By Jeannine Ajello
Chandrika Bahadur is a nonresident fellow with the Center for Sustainable Development in the Global Economy and Development program at the Brookings Institution. She is the founder-director of the SDG Academy and vice president of education at the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN). Till 2020, she was president of SDSN Association. She currently serves as chair of the Lancet COVID-19 Commission India Task Force.
In her current role, Bahadur has set up and led the SDG Academy, an online learning initiative on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), bringing together expertise from around the world to create free, high-quality learning content on sustainable development. Since 2013, she has led the design of the educational portfolio of SDSN. In her role as president, she also oversaw the design and implementation of the organizational structure and systems that underpin the organization.
Bahadur has worked for over two decades across multilateral institutions, foundations, nonprofits, and with government, in over 20 countries across the world. She began her career at the United Nations as a policy specialist working on issues of international trade, poverty reduction, and budgeting and planning for the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) as part of the Millennium Project leadership team.
In India, Bahadur helped set up Reliance Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Reliance Industries, India’s largest private sector entity, drawing up strategy for priority areas, program design, and institutional structure. She has worked closely with the Indian Institute for Human Settlements, Columbia University, and Pratham Education Foundation in various capacities.
Bahadur’s policy interests lie at the interface of education, sustainable development, inequality, poverty reduction, and, since 2020, in ways in which the COVID-19 pandemic intersects with Agenda 2030. The role of the pandemic in highlighting preexisting economic and social inequities, and its implications for the SDGs are a specific area of focus. In her role as chair of the Lancet COVID-19 Commission India Task Force, she coordinates the products of the Task Force in advising policymakers on strategies to manage the pandemic in India.
Bahadur has prior teaching experience at Harvard and Columbia universities and has held visiting and guest faculty positions at the Vedica Scholars Program in Delhi; the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi; Harappa Education; the India Leaders for Social Sector Program; and the SDG Academy. She holds a master’s in public administration and international development from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, a master’s in business administration from the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, and a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in economics from St. Stephen’s College at Delhi University.
