Girija Godbole

Girija Godbole is the Water Fund Lead, who spearheads the project in the Ghod River Basin in Western Ghats in Maharashtra to develop India’s first Water Fund- a governance and finance mechanism- which brings together upstream and downstream stakeholders to protect the source basin using nature-based solutions.

She has over 20 years of experience in the environment and development sector. Before joining NCIS, Girija worked at the Centre for Policy Studies at the Indian Institute of Technology- Bombay where she led a research project on domestic violence in Maharashtra (British Academy grant).  She received a Research Innovation grant from The Nudge Foundation to study agricultural tenancy in western Maharashtra. Previously she worked with WWF, the Centre for Environment Education, University of Cambridge on various environment-related projects. Girija did research assignments for Tata Institute of Social Sciences, World Resources Institute, Winrock India International, and Iris Group International on a range of topics including forest management, ecological restoration, gender, inclusive sanitation, and socio-cultural study of the pastoral community (Dhangar). She has been doing voluntary work for Katkari tribal communities in Maharashtra through Jeevan Sanstha for many years for which she received the Rotary Udyognagari Samaj Bhushan award.