Ranjavati Banerji: Supporting SDG 3 Goals Through Global Health Strategies

Ladderworks is a publishing platform of diverse picture books and online curriculum with the mission to empower over a million kids to become social entrepreneurs. Our current series features interviews by our interplanetary journalist Spiffy with inspiring Social Entrepreneurs and Entrepreneurship Ecosystem Builders, who are advancing the UN SDGs. 

Welcome back! Spiffy here, your interplanetary journalist reporting from Planet Earth with an eye on entrepreneurs working to make this world more equitable. Today I’m super excited to speak with Geneva-based Ranjavati Banerji, who is a Strategy Specialist at the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB, and Malaria.

Spiffy: Welcome to the blog, Ranjavati! Tell me, what challenge are you addressing through the fund?

Ranjavati: Thanks for having me, Spiffy! I am working in global health, an area that has been on top of everyone's minds since 2020. Even those, like my family, who had little knowledge or interest in this area are eager to learn more. Therefore, it feels exciting to work in this area. I am currently working in the strategy team of The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB, and Malaria. The organization was one of the biggest funding agencies during COVID-19 and has recently approved its new strategy to support the SDG 3 goals by 2030. How to implement this new ambitious strategy is my core area of work.

Spiffy: What motivates you to do it?

Ranjavati: I was always interested in international development as it was an opportunity to work closely with the public sector through non-profit actors and work on how to bring about social or economic change in different parts of the world. I have worked across economic policy, social policy, gender equality, education, and public health. The most exciting part of my day is seeing the collaboration among people across geographies and backgrounds. When an academic joins hands with the government and a social worker to make the world just a tad better, it feels like your job is done. Also, seeing the real work impact of your work is fascinating and I want to keep learning.

Spiffy: What would you say is the impact of your work?

Ranjavati: Every organization I work for eventually aims to benefit people of the communities most in need, break the barriers, reduce the inequities, and walk the last mile. Of course, each of us are small cogs in the wheels of an entire universe of work. In one of my projects, for example, I helped translate evidence into training material for nurses. Seeing these translated into training modules, and later getting the chance to interact with the nurses to see how these modules were used, the successes and challenges—it was all fascinating! I look forward to doing more impactful work.

Spiffy: We look forward to hearing about it! Thanks for speaking with me today, Ranjavati—it’s been an honor!

Ranjavati Banerji is a Strategy Specialist at The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB, and Malaria. She has ten years of experience in international development with organizations such as UNICEF, World Bank, Gavi, and The Global Fund. She is particularly interested in public health, and gender equality, and has often worked at the intersection of economic and social development. She has an MPhil in Economics and a Masters in Public Administration. (First published on the Ladderworks website on January 10, 2023.)

© 2023 Ladderworks LLC. Edited by Anushree Nande. Spiffy’s illustration by Shreyas Navare. For the Ladderworks digital curriculum to help K-3 kids advance the UN SDGs, visit Spiffy's Launchpad: Creative Entrepreneurship Workshops for K-3 Kids and their caregivers here.