: India, United Kingdom
States: Bihar, Gujarat, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Orissa, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal
Cities: Bangalore, Gujarat, Katihar, Kanpur, Karur, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mumbai, multiple villages in Orissa
Languages: English, Hindi, Marathi
Kavita Wankhade: Kavita Wankhede has a Masters in City Design and Social Sciences from the London School of Economics, U.K. Trained in architecture, urban design and social sciences, Kavita’s work primarily revolves around urban service delivery and the interface between physical infrastructure and socio-economic dynamics. Kavita has worked as a researcher, project manager, educator and has built her expertise through a rich mix of field research, managing complex projects with multiple stakeholders, teaching and training. She has engaged with various state governments in India, multilateral institutions, and with public sector enterprises in the UK. Some of her recent research and consultancy projects have included the review of the urban sanitation sector in India that contributed to the development of the National Urban Sanitation Policy 2008; and also impact assessment of the JNNURM in selected urban locations.
At IIHS, Kavita is Senior Lead – Practice. Currently, she leads the Tamil Nadu Urban Sanitation Support Programme (TNUSSP) that is working to establish two model towns in Tamil Nadu, as well as enabling state-wide scaling up. Kavita has managed the International Curriculum Development Project at IIHS with a team of over 180 leading academics, practitioners and policy makers from across the world. She also co-led the 9-month IIHS Programme for Working Professionals in Urban Development (PWP-UD) that tested the interdisciplinary MUP framework and pedagogical approach.
She is a faculty member in the IIHS team’s LBSNAA’s Phases IV, III, II programmes on urban water and sanitation. She also completed a three-month Urban Knowledge Network Asia (UKNA) fellowship at the Development Planning Unit, University College London in 2014. She has anchored the development of a national policy paper on water and sanitation in urban India; carried out monitoring and evaluation of an urban sanitation project in Katihar (Bihar), provided knowledge support to a national groundwater sanitation nexus programme.