Draft:Anita Bhatia

• Comment: See WP:BLP. Statements, starting with the date of birth, need to be sourced or removed. Greenman (talk) 09:46, 2 August 2024 (UTC)

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Anita Bhatia is an Indian lawyer, development practitioner, and former United Nations official, who served as the Assistant Secretary-General to the United Nations and the Deputy Executive Director at UN Women from 2019 to 2023. Bhatia specializes in strategic partnerships, external stakeholder management, fundraising, and organizational transformation.

Early life and education

Born in Delhi, India, Anita Bhatia holds a bachelor's degree in History from the University of Calcutta, a master's degree in Political Science from Yale University, and a juris doctor from Georgetown University.

Bhatia is fluent in English, Spanish, Hindi, Bengali, and Punjabi.

Career in multilateral organizations

The World Bank

Anita Bhatia joined the World Bank Group in 1987 and worked in all three of its entities – The World Bank, the International Finance Corporation, and the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA). She worked in various capacities at regional and country-level headquarters in different regions including Africa, Central Asia, and Latin America.

As Principal Advisor of Bolivia's National Administrative Simplification Strategy, Bhatia led the creation of Bolivia's first online guide to administrative procedures, which enhanced transparency and reduced corruption.

International Finance Corporation (IFC)

Bhatia joined the International Finance Corporation (IFC) in 2003 as Program Manager of the Latin America Technical Assistance Facility in La Paz, Bolivia. Bhatia oversaw the creation of IFC's Advisory Services in Latin America, enabling the IFC to expand its footprint in new regional markets. During her tenure, IFC's Advisory Services grew to cover 11 countries in Latin America, and the funding for Advisory Services in Latin America tripled in three years.

In 2006, Bhatia was appointed by Lars H. Thunell, then CEO of the IFC, to the "Global Local 'Vision 2010'" Task Force. In conjunction with this role, Bhatia set up the IFC's first-ever change management office, the "Global Local" office in 2007.

In 2010, Bhatia was appointed IFC's first-ever Global Head of Knowledge, overseeing knowledge management efforts. She was subsequently appointed Director of Partnerships and Advisory Services Operations in 2011. In this role, Bhatia developed and expanded partnerships with public and private sector stakeholders to support IFC strategy in critical areas, including fragile and conflict-affected states, gender equality, financial inclusion, extractive industry social commitments, support for women-owned businesses, and other priorities critical for the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

United Nations and UN Women

On 30 May 2019, UN Secretary-General António Guterres appointed Anita Bhatia as Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations and Deputy Executive Director at UN Women. During her tenure, Bhatia was responsible for leading the expansion and deepening of UN Women's resource base and partnerships (governments, private sector, philanthropy), strategic planning, UN system coordination, gender parity efforts, improving the workplace, maximizing influence, and helping make the organization financially sustainable.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Bhatia helped to convene Ministers of Finance, Gender and Development Cooperation together with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to highlight the need for gender-based fiscal stimulus packages and expand relationships with international financial institutions (IFIs) as part of the post-pandemic response and recovery efforts. These efforts led to concrete collaboration between UN Women and several IFIs to work together on new scalable joint programs as well as substantial financial and policy commitments as part of the Generation Equality Forum by The World Bank. Bhatia facilitated a collaboration with the International Capital Market Association (ICMA) and the International Finance Corporation (IFC), which led to the development of the world's first Global Guidelines for Gender Bonds. This initiative was part of an overall strategy to replicate the success of ESG investing for gender-based investing.

Bhatia co-led the Workstream on Outreach and Knowledge Sharing of the UN Chief Executive Board's Task Force on Addressing Sexual Harassment within the Organizations of the United Nations. She was also appointed by the Chief of Staff to the UNSG Board of UN Staff College.

In 2021, Bhatia initiated the first Strategic Coordination Dialogue between UN Women and United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to increase awareness of gender concerns in refugee populations.

Bhatia left UN Women in early 2023.

Board Memberships

As of July 2024, Bhatia serves on The Lancet Commission on Gender-Based Violence and Maltreatment of Young People. She also serves as a Director on the board of BancoSol, the world's first bank fully dedicated to bringing financial services to microbusinesses and entrepreneurs in Bolivia, and as an Advisor to Fasanara Capital, an asset management company based in London. As Global Advisor to Self Employed Women's Association (SEWA), Bhatia supports SEWA's efforts to expand its partnership and advocacy efforts. She is also a member of auctusESG's Expert Advisory Board, a Mumbai-based firm that is passionate about accelerating global sustainable finance and the climate transition, and The Sanitation & Hygiene Fund's Board, a UNOPS-backed global financing mechanism that supports country-driven programs to bring sanitation, hygiene and menstrual health and hygiene (MHH) to all. Bhatia also supports the Kautilya School Of Public Policy in Hyderabad as a Distinguished Visiting Fellow, a state-of-the-art public policy institution that is nurturing the next generation of global leaders.

Personal life

Anita Bhatia is married to John L. Newman. They have two children, Leela Bhatia-Newman and Rohan Bhatia-Newman. Bhatia divides her time between Annapolis, MD, and New York City.

Publications

Enhancing Cooperation: Peer-To-Peer Learning To Prevent and Eliminate Sexual Harassment In the UN System and Beyond, UN Women, April 2023.

Financing gender equality: The role of the gender equality marker and financial targets, The Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation and the UN Multi-Partner Trust Fund Office, September 2022.

If we don’t act urgently, we will not see gender equality for another 136 years, DFS Voices, April 2022.

UN Women: Which Will Be The First Nation To Issue A Gender Bond?, The Independent, The Daily Trust (Nigeria), Nairobi Report, June 2021.

Why We Need Gender-Responsive Central Banking, Project Syndicate, April 2021.

Empowering women leaders in post-Covid era, Bangkok Post, March 2021.

International Women’s Day: as Covid-19 has shown, we need more women leaders in the Asia-Pacific, South China Morning Post, March 2021.

A better normal for women and girls after COVID-19, The Daily Star, January 2021.

¿Dónde están los estímulos económicos para las mujeres en esta pandemia?, The Washington Post, October 2020.

Where are the economic stimuli for women in this pandemic?, UN Women, October 2020.

Contribution to "The Forward Look, A Vision for The World Bank Group in 2030", The World Bank Group, October 2016.

Contribution to "From Billions To Trillions: Transforming Development Finance Post-2015 Financing For Development: Multilateral Development Finance", The World Bank Group, April 2015.

An Analysis of the Trade and Business Environment in Bolivia, February 2001.

“Privatization in Africa.” Directions in Development Report 17972, World Bank, Washington, D.C., Oliver Campbell-White and Anita Bhatia, 1998.