Niyoshi Parekh is an urban practitioner with a research and impact focus, with experience spanning social protection, labour welfare, affordable housing, education, and urban development. She currently works as a Research & Impact Executive, where she conducts policy and mixed-methods research to strengthen the design and delivery of welfare programmes and manages organisational impact reporting systems. Her work involves developing and applying frameworks such as Moments that Matter (MTM), Administrative Burden, and citizen-state accountability to understand welfare access, household vulnerability, and public service delivery.
Her professional journey began in housing rights and community advocacy with Basti Suraksha Manch in Delhi, where she documented the experiences of informal settlements awaiting rehabilitation and produced evidence to support community advocacy. She later expanded this work at the Alliance for an Energy Efficient Economy, leading research on affordable housing quality, climate resilience, and PMAY implementation across six Indian states. She co-authored the Baprola Resettlement Colony structural assessment report and co-organised an expert roundtable on improving construction quality, safety, and resilience for low-income housing, bringing together government, academia, and industry stakeholders.
Her expertise includes policy analysis, impact evaluation, survey design and management, quantitative and qualitative research, and data analysis. She has contributed to cross-state analyses of labour welfare schemes and social protection systems, designed and managed large-scale primary data collection, developed analytical frameworks and outcome metrics, and translated research into policy recommendations, publications, and organisational learning. Her work combines field engagement with rigorous analysis to support evidence-informed policymaking and more equitable public systems across India.
Moments That Matter (MTM)
Costs, Coping & Household Vulnerability – Co-developed the Moments that Matter analytical framework to understand how critical life events affect welfare access and household vulnerability. Designed survey instruments, developed analytical frameworks, conducted policy mapping across states, and supported publication and implementation research.
Monitoring, Evaluation, Research & Learning (MERL) Systems Strengthening
ed and supported organisation-wide monitoring and evaluation initiatives, including survey design and management, impact reporting, outcome measurement, welfare modelling, and development of internal learning systems to strengthen programme effectiveness.
Labour Social Protection Research (RTL Portfolio)
Supported the Right to Livelihood portfolio through policy research, data analysis, and evidence synthesis on labour welfare and social protection. Conducted cross-state analyses of BOCW welfare schemes, government expenditure, and administrative data to strengthen programme strategy.
Inclusive Practices under the Right to Education (RTE) Act, Section 12(1)(c)
Conducted qualitative field research and primary data collection in Delhi schools to study the experiences of children from disadvantaged backgrounds. Supported research design, field implementation, stakeholder engagement, and evidence generation on inclusive education practices.
Education
Indian Institute for Human Settlements (IIHS), Bengaluru
Brown University
Brown University
Selected Publications
Conferences & Speaking Engagements
Geographic Experience
- New Delhi
- Uttar Pradesh
- Karnataka
- Maharashtra
- United States of America