#  Suman Sachdeva 

Education Specialist UNICEF

 

 

 



   ![Suman Sachdeva](/sites/g/files/omnuum4496/files/styles/hwp_4_5__480x600/public/2025-08/suman%20profile%20pic.jpg?itok=eV0HYxrD) 

 



 





 

**Dr. Sachdeva** has extensive experience of over two decades working with government and stakeholders in South Asia and Africa, driving important pieces around education and adolescent empowerment. In these domains, she has been providing technical leadership, strengthening evidence base to drive policy and programme-based system reforms. Currently, she is the global lead for primary education, foundational learning at UNICEF HQ. More recently she spearheaded the high-profile Global Partnership for Education grants in Sierra Leone in West Africa. In that position she also led the work around strengthening foundational literacy to address learning poverty, adolescent empowerment, including supporting them to gain life skills and skills for productive lives and engaging youth as catalysts of societal change.

Prior to this, she led the quality education adolescents’ empowerment portfolio in UNICEF India; additionally, she was the education lead for the Generation Unlimited partnership, which reached the largest adolescent population in the world.

Earlier, as Director of Education, she steered the education program of CARE India working with the most vulnerable and “last mile” population. Before this, she led the education and life skills program in Afghanistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and India, working with an Indian NGO. She has been a senior consultant to the Ministry of Education, India; and also consulted with international and national NGOs, and donor agencies.

Suman has a Ph.D. and double master’s degrees in Education and Philosophy. As an alum 2015 Echidna Global Scholar at Brookings Institution DC, she continues to contribute to the education sector.