Gazala Shaikh is currently working as the State Project Manager – Communications for the JEEViKA – Bihar Rural Livelihoods Project (BRLP), a Government of Bihar and World Bank initiative. Gazala has also worked as a Programme Officer with ARAVALI (Association for Rural Advancement through Voluntary Action and Local Involvement), an NGO and is associated with the Natural Resource Management Unit especially in the context of communications and policy advocacy. Working as an independent consultant previously, she did assignments for various agencies, national and international. She was Project Officer in Oxfam’s Gujarat Earthquake Response Programme, coordinating various activities related to water and livelihood in the Mai Cluster of Bhachau taluka in Kachchh district.
She has also worked as Programme Associate in Vikram Sarabhai Centre for Development Interaction’s (VIKSAT) an Ahmedabad based NGO, working on Natural Resources Management (NRM) Land and Water Programme. She was primarily responsible for promoting and strengthening decentralized people’s institutions for water management in Satlasana taluka of Mehsana district, Gujarat, through awareness camps and trainings on technical and institutional aspects of water management. She also helped conceptualizing and promoting stakeholders debate for water management in Sabarmati River Basin as also been instrumental in and bringing out communication materials.
Before VIKSAT, Gazala worked as a Programme Assistant at Centre for Environment Education, facilitating, organizing and conducting training programs under the Training on Environment Education (TEE) an international course for participants from India and other developing Commonwealth countries. Her areas of interest include promoting sustainable, gender sensitive and equitable NRM practices through direct field intervention and developing communication strategy and tools.
Gazala has a Post-Graduate and Bachelor’s degree in Journalism and communication from Maharaja Sayajirao, University of Vadodara.