Summary
Overview
Work History
Education
Skills
Certification
Publications
Timeline
Generic

Sasmita Patnaik

Summary

Senior professional with over 15 years of leadership experience in climate finance, international development, gender equality, and strategic program management. Proven expertise in climate adaptation, resilience, and mitigation, driving large-scale readiness programs, and shaping policies that enable transformative climate action with a strong focus on gender mainstreaming. Skilled at stakeholder engagement, strategic resource allocation, and program innovation, with a deep understanding of the global climate finance architecture and developing country needs. Demonstrated ability to lead high-performing cross-functional teams and deliver impact-driven, country-led climate initiatives. Proven expertise in managing technical assistance (TA) projects, financial sector development, and impact-driven strategies. Experience collaborating with global foundations, MDBs, DFIs, and government departments.

Overview

15
15
years of professional experience
23
23
years of post-secondary education
4
4
Certifications

Work History

Deputy Chief of Party (Technical Assistance Lead and Gender Advisor)

Tetra Tech
10.2021 - 03.2025


  • As TA Lead and Gender Advisor for the program in South and Southeast Asia, I led the US$ 17 million grant management and technical assistance for 40+ climate tech for-profit and non-profit organizations in the water-energy-food nexus to enable them to scale sustainably and create impact on smallholder farmers, using grants as catalytic capital.
  • Led grant management, blended finance transactions, and climate-smart technical assistance for over 40 SMEs, focusing on climate resilience, energy access, and agriculture adaptation across countries of Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Myanmar, Malaysia, Nepal, Thailand, and Vietnam.
  • Managed the full lifecycle of 100+ TA projects to build institutional capacities, ensuring alignment with investment mandates and impact objectives.
  • Facilitate blended finance transactions with matching capital grants and operational milestones.
  • Designed investment-readiness frameworks for climate and renewable energy enterprises, aligning them with 2X Challenge, and ESG impact standards.
  • Developed and implemented monitoring, evaluation, and learning (MEL) frameworks, ensuring alignment with global climate finance reporting standards and gender lens investing frameworks.
  • Engaged with ministries, development banks, and donors to drive regulatory and policy reforms supporting climate adaptation and mitigation.
  • Managed capacity-building programs for financial institutions, and investors, enabling climate finance mobilization at scale.
  • As the Gender Advisor, leading gender mainstreaming in business acceleration of the Hub's technical assistance, investment and policy advocacy support, with a focus on women as leaders, employees, supply chain partners and customers.

Financial Market Development Project Lead

Millennium Challenge Account Indonesia (MCA-I)
10.2023 - 01.2025


  • Led the development of the ESG guidelines and framework for blended finance with Indonesia Infrastructure Fund.
  • Built capacity of teams and project proponents to integrate guidelines in their due diligence process and project activities.

Investment Advisor

Dutch Good Growth Fund GLI TA Program
05.2023 - 01.2025


  • Provided technical assistance to build the ESG lens investment capacity of 15+ investors in Asia and Africa, for the Dutch Good Growth Fund (DGGF) and the Ministry of Finance in the Netherlands.
  • Supported the design of fund's ESG strategy pre- and post-investment, and implementation support for transition towards responsible investing.

Program Lead

Council on Energy, Environment and Water
01.2017 - 01.2021
  • As Program Lead, my work on evidence-based policymaking at the intersection of energy access and just transition, livelihoods and gender and social inclusion.
  • Led the fundraise, conceptualization, and implementation of Powering Livelihoods, a US$ 3 million project that supported commercialization of decentralized solar-powered livelihoods appliances in agriculture and textile sectors. Donors included FCDO, Good Energies Foundation, Ikea Foundation, Shell Foundation and Doen Foundation among others.
  • Led financing and business development studies, primary surveys, policy analysis and published reports and opinion pieces on financing of decentralized RE products for farmers, subsidy and social security mechanisms for energy access and elimination of energy poverty.
  • Led studies to identify opportunities for women's participation in energy value chains in India - both in rooftop companies and the clean energy entrepreneurship ecosystem.
  • Represented energy access work in global forums such as SEforAll and UNFCCC.
  • Organized dissemination workshops for the ministries and financial institutions such as the Reserve Bank of India (the central bank) to promote policies for energy-based livelihoods.

Senior Associate

Intellecap Advisory Services
09.2014 - 08.2015
  • Provided venture building technical assistance to donors, investors, and social enterprises from Asia and Africa. Projects included assessment of entrepreneurial ecosystems and designing of sustainable business models that converge commercial viability and social impact.
  • Led ESG strategy development and impact measurement of social enterprises.
  • Supported the design of a pioneering impact fund assessment and reporting platform, PRISM, funded by IFC and GIZ as a tool for impact investors.

ESG Associate

MSCI
08.2011 - 09.2014


  • Led the initial conceptualization of ESG benchmarks and tools across key sectors for MSCI based on Equator Principles, UNPRI and ILO conventions.
  • Analyzed financial and ESG data of companies to support responsible investment strategies of asset managers in the USA and Europe.
  • As a senior researcher for sectors with high climate impact - extractive industries, and utilities - assessed the operations of more than 100 companies against UNPRI and ILO conventions in areas including biodiversity risk, supply chain and procurement, water stress, carbon emissions, toxic emissions, rehabilitation policies and labor conditions.

Associate Research Manager

IMRB International
04.2010 - 07.2011
  • Worked at the social research division of IMRB International and was responsible for impact evaluation studies for donors and the Government of India. In just two months of joining the organization, led the analysis and reporting of impact for a maternal and child health program for UNICEF and Government of India, managing a team of over 50+ field managers for data collection and analysis.
  • Trained over 100+ enumerators and conducted site visits to ensure above average quality data for the clients. Key responsibilities included development of research design, design of survey instruments, supervision of field teams for data collection, and analysis and reporting of findings.
  • Also assisted in business development and submission of proposals for the social research team.

Education

Master of Science - Development Studies

School of Oriental And African Studies (SOAS), University of London
04.2001 - 01.2016

Post Graduate Diploma - Rural Management

Xavier Institute of Management
04.2001 - 01.2010

Skills

  • Blended Finance and Grants
  • Innovation and Technical Assistance
  • Gender Mainstreaming
  • ESG and Impact Management

Certification

Private Markets Investment Program, Saïd Business School, University of Oxford, 2024

Publications

  • Patnaik, Sasmita, Jha, Shaily, Pradhan, Karishma. Energy Safety Nets: India Case Study. Vienna: Sustainable Energy for All. Council on Energy, Environment and Water
  • Jha, Shaily, Sasmita Patnaik, and Abhishek Jain. 2019. Financing Solar-powered Livelihoods in India: Evidence from Micro Enterprises. New Delhi: Council on Energy, Environment and Water.
  • Waray, Sanchit, Sasmita Patnaik, and Abhishek Jain. 2018. Clean Energy Innovations to Boost Rural Incomes. New Delhi: Council on Energy, Environment and Water.
  • Jain, Abhishek, Saurabh Tripathi, Sunil Mani, Sasmita Patnaik, Tauseef Shahidi, and Karthik Ganesan. 2018. Access to Clean Cooking Energy and Electricity: Survey of States 2018. New Delhi: CEEW.
  • Zhang, A.T., Patnaik, S., Jha, S. et al. Evidence of multidimensional gender inequality in energy services from a large-scale household survey in India. Nat Energy 7, 698-707 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41560-022-01044-3
  • Patnaik, Sasmita, Shaily Jha, and Tanvi Jain. 2021. Improving Women's Productivity and Incomes Through Clean Energy in India. New Delhi: Council on Energy, Environment and Water

Timeline

Financial Market Development Project Lead

Millennium Challenge Account Indonesia (MCA-I)
10.2023 - 01.2025

Investment Advisor

Dutch Good Growth Fund GLI TA Program
05.2023 - 01.2025

Deputy Chief of Party (Technical Assistance Lead and Gender Advisor)

Tetra Tech
10.2021 - 03.2025

Program Lead

Council on Energy, Environment and Water
01.2017 - 01.2021

Senior Associate

Intellecap Advisory Services
09.2014 - 08.2015

ESG Associate

MSCI
08.2011 - 09.2014

Associate Research Manager

IMRB International
04.2010 - 07.2011

Master of Science - Development Studies

School of Oriental And African Studies (SOAS), University of London
04.2001 - 01.2016

Post Graduate Diploma - Rural Management

Xavier Institute of Management
04.2001 - 01.2010

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