Neelima brings over two decades of experience in the development sector working towards basic services for urban poor with a special focus on education, healthcare, water, sanitation and livelihoods. In the past, she has been a senior advisor at GIZ, a senior advisor at Dasra, a director at Arghyam, and worked with USAID, DFID, ADB, GIZ, United Nations University.
In addition to her role as the founder of sah-Krta, she works closely with ADB (Asian Development Bank) and BMGF, responsible for building collaborations, initiating partnerships with government, instituting development funds, promoting financial inclusion, building social enterprises, and furthering the policies at the state level.
Prior to this, Ms Thota worked as a full time Sr Advisor at GIZ, leading the implementation of their flagship programme ‘Support to National Urban Sanitation Policy’ where she has influenced several policies, guidelines and bye-laws at the national, state and city level besides building partnerships for successful implementation of the schemes at city-level, in collaboration with Ministry of Urban Development (MoUD), Water Resources (MoWR), Environment Forest & Climate Change (MoEFCC). Before that, she served as Sr Advisor at Dasra Foundation and Director of Urban Programme at Arghyam Foundation. During her role at Arghyam, she successfully developed partnerships with several state governments, non-profit organizations, technology partners, academic institutions, co-funding state level initiatives with Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Tata Trusts etc.
Ms Thota graduated from Andhra University with a degree in Civil and Environment Engineering with focus on Public Health major. She is an MBA fromISB (Indian School of Business).