Kritika Goel

Kritika Goel is a development practitioner with over 5 years of experience working on social development research, practice and management. She has worked with marginalised communities across rural and urban India at the intersection of livelihoods, informal labour, agriculture and land, climate change and empowerment.

Previously, she was involved in projects on Circular Economy where she worked on documenting the contributions of informal livelihoods in the repair, recycle, re-use value chain of six products through fieldwork across Delhi NCR. She has also contributed towards building a learning document on land rights through assessing the work of five organisations situated in five Indian states in order to develop understanding on locally sustainable methods that can be adapted and scaled across India. In her last role, Kritika worked with the CGIAR Initiative on Gender Equality, CGIAR Initiative on Seed Equal and CGIAR GENDER Impact Platform to promote gender equality and livelihoods among women and marginalised farmers.

Kritika has a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from University of Delhi. She also has a Master’s in Development Studies and an MPhil. in Development Practice from Dr. B.R. Ambedkar University, Delhi. During her academic journey she has pursued interdisciplinary courses and trained in multiple creative research and practice methodologies through courses like Rural through Arts, Literature and Films, Participatory Rural Appraisal and Theater of the Oppressed. Her MPhil. thesis titled “Breaking the Monolith: Rethinking Development through Gendering Experience in Palwadi, Chhattisgarh” was based on an action research project carried with Gond Adivasi women, where they critically questioned the notion of top-down discourse of development and empowerment and strived to transform their role in and experience of the development programs.

At IIHS, Kritika works as a Senior Associate with the School of Systems and Infrastructure.