Namita Datta is Program Head of Solutions for Youth Employment (S4YE) at the World Bank. S4YE is the World Bank’s multistakeholder global program that brings together private sector, CSOs, think tanks and youth to curate and learn from innovative solutions to youth employment. Namita led a massive scale up of the S4YE program forging partnerships with several leading private companies, foundations, and CSOs. Namita brings significant experience on development issues, including jobs, youth employment, private sector development, and gender.  She has led several research publications on frontier topics including the role of digital technology, changing nature of work, gender inclusion, new job opportunities in the creative and circular economies, and their impact on youth employment. She led the recent global report Working across Borders: The Promise and Peril of Online Gig Work.  She was Global Head of Let’s Work, a global program on jobs and the private sector.  She has led multi-sectoral operations in several regions including Africa, Western Balkans, and Asia. She has worked for the World Bank Group (both World Bank and IFC) for over 18 years working across sectors and regions. She was co-author of the IFC Jobs Study: Assessing Private Sector Contributions to Job Creation and Poverty Reduction, 2013, leading the analytical work on the employment impact of investments in infrastructure. 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.

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 heading 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 PhD from Cornell University, an MIA from Colombia University, New York, and an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad.