Smita Premchander

Smita Premchander is the founder and secretary of Sampark and has 25 years of experience in development work. She has been a trainer and consultant for gender, microfi nance and microenterprise—both in India and internationally. Her expertie relates to evaluation and design of effective and pro-poor development projects, spanning grassroots development, organisational and programme issues and policy change. She completed a short term assignment with the International Labor Offi ce (ILO), Geneva, as a specialist in Impact Evaluation for Job Creation and  Enterprise Development. She has completed about 19 impact and evaluation studies combining both quantitative and qualitative methodologies, for different agencies such as United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Delhi; Enterplan, UK; ILO, Delhi and Geneva; Centre for Development and Environment (CDE), University of Berne, Switzerland; FAO of the United Nations, Bangkok; United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), Bangkok; United Nations Offi ce for Project Services (UNOPS), Malaysia, Traidcraft, UK; Department for International Development (DFID), Bangladesh and Delhi; Swiss Development Corporation, Delhi; CARE India, New Delhi; Novib, Netherlands; National Dairy Development Board (NDDB), Bangalore and Anand; World Bank, Washington and Universities of Sterling, Durham and Swansea, UK. She has worked in most states in India, including Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand, Orissa, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Assam, Meghalaya and Mizoram.