Abishek Nippani

Human Development | Doctoral Student @ UPenn

United States

About

I'm a development worker with experience in projects related to agriculture, rural development, social protection, urban poverty, and internal migration. I believe my academic background in normative areas of law and public policy, combined with rigorous pragmatism from work in impact evaluations allow me to approach problems from a diverse range of vantage points. I'm presently pursuing my PhD in Social Welfare at the University of Pennsylvania, looking at issues related to urban poverty in the global south.

Experience

  • Research Associate at International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie)
    Oct 2023 - May 2025 · 1 yr 8 mos

    Thematic areas: - Urban poverty (Saamuhika Shakti - Collective Impact Initiative for Wastepickers funded by H&M Foundation) - Social security, labour and internal migration (Migrants Resilience Collaborative funded by GDI, CIFF and Dell Foundation)

  • Sambodhi Research and Communications Pvt. Ltd. (Full-time · 2 yrs 5 mos)
    • Research Manager
      Apr 2023 - Sep 2023 · 6 mos

      Thematic areas: - Agroecology (Assessment of Andhra Pradesh Community-managed Natural Farming funded by KfW) - Low carbon agriculture (Impact Evaluation of Unnat Kheti, a proof-of-concept funded by CIFF) - Blended finance (Assessment of a blended finance project for small and marginal farmers funded by Rabo Foundation and IKEA Foundation) - Disaster response (Assessment of the Bihar Kosi Basin Development Project funded by World Bank) - Systematic review (Review of global evidence on child sexual abuse, funded by CIFF) - Women entrepreneurship (Evaluation of Global Alliance for Mass Entrepreneurship)

    • Deputy Manager (Research)
      May 2021 - Apr 2023 · 2 yrs

  • Editor at Lokniti
    Aug 2019 - Apr 2021 · 1 yr 9 mos

  • Policy Research Intern at All India Congress Committee Policy Team
    Nov 2020 - Nov 2020 · 1 mo

    Drafted legislative and policy briefs for Members of Parliament and internal use by AICC

  • Policy Research Intern at Government of Karnataka
    Jun 2020 - Oct 2020 · 5 mos

    Tasked to devise policy interventions and necessary changes in the current approach towards opioid addiction in the State of Karnataka in order to meet SDG targets (3.5) by 2030. The scope of research ranges from understanding association between socio-economic factors and opioid addiction to institutional measures for addressing this issue, such as rehabilitation centres.