Ellora Guhathakurta is a development management professional with expertise in Monitoring and Evaluation with over 22 years of field, recipient government, UN, NGO, Foundations and donor experience at the Regional, National and Sub National levels.
She is passionate about the role of strengthening evidence base and accountability in poverty reduction. She combines highly developed technical skills in programme management and monitoring and evaluation across a wide range of portfolio with a finely tuned understanding of international development leadership and programming.
Ellora has provided strategic direction to the design and administration of diverse portfolios in the development sector, including fragile contexts covering both health emergency response and post conflict environments at the national and international levels. Her proven, high impact career has been built on progressively challenging positions ranging through: field-based staff and Project Coordinator in NGOs to Programme Officer at State and National Level portfolio in DFID India, DFID UK and DFID Ghana to Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist with UN Women (MCO in India & Nepal), UNDP (Liberia, Bangladesh, Regional Istanbul Hub, Azerbaijan), UNICEF (India) and FAO (India).
Ellora earned her Master’s degree in Social Work from Delhi University (India), Master’s in Development Management from Open University (UK) and Bachelor’s degree in Applied Psychology from Delhi University (India).