Advisory & Consulting Support in Public Health and Policy

Pragati Sharma

Founder and Director, Goreto Consultants

• Doctorate of Public Health (DrPH), London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), UK
• Master of Public Policy, University of Oxford, UK
• Master of Public Health, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Karnataka, India

Pragati Sharma is a public health and policy professional with more than 10 years of experience in nursing-midwifery health workforce program, policy and advocacy. Pragati started her public health career working with Jhpiego-India as a Program Officer for implementing the quality pre-service nursing education in Jharkhand. Since then, Pragati has managed project grants and implementation on midwifery health workforce, advised Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, GoI and supported international organisations, in India and abroad, to convene and facilitate nursing-midwifery policy dialogues. Currently, Pragati is a freelance consultant working with international not-for-profit sector in the state and national-level with a focus on nursing and midwifery. Prior to freelancing, Pragati was with WHO India office where she provided policy and strategic support to the GoI's Midwifery Initiative. Through WHO, she also co-designed and co-facilitated the GoI Midwifery Leadership Development program in the capacity of an Assistant Programme Director. Pragati is also a member of Global Task Force for Nursing and Midwifery chaired by WHO Chief Nurse. While in WHO India, Pragati closely facilitated the development and review of the draft Nurse Practitioner in Midwifery (NPM) and NPM educator curriculum through inputs from International Confederation of Midwives, WHO global collaborating centres and the Global Nursing-Midwifery Task force before being finalised by the Indian Nursing Council and worked briefly in drafting the Learning resource package for NPMs. Pragati has completed her Master of Public Policy (MPP) from the University of Oxford on a fully-funded Oxford University scholarship after which she briefly worked on road-safety policies in the WHO headquarters, Geneva. Pragati also provided strategic support to WHO-India and WHO headquarters for the Global Interprofessional Midwifery Toolkit development that is being implemented in >10 countries. Additionally, Pragati is currently a part-time candidate of Doctorate of Public Health (DrPH) at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, UK where she is honing her organization, policy and research skills with a focus on nursing-midwifery leadership. Drawing on these experiences, Pragati has supported the WHO South-east Asia region in developing a Regional Midwifery Leadership Program and is also working with Jhpiego-India to provide policy and advocacy support for Nursing Reforms in Assam. Pragati is currently nurturing Goreto to be a pioneer in policy consulting in health care.