Policy Analysis
Tanya Sethi
Senior Policy Analyst
Tanya Sethi served as a Senior Policy Analyst at AidData from 2016-2021.
tsethi@aiddata.org
Summary
Tanya Sethi served as a Senior Policy Analyst at AidData from 2016-2021. She managed the Listening to Leaders program, and led research projects on: aid effectiveness and donor performance in low- and middle-income countries; Chinese public diplomacy; and the role of data and evidence in decision-making. Her recent projects included a report on citizen perceptions of the US and other foreign powers in Europe and Eurasia, designing the 2020 Listening to Leaders Survey, and building capacity of two Kenyan organizations to field online feedback surveys to their target audiences. She has presented research findings to partners including USAID, Department of State, Hewlett Foundation and the Gates Foundation.
Education
Masters in Public Policy and Development, Paris School of Economics
M.A in Economics, University of Hyderabad
B.A Economics Honors, Lady Shri Ram College, Delhi University
Background
Tanya enjoys mixed-methods research and has developed an expertise in survey design and writing for policy audiences. She also conducts outreach and dissemination efforts through presentations, high-level briefings, and blogs. Examples include presenting at IFAD’s West and Central Africa Divisional Retreat in Senegal; serving as a panelist at a key session at 3ie’s Evidence Week; speaking at a webinar organized by Paris21 and Open Data Watch on increasing data use; and presenting at the 2016 International Open Data Conference in Madrid.
Prior to joining AidData, Tanya worked with J-PAL South Asia as a Senior Policy Associate. In this role, Tanya worked closely with J-PAL affiliates and the Government of Tamil Nadu’s Health Department to kick-off three impact evaluations for interventions to address non-communicable diseases in urban areas, encourage breast-feeding, and reduce anemia among adolescent girls. This involved data gathering and fieldwork in several districts of Tamil Nadu and creating an interest in impact evaluation among government officials at various levels. She also summarized evaluations, presented evidence from RCTs, and trained government officials, civil society leaders, and donors in South Asia on tools to evaluate the impact of policies, including at J-PAL’s flagship Executive Education. In her role as Assistant Editor at the Economic and Political Weekly, she reviewed, critiqued and edited research papers in the social sciences. She also delivered training to 150+ PhD scholars and faculty as part of Workshops on Research Writing and Publication at Indian universities.