Arundhati Saikia

WORK HISTORY

EDUCATION

ABOUT ARUNDHATI SAIKIA

I am a passionate advocate for social justice with over five years of experience in gender-transformative programming, grants management, and strategic partnerships development across South Asia and the United States. I graduated with a Master of Public Health from Columbia University, where my research, focused on donor responsibility and accountability to affected populations, was deeply influenced by intersectional analysis and grassroots coalition-building.My career journey has taken me from conducting field research among indigenous women displaced by climate change in Assam, India, to leading grants management and strategy development at UNICEF India, where I secured over €40 million in flexible funding during the COVID-19 pandemic. My work has consistently focused on long-term stakeholder engagement, program execution, and inclusive strategy development, with a strong emphasis on addressing root causes rather than stopgap solutions. At the Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN), focused, I led development operations and reporting efforts that supported strong partnerships with donors reimagining how catalytic capital and impact investing can drive systemic change.I currently work with the Rockefeller Foundation supporting the Foundation’s program teams with the identification, cultivation, and stewardship of strategic partnerships and alliances.What drives me is the intersection of urgency and possibility in development work. Issues like child malnutrition, educational inequity, and climate vulnerability demand immediate action, but they also require us to fundamentally reimagine how solutions are designed and sustained. Coming from India, I\'ve witnessed how the most effective approaches already exist within communities—they just need support, not replacement. I\'m passionate about building the systems, partnerships, and financing mechanisms that center local leadership, because I believe lasting change only happens when those closest to the challenges have the power and resources to solve them.