Ms Vanessa Peter is Visiting Senior Fellow at IMPRI. 

Vanessa Peter completed her graduation in history and master’s in international studies from Stella Maris College, Chennai, Tamil Nadu in 2004. Vanessa was particularly interested in the development sector and joined an international NGO in 2005. Soon after the Tsunami hit the southern part of the country in December 2004, Vanessa commenced her work with coastal communities in Tamil Nadu for their relief and rehabilitation.

She also started working in low-income and informal settlements (slums and the urban homeless) across the State. Having been associated with the office of the Advisor to the Supreme Court, Vanessa was monitoring the implementation of the ‘Shelter for the Urban Homeless’ programme. As a result of her lobbying and advocacy, there are over 100 shelters across all the Corporations and major Municipalities across Tamil Nadu. She was also instrumental in the designing and implementation of ‘Shelter for Urban Homeless’ for the Greater Chennai Corporation. Presently, she is a member of the Shelter Advisory Committee to monitor the programme. She is also a member of the Voluntary Advisory Committee of the Gender and Policy Lab of the Special Project Department of the Greater Chennai Corporation.

Vanessa is a civil society member of the State-level Project Sanctioning Committee, constituted by the government of Tamil Nadu to clear proposals and to ensure the programme’s quality. Currently, she is also a civil society member of the Supreme Court-appointed state-level committee to monitor the functioning of the Shelter for urban homeless in Tamil Nadu.

She is also a member of the Technical Advisory Group of the Tamil Nadu Sustainable Development Goads Coordination Centre (TN SDGCC) for Women and Children – Department of Planning and Development, Government of Tamil Nadu, in collaboration with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP).

Through her policy research and social audits, Vanessa has been striving to bring about pro-poor policies by the government of Tamil Nadu. In 2013, Vanessa started the ‘Information and Resource Centre for Deprived Urban Communities’ – a social initiative that seeks to address the disconnect between the poor, policy, and policymakers. Vanessa continues to be a policy researcher and a social activist since 2005.