As we welcome the holiday season, I want to start by expressing my gratitude and appreciation for each of you. I am also thankful for the opportunities we’ve had to work with so many dedicated people and organizations who strive to make our world a better place in ways big and small! It is easy to be cynical and despondent amidst major challenges facing our world. I don’t seek to understate or minimize them; we need to remind ourselves of the extent of these challenges, but at the same time, humanity has come from its dark Middle Ages. Today, we truly are one global community bound by our interdependent successes and challenges. In such a social milieu, we must remind ourselves of all the wonderful people and work we encounter throughout the year. I, for one, am amazed at seeing some of the most transformative work undertaken by our partners.
Speaking of transformative work, in 2024, we too made serious efforts to strengthen our climate adaptation, resilience, and sustainability portfolio through our long-term agreements with the Green Climate Fund, Foreign Ministry of Finland, and UNEP, in addition to carrying out several climate-focused strategic evaluations, among others, for UNIDO, UNCTAD, WFP, UNEP, and UNOPS.
I am proud to highlight that our commitment to excellence and innovation remains unwavering throughout our work. It is a noteworthy testament to our reputation for excellence that several partner agencies, such as the Green Climate Fund, rely on us to set and assess quality standards and that our high-level strategic work continues to shape policy directions, including in UN General Assembly resolutions.
While 2024 brought us much to cheer, I am saddened to report that Ashley Hollister and Xiomara Chavez, two early members of our founding story, left to pursue family and other commitments. I thank them from the bottom of my heart for their contributions to the DeftEdge successes and wish them well in their future endeavors (Ashley: We do expect to see baby pictures regularly ).
As we look ahead to 2025, it is already shaping up to be a promising year in which we hope to scale new heights in delivering cutting-edge technological products and solutions for development. I am also excited to see how our young brigade (Rahul Hasnain, Ilham Nugraha, and Uswah Fatima), mentored by Ann Sutherland and Elise Wall- two of the most accomplished role models in the development industry, has started to blossom into seasoned professionals and have already taken over the baton to help DeftEdge confidently march into the future.
In other organizational news, DE is setting up a new Asia office in Karachi, which Sarang Mangi will spearhead as its Managing Director. Sarang is also being inducted into the board of DeftEdge Global. With all this exciting news, I am chuffed to say that 2025 cannot come any sooner! However, now is the time to rejoice.
Once again, I wish you all a joyous, peaceful, and prosperous holiday season. Looking forward to new and more adventures together in the coming year!!!
With my warmest greetings,
Punit
Special shout-outs:
DE has the pleasure of hosting several interns each year. This year, I would like to recognize the contributions of two very special interns, Larasati Wardhani and Nathaniel Bastos. Larasati worked on key evaluations and social media, while Nathaniel contributed to the strategic discussions and web page. Their contributions were highly significant to us, and we deeply appreciate their work. We wish them our best for the rest of their time at Cornell and Boston College, respectively.