Poorvi Chitalkar leads Namati’s Learning Agenda for Legal Empowerment, a global, practitioner-led initiative that builds evidence on how grassroots justice efforts can deepen democratic governance.

Poorvi’s work has been driven by the belief that learning from the ground up—and sharing that knowledge widely—is key to advancing justice and strengthening democracy.

Her work at Namati focuses on co-creating knowledge with grassroots justice advocates across Asia, Africa, and Latin America—supporting them to test new strategies, deepen their impact, and influence policy. The Learning Agenda also synthesizes insights and evidence from across the grassroots justice movement into accessible, practitioner-friendly knowledge products. Poorvi recently authored The Playbook of Justice: How Legal Empowerment Efforts are Fighting Repression and Deepening Democracy (2024) and serves as the host and producer of the podcast A Common Pot: Stories and Recipes for Grassroots Justice.

Before joining Namati, Poorvi worked at the Global Centre for Pluralism, Canada’s International Development Research Centre, and the Office of the Ontario Ombudsman. She has also practiced law in India. Poorvi holds law degrees from the University of Toronto and Symbiosis University in Pune, India.