Mann Soni is an Assistant Manager in the Gender Equality, Disability, and Social Inclusion (GEDSI) practice of MSC in India. His areas of expertise include program design and evaluation, project management, qualitative research and analysis, and product development. In the past 3 years, he has served as a Climatebase Fellow; led a cohort-based accelerator for women-led climate startups; delivered technical advisory to the Ministry of Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (M/o MSME), Government of India (GoI); conducted a behavioral inquiry into climate resilience of smallholder farmers; led a quantitative survey for measuring the adoption of digital payment systems; and conducted extensive research with women, youth, and other marginalized communities.
A few examples of his recent work are as follows:
- Developed three national-level interventions to bring gender parity in women’s entrepreneurship in India for the Ministry of Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (M/o MSME), funded by the Gates Foundation in India. The assignment involves stakeholder management, program-level strategy development, partnerships, research and data analysis, and impact assessment, among others (2024-Ongoing)
- Developed and led WEP-उन्नति (Unnati): a cohort-based accelerator program for 15 green entrepreneurs (6 of whom raised USD 850,000+ during and post-program) and a nationwide e-mentorship platform after conducting mixed-methods research into women entrepreneurs’ mentoring needs for the Women Entrepreneurship Platform (WEP) by NITI Aayog. Funded by the Gates Foundation in India, the project involved conducting interviews, data analysis, report writing, pilot conceptualization, and wireframe development; and formed a template for future implementation of 10+ similar cohorts. (2023-24)
- Conducted ecosystem landscaping to understand the gender digital divide in six countries in Asia and Africa to inform the global strategy of the Gates Foundation. The project involved synthesizing the availability of global sex-disaggregated data on the gender digital divide, reviewing interventions designed to close the gender gap, and developing hypotheses and related levers. (2023)
- Conducted behavioral enquiry with smallholder farmers to estimate their resilience to climate-related shocks for Climate Innovation for Adaptation and Resilience (CIFAR) funded by MSC in India. The research involved conducting demand-side and supply-side interviews and focused group discussions with respondents, data analysis, and report writing. (2022)
Before joining MSC, Mann interned with international sustainability firms, education institutions, non-profits, and corporates based in India, Nepal, and the United States. He also worked as an Instructor at Teach for India, where he undertook various roles, from designing curricula to building competencies in young children in New Delhi’s public schools. He holds a bachelor’s degree with a specialization in Economics from the Hindu College, University of Delhi, New Delhi, India, in 2022. He is fluent in English, Hindi, Gujarati, and French.
