Namita Datta, works with the World Bank, and is the Program Manager of the Solutions for Youth Employment (S4YE) initiative. S4YE is a multi-stakeholder global program housed in the World Bank that brings together over 35 private sector companies, 44 youth employment projects, several NGOs, leading Foundations, bilateral donors, international organizations and youth themselves, along with World Bank’s operations to impact the global youth unemployment crisis, with a focus on innovation, digital technology, and inclusion of vulnerable youth and women. Before taking on this role, she was Global Head of Let’s Work, a global program to create more and better jobs with a focus on the private sector. She has also led multi-sectoral operations on jobs at the country level in several regions including Africa, Western Balkans, and Asia. She also led the Gender work program for the Jobs Group.
She has worked for the World Bank Group (both World Bank and IFC) for over 15 years working across sectors and regions. She joined the World Bank in 2006 as Governance Advisor of CGIAR, a global program on agriculture, where she led a team on the program’s governance and partnership agenda. She was a key part of the IFC Jobs Study team leading the analytical work on the employment impact of investments in infrastructure, developing a methodological approach that was later used by several IFIs and development organizations. As Advisor (Strategy and Policy) for IFC’s South Asia region, she was responsible for leading the policy dialogue on private sector development in the region working with several industry and operational teams on key strategic initiatives.
Before joining the World Bank Group, Namita worked with the Government of India, as an IAS officer (India’s high-level policy making body) where she worked as Delhi’s Zonal Municipal Commissioner leading a large complex municipal corporation responsible for delivering key urban services to the city of Delhi. She also worked as Secretary (Head) of the Departments of Urban Development, Power and Environment in Goa, India. She holds a Ph.D. from Cornell University, a Master's from Columbia University, New York, and an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad.