As the Vice-President of the Asia Region Office, Deepali Khanna manages the Foundation’s policy, advocacy, grant-making, and partnerships in Asia. She leads The Rockefeller Foundation’s initiatives to convene and catalyze strategic collaborations that advance development in Asia, as well as harness Asia’s role in enhancing the wellbeing of humanity in the region and around the world.
Ms. Khanna joined The Rockefeller Foundation in 2015. She most recently served as Director and managed one of the Foundation’s flagship initiatives in India, Smart Power for Rural Development (SPRD). In this role, she provided leadership and direction across the full range of activities, partners, and resources of the initiative to provide affordable and clean energy access to over a million people in India.
Prior to joining The Rockefeller Foundation, Ms. Khanna served as Director of Youth Learning with The MasterCard Foundation, an independent, private foundation based in Toronto, Canada. She was responsible for the global grant-making strategy across more than 50 projects within the portfolio, managing a budget of USD 800 million. Ms. Khanna has held multiple leadership positions with Plan International, including Country Director for Vietnam and Regional Director for East and Southern Africa, where she led overall strategic planning within the region and managed operations in 12 countries.
Ms. Khanna earned her bachelor’s degree in Sociology from Delhi University and holds a certificate from the Humanitarian Leadership Program at Harvard Business School.
Authored Content
Aug 30 2022 Blog Post Women Warriors: Breaking Barriers and Bridging Equality Gaps Shashibala runs a beauty salon in Tamkuhi Raj, a small town in North India’s Uttar Pradesh. She loves her work but continuous power outages and erratic access to electricity blocked her road to financial independence. “There were times when the customer was on the chair but there was no electricity. I would use a mobile […]
May 31 2022 Field Note Amplifying Global Change: Insights From The Rockefeller Foundation’s Asia Regional Partners Meeting The two-day first ever meeting was a reminder of why we do what we do. It was a celebration and anticipation of what we have done, and what is to come next. It is unacceptable that in a world capable of so much, there are still so many with so little hope. That is why […]
Mar 31 2022 Blog Post Green Energy Economy for Gender Equity Covid-19 has raised new barriers to building inclusive and prosperous economies and societies. The Global Gender Gap Report 2021 estimates that it may take 136 years to achieve gender parity, with overall income disparities still some way off from being bridged. Projections for a select number of countries in South Asia show that gender gaps in […]
Mar 25 2021 Blog Post How Green Energy Can Empower Women We need to build upon the connections between energy access, agriculture, water availability, and gender equity.
Jan 25 2021 Blog Post A Crisis Waiting to Happen: Unemployment and Informality in Southeast Asia During COVID It is quite evident that the pandemic has exacerbated many existing negative trends. From rising income inequalities to what is now a gaping digital divide, Covid-19 has laid bare pre-existing weaknesses in governance and social protection provision in Southeast Asia, as much as globally. However, one weakness that has received far less attention than it […]