Data Scientist · Founder · Digital Strategy
Deepshikha
Shah
I turn data, digital systems, and community into measurable public impact.
Incoming data scientist and founder working at the intersection of public health, digital strategy, and emerging technology. I have built dashboards for health ministries, run national research studies, led grassroots blockchain education across Africa, and grown audiences for the UN.
Lalitpur, Nepal — working globally
- Countries worked in
- 4
- NGOs in national study
- 97
- Web traffic from social, UN RCO
- 5→30%
- Professional certifications
- 35+
About
Politics, computing, and a habit of shipping.
I read Politics with Applied Computing at the University of Buckingham, then spent the years since proving that the two belong together. Whether I am advising a health ministry on interoperability or helping a small farmholder find a market, the method is the same: find the evidence, design the system, and bring people with you.
My work has spanned the United Nations, IOM, the Clinton Health Access Initiative, UNDP Kenya, and my own think tank in Eswatini. I am currently completing a postgraduate certificate in Data, Economics, and Design of Policy with MIT Professional Education, and I build in the open — dashboards, research frameworks, and Web3 communities.
What clients and teams tend to say about working with me: strategically curious, unusually good at translating high-level goals into steps someone can actually take on Monday morning, and genuinely warm in a room full of stakeholders.
Data & Analytics
Descriptive statistics, time-series forecasting, dashboards and data warehouse architecture. R, SQL, BigQuery, Tableau, DHIS2.
Digital & Health Systems Strategy
eGovernment strategy, interoperability standards, secure system migration, and AI/ML frameworks for public health.
Growth & Partnerships
Business development, sponsorship and media sales, stakeholder engagement with CEOs, ministries, and policymakers.
Communications & Community
Campaign strategy, policy-facing writing, podcasting, and grassroots programme design across Africa and Asia.
Selected work
Projects that moved something real.
Strategy documents that got adopted, dashboards that got used, and communities that kept meeting after the workshop ended.
- 012025
National Digital Health Systems Strategy
Clinton Health Access Initiative
Independent consultant modernising Eswatini's digital government strategy with a health-systems lens, from national standards to the data centre migration itself.
- Refreshed the 2017 eGovernment strategy and aligned it with the GIYH initiative
- Built the technical use case for migrating Ministry of Health systems to the RSTP data centre
- Designed live dashboards and architectural recommendations for a national health data warehouse
- Developed a big data, machine learning, and AI framework for public health decision-making
- Health systems
- Data architecture
- Dashboards
- AI/ML
- 022023 — 2026
WorkWise Eswatini
Founder & Community Engagement Specialist
A think tank and podcast tackling brain drain and youth unemployment by making Eswatini's education, entrepreneurship, and employment pathways visible to the people who need them.
- Partnered with UNESWA radio, YouthConnektAfrica, and Frontiers Market Institute to launch the platform
- Brought learning and TVET programmes to local schools, churches, and orphanages
- Supported small farmholder entrepreneurship and livelihood protection
- Ran digital, AI, and Web3 literacy programming across the country
- Founder
- Youth employment
- Podcasting
- Partnerships
- 032025 — 2026
ETHEswatini
ETHRoots Africa — Project Lead
Building Eswatini's on-ramp to Ethereum and open-source protocols through workshops, hackathons, and fireside chats, connected to teams across the continent.
- Designed and delivered grassroots blockchain education initiatives
- Led cross-border collaboration with ETHRoots teams in Kenya, Nigeria, and Tunisia
- Mobilised local youth and developer communities around open protocols
- Integrated blockchain education into wider development goals via local partnerships
- Web3
- Community
- Education
- Cross-border
- 042025
Financial Management Framework for NGOs
Groening & Associates — Research Assistant
A national study of donor fund management and financial sustainability across 97 national and international NGOs in Eswatini.
- Designed and ran surveys, interviews, and stakeholder consultations
- Cleaned and analysed quantitative and qualitative data to surface sector-wide trends
- Researched governance and accountability mechanisms shaping funding effectiveness
- Co-developed a framework to improve disbursement, compliance, and transparency
- Research
- Mixed methods
- Governance
- Finance
- 052024
Africa Centre of Competence for Digital & AI Skilling
UNDP Kenya — Advocate
Campaign advocacy for digital and AI literacy across the continent, from content strategy to panel appearances.
- Crafted platform-specific content and visuals for digital and AI skilling
- Ran daily posting, engagement, and hashtag campaigns to lift visibility
- Panelist on 'Broadening Our Horizons: Busting myths about digital and AI skilling'
- Used analytics to iterate content strategy and audience engagement
- Advocacy
- AI literacy
- Content strategy
- Analytics
- 062023
RCO 2.0 — Communications & Data Management
UN Resident Coordinator's Office, Eswatini
Six months inside the UN's country coordination office, improving how the office told its story and managed its data.
- Grew web traffic from social campaigns from 5% to 30%
- Introduced Gantt-chart project management into office workflow as part of the RCO 2.0 reform
- Drove adoption of the UN Humanitarian Booking Hub by two additional multilateral organisations
- Collected human-interest stories and data for the Annual One UN Results Report 2022
- UN
- Data management
- Comms
- Process design
Testimonials
What supervisors say about the impact.
Quoted from written letters of recommendation.
Connecting national health systems to regional opportunity
She served as a dynamic liaison between the Ministry of Health of Eswatini, CHAI Eswatini and the Africa Centre of Competence for Digital and AI Skilling based in Kenya. Her efforts have been instrumental in connecting our national teams to regionally significant opportunities in digital transformation and capacity building… What stands out most is her strategic curiosity paired with executional excellence.
Data management and reporting at the UN
She contributed extensively in the UNINFO workshop training for staff… Alongside her dedication to tasks, she also taught herself data visualization skills on Tableau and commenced working towards a Google Data Analytics certificate to understand data management better. Her technical skills were also evinced through her suggestions of better managerial practices, recorded in the internal report of RCO 2.0.
Initiative that creates value on day one
Deepshikha has an uncanny ability to figure out how to create value anytime she enters a situation… She suggested and incorporated project management tools at the workplace, such as Gantt Charts, to define and trace the progress of planning, deadlines, and accountability processes… She showed good teamwork, strong dedication to tasks, and an exceptional ability to lead, organize, network, and bring products to market.
Skills & credentials
The toolkit behind the work.
Data & Code
- R
- SQL
- Google BigQuery
- C
- Solidity
- Tableau
- DHIS2
- Excel
Methods
- Descriptive statistics
- Time-series forecasting
- Randomized evaluations
- Mixed-methods research
- M&E
Operations
- Procurement
- Warehousing
- Fleet management
- Asset management
- Sage One
- TaxEase
Tools
- Notion
- Canva
- Mailchimp
- Hardhat
- Ethers.js
Selected certifications
MIT Professional Education
PG Certificate — Data, Economics & Design of Policy
Google
Google Data Analytics Professional Certificate
Encode Club
EVM Bootcamp — Solidity & dApp development
INSEAD
Web3 and Blockchain Fundamentals
LSE
Data Analysis for Management
University of Pennsylvania
Social Impact Strategy
Washington University in St. Louis
Data for Social Impact
UC Davis
Fundamentals of Visualization with Tableau
Contact
Let's build something worth measuring.
Whether you are hiring, scoping a research project, or need a digital strategy that stakeholders will actually adopt — I would love to hear about it.
Download resume (PDF)