Manisha Shah Nayyar serves as Philanthropy Partner for Asia at Synergos.
She has over eight years of experience in private, philanthropic, and nonprofit organizations. Her work encompasses policy as well as practice with a strong focus on environment, climate action, and community-led natural resource management. She has worked extensively with government organizations, civil society actors, and grassroot institutions in India and Nepal.
In her last role at Arghyam, a philanthropic foundation with a vision to ensure safe and sustainable water for all, she managed partnerships to co-create large-scale program designs that could enable local leaders and frontline workers with capacities and agency to manage their natural resources with community participation locally.
Her experiences have made her strongly believe in the role that philanthropies can and need to play for impact at scale, especially in the face of climate change and increasing social and political uncertainties. She has a postgraduate degree in rural management and an undergraduate degree in engineering. She is an ardent writer and volunteers her time towards social causes and environmental conservation campaigns.