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Meet the 2024 Asia Knowledge Management Champions


The 2024 Asia Knowledge Management Champions kicked off this April with 34 participants selected from a pool of 50 applicants. Criteria for selection included family planning and reproductive health (FP/RH) professionals in Asia who work in the area of knowledge management (KM). This year’s cohort of participants hail from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Jordan, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines and Fiji.

Based on the cohort’s needs, sessions were developed to include capacity strengthening on KM fundamentals, documentation, as well as tools and techniques for effective knowledge sharing. A total of nine sessions, interspersed with networking opportunities and KM practice activities such as KM Cafe, Storytelling and After Action Reviews are underway between April and July. Designed to enhance their skills and build their professional networks as KM Champions, these sessions will also incorporate mentors from the previous KM Champions cohort to guide the new cohort through any KM challenges they encounter.  

As the cohort delves into new KM frameworks and tools, they have already demonstrated their skills in knowledge curation by publishing resource collections on diverse FP/RH topics on the FP insight platform, showcasing the breadth and depth of their expertise and commitment to enhancing FP/RH knowledge sharing. Notable examples include a collection on access to vasectomy services curated by Dr. Jonathan Flavier from the Cooperative Movement for Encouraging NSV, a compilation on integrated care models for strengthening FP/RH services by Dr. Nomisha Khatri from PATH, as well as collections on disability inclusive SRH services and subdermal contraceptive implants by Dr. Saswati Das and Krishan Gopal Soni from UNFPA India.

As the weeks progress, the cohort has been actively exploring novel ways to capture, use and share knowledge as leaders in FP/RH. It is envisioned that this new KM Champions cohort builds a collaborative network of KM practitioners who learn and share with each other, and extend their services as future role models of KM in FP/RH.

OUR FACILITATORS

Lead Facilitator

Meena Arivananthan,

Asia Regional KM Officer, Knowledge SUCCESS

Co-facilitator

Andi Reski Aprianti, 

Program Officer, Jalin Foundation  

Co-facilitator

Ambar Mirantini, 

Monitoring & Evaluation Officer, Jalin Foundation

PARTICIPANT PROFILES

Hover over the photos to meet the 2024 cohort of Asia KM Champions, and click here to read more about each member’s FP/RH interests and KM goals.

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KM Champion Cohort Member

Yoshita Srivastava, Communications Coordinator, The YP Foundation, India

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KM Champion Cohort Member

Aisha Fatima, Senior Program Manager, Jhpiego

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KM Champion Cohort Member

Chandani Kunwar, Communications and KM Officer, FHI 360 Nepal

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KM Champion Cohort Member

Deepak Bhatt,

Monitoring and

Evaluation Analyst, UNFPA

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KM Champion Cohort Member

Sehrish Naz,

CEO & Founder, Break the Mold

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KM Champion Cohort Member

Syeda Nabin Ara Nitu,

Manager Connect Project, Save the Children

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KM Champion Cohort Member

Krishan Gopal Soni, Program Manager, UNFPA

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KM Champion Cohort Member

Dr. Geetika Sharma,

Manager Program Implication, PSI

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KM Champion Cohort Member

Jonathan David Aguila Flavier, Chairman,

Cooperative Movement for Encouraging NSV

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KM Champion Cohort Member

Khalid Usman,

Senior Program Officer, Jhpiego

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KM Champion Cohort Member

Wychheng Sreang,

CSE/Youth Program Analyst,

UNFPA

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KM Champion Cohort Member

Labib Tazone Utshab, Founder, Light to Life

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KM Champion Cohort Member

Lala Rukh, District Health Coordinator, USAID/Pathfinder

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KM Champion Cohort Member

Dr. Nomisha Khatri,

Program Associate, PATH

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KM Champion Cohort Member

Parveen Akter,

Adolescent and Youth Manager,

Pathfinder International

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KM Champion Cohort Member

Prathibha John,

Knowledge Management Coordinator,

Jhpiego

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KM Champion Cohort Member

Erfaan Hussein Babak,

Director, The Awakening, Pakistan

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KM Champion Cohort Member

Fatema Shabnam, Public Health and

SRH Freelance Consultant

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KM Champion Cohort Member

Sandeepa S Prabhu, Manager, PATH

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KM Champion Cohort Member

Dr. Saswati Das,

SRHR Specialist, UNFPA

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KM Champion Cohort Member

Nidhi Arya, Program Coordinator, The YP Foundation

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KM Champion Cohort Member

Rajesh Didiya, CEO, Suruwat

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KM Champion Cohort Member

Dr. Kamran Khan,

District Health Coordinator, Pathfinder International

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KM Champion Cohort Member

Sumeet Kour, SRHR Program

and Research Analyst, UNFPA PSRO

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KM Champion Cohort Member

Ranya Al Rabadi,

Gender Officer,

Plan International

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KM Champion Cohort Member

Reynelle A. Cariño-Eres,

KM Expert, The Challenge Initiative

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KM Champion Cohort Member

Gowthamghosh B., Assistant Professor,

Institute of Health Management Research

KEY LEARNINGS FROM PAST COHORT

Our capacity strengthening approach within the Asia KM Champions cohort shows promise in positively impacting individual and organization-level outcomes. Within the six short months of the program, which included three virtual capacity strengthening sessions, participants: 

  • Showed positive improvements in their knowledge and attitudes about KM and their confidence in their ability to apply KM, as demonstrated from the pre-and post-test results.  
  • Expressed the importance of knowledge sharing within their newly found network, citing instances where it helped them meet project deliverables and boosted internal and external knowledge sharing within and outside their organizations. 
  • Recognized the significance of knowledge exchange techniques like knowledge cafes and share fairs and the strategic application of documentation practices. The program was described as facilitating breakthroughs for their project or for themselves personally, such as organizing webinars, producing content pieces, and experiencing professional and personal growth.

Additionally, the participants shared examples of how they have applied their new knowledge and skills to improve their work at an organizational level, exemplified by participants describing the development or refinement of a KM strategy within their organizations. They continuously highlighted the significance of the learning and network opportunities the KM Champions capacity strengthening sessions provided. The network’s diversity and shared experiences were also shared as ways it contributed to individual and organizational growth, fostering a collaborative environment. They enjoyed the well-organized KM Champion program, small group discussions, flexibility in timing, and friendly facilitators. Overall, they found it a great learning experience.

Meet our 2023 cohort of Asia KM Champions and learn more about why we launched the Asia KM Champions series.

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Meena Arivananthan, MSc

Asia Regional Knowledge Management Officer

Meena Arivananthan is the Asia Regional Knowledge Management Officer at Knowledge SUCCESS. She provides knowledge management support to FP/RH professionals in the Asia region. Her experience includes knowledge exchange, KM strategy develoment and science communications. A certified facilitator of participatory processes, she is also the principle author of several KM manuals including the Knowledge Exchange Toolkit developed by UNICEF. Meena holds a Bachelor of Science in Microbiology and a Master’s in Molecular Biology from the University of Malaya and is based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Pranab Rajbhandari

Country Manager, Breakthrough ACTION Nepal, and and Regional Knowledge Management Advisor with Knowledge SUCCESS, Johns Hopkins Center for Communications Programs

Pranab Rajbhandari is the Country Manager/Sr. Social Behavior Change (SBC) Advisor for Breakthrough ACTION project in Nepal. He is also the Regional Knowledge Management Advisor-Asia for Knowledge SUCCESS. He is a Social Behavior Change (SBC) practitioner with more than two decades of public health work experience. He has grounded field experience starting as a program officer and has in the past decade led projects and country teams. He has also consulted independently nationally and internationally for USAID, UN, GIZ projects. He holds a Master’s in Public Health (MPH) from Mahidol University, Bangkok, a Master’s (MA) in Sociology from Michigan State University, Michigan and is an Ohio Wesleyan University alumnus.