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Sharmila Surianarain

Chief Impact OfficerHarambee Youth Employment Accelerator

Biography

Sharmi serves as the Chief Impact Officer for Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator in South Africa. She is a fierce advocate for opportunity and social justice for young people and women across the African continent, and is a keen analyst and thinker on the future of work. She leads on Harambee's impact and systems change agendas, including key funder partnerships, research and learning agenda, and data science and pathway intelligence work. She also oversees Harambee's work in Rwanda and is the chair of the Rwanda Global Business Services Growth Initiative Advisory Board, incubated by Harambee to drive the growth of GBS jobs in Africa. She is an Aspen African Leadership Initiative Fellow, Class of 2020, an RSA Fellow, and sits on the Boards of Emerging Public Leaders, Metis, Instill Education and is on the 2021 G7 Impact Taskforce. She holds a B.A. from Harvard University, a master’s degree from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and a master’s degree from Northwestern Kellogg

Regional Focus

Eastern and Southern Africa, West and Central Africa

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