Kavita Wankhade has worked as a researcher, educator, and practitioner in urban India for over 15 years, with training in the social sciences, urban design and architecture. The primary focus of her work has been enabling large-scale systemic transformations, by managing and working with diverse stakeholders, including state and city governments in India, private sector organisations, civil society actors, communities and development partners.
Kavita is the Project Director for the IIHS-led Tamil Nadu Urban Sanitation Support Programme (TNUSSP), one of the largest public SDG6 (clean water and sanitation) interventions in the world. TNUSSP delivers decentralised sanitation services to over 10 million people across multiple towns and cities in the state of Tamil Nadu. It will scale over the next three years to impact over 35 million people, across 600 towns. She is also the Project Director for the City Wide Inclusive Sanitation (CWIS) project in Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu, which is scaling inclusive sanitation, with a focus on urban poor, sanitation workers and gender integration.
As Associate Dean, she is building out the IIHS School of Systems and Infrastructure. As Head of the Practice Programme at IIHS, her role includes expanding and strengthening the Programme to fulfil IIHS’ commitment to the equitable, sustainable and efficient transformation of Indian settlements.
Ongoing, Infrastructure and Services, Faculty member, Water and sanitation, Urban Fellows Programme (UFP)
Ongoing, Exposure visits to Tamil Nadu, Faculty member, Water and sanitation, Urban Fellows Programme (UFP)
Capacity Building Programmes on Urban Development (DoPT), 2022, Water and sanitation
Capacity Building Sessions on Urbanisation in India (LBSNAA), 2013, Water and sanitation
Ongoing, Water and sanitation
