Lift-Off: Civil Society and the Future of Measuring What Matters
A virtual convening co-hosted by Sambodhi, Dasra & the Rebuild India Fund
Tuesday, 12th August 2025 | 3:00–4:30 PM IST
About the Convening
Across India, civil society organizations are navigating intensifying demands, expanding mandates, and rising expectations for impact. Yet the mechanisms to pause, reflect, and learn remain fragile or fragmented.
Lift-Off is a virtual convening that brings together practitioners, funders, and system thinkers to reflect on how Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) can evolve to meet this complexity.
Register now to receive event access and pre-reading materials.
Part 1: Launch of Measuring What Matters
We open with the launch of Measuring What Matters—a report on the field-wide reflection shaped by insights from 175 organizations across India.
This report captures how MEL is quietly being reimagined across the sector and becoming more adaptive, and purpose-aligned practices. It invites a shift in how we think about measurement, not just as a reporting function, but as a strategic capability rooted in trust, context, and care.
Part 2: The Ideas Circuit
The Ideas Circuit is the heart of the convening. It is a non-linear, cross-sectoral dialogue exploring the future of MEL in India’s civil society.
Bringing together voices from philanthropy, civil society, CSR, and measurement practice, the Ideas Circuit will surface lived tensions, field innovations, and catalytic questions. Rather than scripted inputs, this space holds short reflections, provocations, and moments of shared sense-making.
Guiding Question:
What will it take for MEL to become a meaningful, system-enabling practice in the Indian context?
Speakers
Moutushi Sengupta
Co-Founder and CEO,
Oneworld Colab – Session Sherpa
Moutushi Sengupta is the Co-Founder and CEO of Oneworld Colab. With over 35 years of leadership in philanthropy and development, she brings deep expertise in systems change, catalytic capital, and institution building. Her career spans senior roles at Co-Impact, AVPN, the MacArthur Foundation, Oxfam India, and DFID UK, where she has shaped multi-million-dollar investments, collaborative governance models, and bold, trust-based approaches to philanthropy.
Moutushi’s work bridges strategy and grassroots insight across India and Southeast Asia, with a strong focus on climate action, gender equity, and inclusive development.
She holds an MSc from Imperial College London and serves on the boards of the Padraka Foundation and Sustainable Futures Collaborative.
Sangeeta Bhattacharya
Associate Director,
Rebuild India Fund, Dasra
Sangeeta Bhattacharya co-leads the Rebuild India Fund at Dasra, which supports grassroots, community-led organizations serving some of the most marginalized communities across India.
With extensive experience in building collaboratives and advising civil society leaders and funders, Sangeeta has worked across sectors including public health, education, and child protection. Her expertise spans strategy, finance, operations, fundraising, and impact assessment, enabling organizations to drive transformative change at scale.
Swapnil Shekhar
Co-Founder and Director,
Sambodhi Research and Communications
Swapnil Shekhar is the Co-founder and Director of Sambodhi, where he leads with a vision to make data, evidence, and learning more embedded in how systems think and act. With over two decades at the helm of complex change efforts, Swapnil continues to shape big impact bets by forging coalitions and anchoring ambition in field intelligence and systems thinking.
A 2015 Rockefeller Foundation Global Fellow, Swapnil is currently driving Sambodhi’s newest venture in frontier technologies for social insight, building the infrastructure and intelligence needed to future-proof measurement and enable more adaptive, responsive systems.
Paulomee Mistry
Director,
DISHA
Paulomee Mistry is the Director of DISHA, a grassroots organization working to advance the rights and resilience of tribal and marginalized communities in Gujarat. With over 28 years of experience, she has led pioneering efforts in climate justice, land and forest rights, informal workers’ rights, and sustainable rural livelihoods—anchored in the leadership of tribal women.
Combining a background in Economics and Social Work, Paulomee brings a rare blend of analytical insight and community-rooted practice. Her work bridges grassroots action with policy advocacy, shaping inclusive development models grounded in justice, sustainability, and equity.