Anita Anand
A 2897 Greenfields, Aravali Hills, Faridabad
Haryana 121010, India
Mobile: +91- 9811157812
E-mail: aa.comfirst@gmail.com
_________________________________________
Personal Information
Nationality: Indian
nDate of Birth: December 8, 1949
Expertise and skills
General: My expertise is management, development and communications at the national, regional and international level, with a gender perspective. In 1971, I started my development career as part of a team introducing science teaching projects in rural India. In 1991, I returned to India, as Director of an international news-feature service providing development stories to mainstream media from a gender perspective. In these and subsequent years, I acquired a variety of expertise and skills.
Leadership and Advocacy: I have expertise in developing, implementing, monitoring, evaluating and managing projects nationally, regionally and internationally. I have been involved in analysis and formulation of policy, planning and advocacy, working with national, regional and international institutions. I have worked with government agencies, civil society organisations, as well as formal and informal networks. I have experience and knowledge of the UN system and UN regional bodies. I have knowledge and experience of the development cooperation agencies of Europe, Japan and North America. I have raised approximately US $15 million for civil society organisations over the last 20 years.
Work style and Exposure: I enjoy working cross culturally and in teams. I am comfortable delegating and supervising, expect accountability and being accountable. I value and respect institutions. I have strong verbal and written communications skills, and a good public presence. I have invested in improving my personal and professional skills by engaging in continuing education. I have traveled widely in all regions of the world, and worked with civil society organisations, the public and private sector, UN agencies, and media. I am a secular person, with exposure to and respect for various religions and beliefs.
Media, Communications and Development: An important part of my career has been to get development issues into mainstream and alternative print and electronic media, with a special focus on poverty, sustainability, reproductive health, women, and gender.
Gender: Since the mid 1970s I have been involved with the women and development dialogue -working at the policy level in Washington DC; documentaries with the Canadian National Film Board; a news feature service from a women and gender perspective; training on gender issues with various groups; engendering India’s Five Year Plans since 1996. My strong belief is that gender is about getting women and men to see how they have been socialized to think and behave the way they do. And, being aware of this is the beginning of change. I also believe in gentle and persuasive tools of change.
Education
· 1975: Master of Arts, Education, Ohio University, Ohio, USA
· 1970: Bachelor of Arts, Education and Political Science, Loreto College, Calcutta University, India
· 1967: Indian School Certificate, Science and Mathematics. Loreto Convent, Asansol, West Bengal, India.
Continuing Education
· 1999-2001: Basic and Advanced Lab on Human Process, sponsored by the Indian Society for Applied Behavioral Science, India
· 1998: Executive Program for Leaders in Development: Managing Organisations in a time of Political and Economic Change. Harvard University, Cambridge, USA
· 1979: Courses in reporting, writing, editing, at the USAID's Agricultural Extension Agency, Washington DC, USA
· 1975: Course in community organizing at the School for Community Organizing and Social Change, Chicago, Illinois, USA
Languages
· English, Hindi, Bengali, Punjabi, Italian spoken, and French and Spanish comprehension. Elementary Dari.
Professional experience
· January 2001-present: Director, Com First (India) Private Ltd, New Delhi, India
In a niche telecommunications and development agency, I have conducted research, done documentation (print and AV) for UN agencies, and written two books during this period. I have helped organize an international conference on mountain women in Bhutan, conducted a research study on adolescent, abortion and media in India, and produced a daily newspaper for an international gathering on women and health in Delhi. I evaluated a media and gender project. I trained journalists in Afghanistan on gender, drugs and reproductive health.
· January 1991 – October 2000: Director, Women’s Feature Service (WFS), New Delhi, India
I was chief executive officer of the organisation. In 1986, I took on responsibility for the WFS project, which had three half time people and one bureau. By 1993 it had 30 full time people and 7 bureaus, with 160 women journalists around the world. By 1997 it had one central bureau in New Delhi, as others became independent organisations. Till today, it continues to be the only organisation of its kind: providing news-features to mainstream media on development issues from a gender perspective. The WSF was supported by UN agencies; development cooperation agencies of Norway, Switzerland, Netherlands and UK, the Dutch NGO Novib; and John D and Catherine T MacArthur and Ford Foundation.
· February 1986-December 1990: Co-coordinator, Women, Communication and Development, Inter Press Service (IPS), Rome, Italy
As part of the senior management team, I was appointed to consolidate, expand and make independent, Women’s Feature Service, (WFS) a UNESCO inspired project of the agency, and a novel experiment to have women journalists writing about development issues from a women’s perspective. I traveled, representing the agency in Asia, the Pacific, Africa, Latin America and Europe. I interacted with the European Union, development cooperation agencies of most western European countries, and UN agencies and development cooperation agencies of Europe and Canada.
· July 1978-June 1984: Policy Analyst. United Methodist Board of Church & Society, Washington DC, USA
As a policy analyst my task was to analyze US foreign policy on development issues, with a focus on population and IFIs (international financial institutions such as the World Bank, IMF) and design advocacy material for the 11 million US Methodist constituents. I conducted workshops, seminars and created AV material. Part of my job was also at the United Nations headquarters in New York, where I collaborated with NGOs and UN agencies such as UNDP, UNFPA, UN Centre on Transnationals, UNIDO, UNRISD, WHO, and NGLS on these issues.
· 1975-1978: Program Assistant, United Campus Ministry, Athens, Ohio, USA.
My task was to organize seminars and workshops on issues of international development. I designed and co-ordinated multi-disciplinary courses on hunger (the first of its kind at the University) for undergraduate tutorial students. I initiated the Athens Coalition against World Hunger; a campus based group that worked to raise consciousness on hunger and development issues.
· 1971-1973: Program Associate. Friends Rural Centre, Hoshangabad, Madhya Pradesh, India
During this period I was responsible for designing - with a team of researchers, teachers and government bureaucrats - a science teaching programme for rural middle school children. This was eventually mainstreamed into the state curriculum. Till today, it is considered an innovative and path breaking project.
Publications
Books
· 1992: The Power to Change: Third World Women redefine their Environment. Published by Kali for Women, India and Zed Press, UK. Versions in Finnish and Japanese.
· 1998: Beijing! UN Fourth World Conference on Women, with Gouri Salvi. Published by Women’s Feature Service, India.
· 1999: Measuring the Immeasurable: Planning Monitoring and Evaluation of Networks. With Marilee Karl, Allert van den Ham, Floris Blankenberg and Adrian Saldanha. Published by Women’s Feature Service for NOVIB, Netherlands.
· 1999: Whose World is it Anyway? United Nations, Civil Society and the Multilateral Future. With John Foster. Published by United Nations Association of Canada.
· 2002: The Beauty Game, Penguin India.
· 2004: The World Social Forum: Challenging Empires. With Jai Sen, Arturo Escobar and Peter Waterman. The Viveka Foundation, India. Available in French, Spanish, Japanese, German and Urdu.
· Letter from Afghanistan. Forthcoming from Osian’s.
Articles
· 1979-present: Hundreds of articles in magazines, journals and newspapers on development, gender and current affairs.
Newspapers
(Daily publications produced for major UN international conferences)
· 1994-1999: Raised funds and co-ordinated teams of journalists at UN international conferences to produce daily newspapers. Conferences covered – UN Conference on Environment and Development (1992), UN Conference on Population and Development (1994), Fourth World Conference on Women (1995), Habitat II (1996), Food Summit (1996), ICPD+5 (1999).
· 2005: Produced a daily paper in English, Hindi, French and Spanish for the 10th International Women’s Health Meeting being held in New Delhi, India, in September 2005.
Additional professional activities
· Consultant, International Water and Resource Centre (IRC), Netherlands (October 2006-April 2007)
· Consultant, International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), Kathmandu, Nepal (June 2001-December 2002)
· Board Member, WETV, Canada (1993-2000)
· Trustee, Television Trust for Environment (TVE), London, UK (1996-2001)
· Founder and Board Member, Women's Feature Service, India (1990-2007)
Fund raising
· Between 1984 and 2002 raised approximately US $15 million for development organisations.
Video productions
· 1982-86: Served as a consultant to a production house, Cine Contact and the National Film Board in Canada, developing a series of documentaries on women and development. This involved writing a concept note, researching, and travelling with the film crew in Brazil, China, India, Mali, Japan, Senegal, and the United Arab Emirates.
· 1993-2000: Designed and supervised WFS productions of video documentaries based in India, Thailand, Indonesia, Austria, Senegal, Egypt, Jordan and the Philippines for broadcast and NGO documentation. These were in preparation for, documentation at, and post conference activity at the UN Conference on Human Rights (Vienna-1993), the International Conference on Population and Development (Cairo-1994) and The UN Fourth World Conference on Women (Beijing-1995).
· 2002: Producer, Celebrating Mountain Women, a documentary on the global gathering organised by ICIMOD, held in Bhutan in September 2002.
· 2004-2005: Producer, The Power of Doing, a documentary featuring UNIFEMs South Asia work for Beijing+10.
Radio productions
· 1993-2000: Supervised WFS production of radio programmes on women’s legal rights, reproductive health and current affairs for All India Radio, India.
Research, Documentation, training, and PRINT PRODUCTIONS
· 2006-2007: Documenting QUALCOMM’s initiatives in 3D-CDMA technologies for development in India. Converting this information into advocacy and public relations products.
· 2004-2007: Documenting a joint project of UNIFEM and the Indian Ministry of Railways on gender and HIV/AIDS, in the state of Andhra Pradesh.
· 2006: Writing aboutreproductive healthprojects of leading NGOs in Rajasthan and West Bengal, India. Contracted by Parivar Seva (PSS, New Delhi) and the national coalition Advocating Reproductive Choices (ARC).
· 2006: Trainer for Internews, France, working with journalists in Afghanistan. Developing modules, and conducting training and training of trainers in gender, reproductive health and drugs.
· 2005-2006: Research anddocumentation ofNGO Swaasthya’s Strategic Approach to Family Planning and Reproductive Health in urban settlements in India, as a show case for proposed modules of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
· 2005: Documenting and writing up - in a creative manner – of David and Lucile Packard Foundations’ reproductive and community health projects undertaken over seven years in India.
· 2004: Executive Summary, Knowledge, Attitude, Behaviour and Practices: A study in 9 states and National Highways 1-9, for Population Services International (PSI, India)
· 2004: Research study on adolescent abortion and media – part of India’s Abortion Assessment Project coordinated by CEHAT, India.
Monitoring & Evaluation
· Conducted evaluations of national and international NGOs and projects. Contracted by, among others, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Netherlands and John D. and Catherine T. McArthur Foundation, India and UNIFEM, New York, to evaluate development projects and programmes. More specifically:
· 1987: Evaluation of ISIS, a women’s networking and communication agency, based in Italy and Chile. Contracted by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs (BMZ, Netherlands)
· 1994: Reviewing McArthur Foundation’s grantees work in India. Contracted by McArthur, India.
· 2004: Mid-Term Review of UNIFEMs project on engendering media in Afghanistan. Contracted by UNIFEM, New York.
· 2005: Review of reproductive health programmes in the Indian states of Bihar and Jharkhand, funded by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation.
Policy and Planning
· (1997-present): Member of a UNIFEM South Asia Think Tank, giving input into en-gendering the Planning Commission on the Ninth, Tenth, and Eleventh Five Year Plans for India.
· (1997-98): Consultant to UNDP Bureau, Africa for media advice on gender mainstreaming in the region.
· (19984-85): Consultant to Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) Briefing Centre. Created an initiation programme for technical consultants contracted for overseas work.