Measuring progress and ensuring sustainable impact - Meet Good Return’s Anvesha Punjani.

Measuring progress and ensuring sustainable impact - Meet Good Return’s Anvesha Punjani.

Good Return’s Impact and Effectiveness Lead, Anvesha Khandelwal Punjani, has always been passionate about the international development sector and has had a diverse career in microfinance, environment, health, education and gender in India and Cambodia.

In particular, Anvesha is a champion for the role that research can play in creating rigorous MEL frameworks for international development programs. For Anvesha 'Monitoring, Evaluation & Learning’ (MEL) frameworks allow us to collect data and evidence and apply this knowledge and learning to continuously improve our programs and development outcomes’. 

In this blog, we take the time to get to know Anvesha better and learn how she brings her expertise in research to Good Return’s programs and the task of measuring complex objectives such as ‘improving women’s economic empowerment’.

What is your name?

Anvesha Khandelwal Punjani (Every Indian name has a meaning and I think the first names have significance in your life.)

Which Good Return office do you work in?

I work in the Good Return Virtual office (based in Delhi). However, I have enjoyed visiting the Asia regional office in Phnom Penh a few times!

What is your role at Good Return and how long have you worked here?

I joined Good Return in November 2021 as the Program Impact and Effectiveness Manager.

Can you please tell us a bit about where you are from/your cultural background?

I live in Delhi, India. I also grew up and completed my education in Delhi. I loved growing up in Delhi and being surrounded by my close relatives. In 2005, I got my first exciting opportunity as a researcher. For the next 7 years, I travelled around India and Cambodia and worked with rural communities on development issues including microfinance, environment, health, education and gender. This work truly opened up my world and cemented the fact that I wanted to work in the international development sector - focusing on issues that are important to me and can make a difference in the lives of my community. This was also when my interest in monitoring and evaluation commenced. I wanted to ensure that all programs I work on are making a sustainable impact.

What is something that you are most proud about from your culture or something from your culture that other people might not know?

There are many things about my culture that I love and some things that I find difficult. Growing up in India means that there are many festivals and special days. This was always exciting as a child because it usually meant good food and sometimes even gifts! Even on the days when elders in the family observe fast, the evening was filled with delicacies. I am also proud that my culture is extremely adaptive and good at building resilience. My community always manages to focus on enjoying and being grateful for the little things, even in the face of crisis. 

What piece of work are you most proud of so far in your career?
Throughout my research career, I have been fortunate enough in my career to work with scholars and Nobel laureates. The first piece of independent research I completed in 2006-2007, on defaults in microfinance, remains close to my heart. Due to the sensitivity of the research it could not be published for externals but the partner MFI received it very well. In 2020, I worked on a tracer study on young women in India who received scholarships to study STEM in the UK. I designed this research when the operations were stalled in 2020. The report was chosen by the British High Commission to be released on the UN International Day of the Girl by the High Commissioner. 

Why are Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning frameworks important in international development?
Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) frameworks are a concrete way to measure the impact that organisations make on individuals and communities. These robust frameworks are crucial for our staff and local partners to ensure our programs are relevant, targeted and effective. For our supporters and donors these frameworks also allow us to report on our impact and ensure we remain transparent and accountable.

One of the greatest challenges for nonprofits and charities is effectively and appropriately measuring impact. At Good Return we often strive to achieve objectives such as ‘improving women’s economic empowerment’ - which are complex objectives to measure! Therefore we ask you -
How do you measure changes in women’s economic empowerment? How do you monitor a woman’s confidence to start a business or her financial capability? 

For every program at Good Return, we have a detailed Monitoring and Evaluation framework. The frameworks have a strong gender and social inclusion lens and our data collection tools will always have questions associated with the framework. Before the beginning of a program we measure participants (mostly women’s) knowledge and awareness about household financial matters; behaviour towards money management; power, voice and influence of women in the household especially in money management matters; confidence and well being. We also conduct end lines surveys to measure the scores and evaluate the overall change.

What is your favourite thing about working at Good Return?

One of the best parts about Good Return are the people. The Good Return team are warm, compassionate and diligent. It fosters a comfortable and collaborative work environment for everyone. I also enjoy working on monitoring and evaluation at Good Return because it gives me the opportunity to deep dive into how all the programs across the Asia-Pacific work.

Talk to me about...

I love to read, travel and watch documentaries and web series.
I am also a foodie and love trying different cuisines from all around the world and from different regions of India. But at the end of the day I enjoy my home cooked daal-chawal (lentil and rice) with my family the most.