Meet the Expert: Javaid Rafat (Resonance Global)

[Javaid Rafat, Resonance Global]

Hi everyone, I’m super excited to be joining you all in the AWE’s Virtual Learning Series where we will exchange ideas and share experiences on working with private and public institutions to effectively capture data and insights and measure the financial and social outcomes of inclusive development and business practices.

I’m Javaid Rafat and I’m a Technical Associate on the MEL team at Resonance Global where I provide strategic and technical MEL oversight to a diverse portfolio of projects funded by USAID, DoS, and corporate clients such as PepsiCo and Microsoft. I’ve spent most of my professional career leading the design and implementation of MEL systems and plans for high-profile contracts and projects focused on gender equality and women's empowerment, governance, civil society strengthening, education, natural resource management, agriculture and food security, and economic growth. I have been helping organizations with developing MEL plans, crafting theories of change and logic models, developing and implementing learning agenda and data collection strategies, designing and conducting research and evaluations using innovative quantitative and qualitative methods. Recently, I have developed the Supply Chain Empowerment Framework (SCHEF) for Investing in Women to Strengthen Supply Chains, a Global Development Alliance (GDA) between USAID and PepsiCo to make the business case for women’s economic empowerment in agricultural supply chains. SCHEF is an approach to help PepsiCo and other private sector companies assess changes in women’s economic empowerment and gender equity across their global supply chains. It allows agricultural buyers to understand the specific gendered context of their supply chain, design relevant interventions that empower women, and measure progress across a set of customizable indicators. Looking forward to the next few days of fun and learning for us all.