Improving policy take-up and implementation in scaling programs | Neela Saldanha | EAG London: 2024

EAG Talks

Poverty is a scaled problem and requires solutions at scale. As programs scale, however, complexities arise which may not have been considered in the original pilot evaluation. In this talk, Neela focuses on one of those scaling complexities: policy take up and program implementation. What can we systematically understand about these factors? Neela draws not only on the research but also her experience – in the private and social impact sectors to outline what we know, and what we should try and learn in future to make effective altruism even more effective. Neela is the Executive Director of the Yale Research Initiative on Innovation and Scale (Y-RISE). Previously she was the Founding Director of the Centre for Social and Behaviour Change (CBSC) at Ashoka University, India, a center funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. She has also consulted with several non-profits including Innovations for Poverty Action, Surgo Ventures, the Busara Center for Behavioral Economics, Noora Health and Breakthrough India. Prior to her career in global health and development, Neela spent 15+ years in the private sector, leading teams in sales, brands, consumer insights and strategy in global firms Nestle, Unilever, PepsiCo and Accenture. Neela is on the board of The Life You Can Save. Her work has appeared in Harvard Business Review, Nature, Apolitical and Behavioral Scientist and she has co-authored a book "Marketplace Dignity" published by Penn Press in June 2024. She has a PhD in Marketing (Consumer Behavior) from the Wharton School, U of Pennsylvania and an MBA from IIM Calcutta, India.

Watch on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6oR6gX302o