Dr. Vishal Dev Shastri (He / Him)

 Global Development Research and Evaluation Professional with expertise in Demography, Public Health, and Environmental Economics.  Over 24 years of experience in strategic planning, program implementation, policy development, and advocacy. Skilled in strengthening community development approaches and designing and facilitating capacity-building and training programs for government agencies and NGOs.  Extensive collaboration with government entities, UN agencies, bilateral donors, international development support agencies, and civil society actors, including academia, for over 20 years. Specialized in gender and women’s issues, including women’s health, maternal and child nutrition, tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, girls’ education, WASH (Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene), agriculture, agroforestry, energy, and sustainable development.  Expertise in program management, monitoring & evaluation of donor-funded initiatives in maternal and child health, nutrition, gender equality, women’s education, domestic violence, strategic communication (including ICT), rural development, education, and climate change across India, Tanzania, and other South Asian & East African countries. Educational Qualifications  Ph.D. in Population Studies – International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS), Mumbai, India (2002).  Master’s in Population Studies (Demography, specializing in Health Economics) – IIPS, Mumbai, India (1995).  Master’s in Economics (Specialization in Regional Planning & Economic Growth, with an elective in Environmental Economics) – Department of RPEG, Barkatullah Vishwavidyalaya, Bhopal, MP, India.  Advanced Certificate Courses in Biostatistics – “Advanced Statistics for Life Sciences” and “Statistics and R for the Life Sciences” from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.  Specialization in Data Sciences for Biostatistics – Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.  Certificate Courses in Global Health – o M&E Fundamentals o Gender M&E o Knowledge Management (KM) in Global Health Programs (Global Health e-Learning Center, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health). Professional Contributions  Served as an Expert Committee Member (constituted by the Statistics Division, MoHFW) for family planning ELA estimations for India and its states.  Authored numerous journal articles, book chapters, and scientific reports and serves as a reviewer for several international journals. o Semantic Scholar: https://www.semanticscholar.org/author/52195701 o ResearchGate: https://researchgate.net/profile/Dr_Vishal_Shastri/research Specialties • Program Evaluation & Learning – Designing and implementing evaluations, sample surveys, RCTs, mixed-method quantitative and qualitative research, OECD framework evaluations, and USAID evaluations (ADS 201). • Operations & Implementation Research – Conducting cost-benefit analysis, designing impact assessments, and optimizing program execution strategies. • Capacity Building & Policy Briefing – Development of training programs and policy recommendations. • Data Visualization & Dashboard Development – Expertise in GIS mapping and interactive dashboard creation. • Development of Offline & Online Data Collection Tools – Skilled in ODK, Kobo Toolbox, SurveyCTO, Google Forms, and Microsoft Forms for large-scale surveys and program monitoring. • Big Data Analytics & Advanced Statistical Analysis – Proficient in Tableau, R, Stata, SPSS, SAS, and Power BI. • Demographic Projections & Population Modeling – Experienced in DemProj, FamPlan, LiST, and other demographic projection methodologies.