Anudari Achitsaikhan

About Me

Anudari Achitsaikhan at the Palais des Nations, Geneva

I'm Anudari, a New York-based food systems researcher. I'm interested in how agriculture, nutrition, and food access function in practice, and how we can leverage evidence to make those systems stronger. This focus has driven my work across diverse settings, taking me from assessing drought-responsive strategies in Indonesia to working at an aquaponics greenhouse in the Netherlands and studying the nexus between climate, migration, and food security in Mongolia.

While I've always been passionate about food systems, I spent my early career within the UN system working on climate and environmental sustainability. That experience wasn't a detour, it was where I built a solid foundation in monitoring and evaluation and learned how to structure tracking systems across complex, multi-stakeholder programs. But I eventually returned to my roots, making a deliberate move to bring agriculture and nutrition back to the center of my professional life.

I hold degrees from McGill University, Utrecht University, and the University of Edinburgh, and have operated across agencies like FAO, UNOSAT, and UNEP. This international background gives me a strong grasp of global systems, while my upbringing as a Mongolian-American ensures my approach remains firmly grounded in place-based impact. My master’s thesis on food insecurity in Ulaanbaatar reinforced this, proving to me that data and research are only as effective as their connection to lived experience. Today, I strive for that same balance in my work: pairing rigorous analysis with a deep understanding of local context.

Focus Areas

Food Systems & Agriculture

My work in this area has combined desk-based research and programme support with hands-on exposure to food production. Through my time with the FAO, I've contributed to projects focused on agricultural productivity, soil health, and food security, reporting on how these interventions affect livelihoods and food access. My fieldwork has shaped my belief that urban agriculture and community-based growing aren't just technical solutions; they are systems that thrive only when they respect local context and participation.

Project Coordination & Management

I've coordinated work across multi-country projects in the UN system, collaborating with government partners, donors, and technical teams. I'm comfortable working in environments where things evolve quickly, and where progress depends on staying organized, communicating clearly, and keeping people aligned around shared priorities.

Monitoring, Evaluation & Research

Much of my work has focused on understanding what's working, and why. I've developed M&E frameworks, designed indicators, managed data collection, and synthesised findings into reports for donors and decision-makers.

I've worked with both quantitative and qualitative data, from survey analysis to field-based interviews, which allows me to connect results to what's actually happening on the ground.

Education, Capacity Building & Community

Across my career, I've facilitated trainings, designed workshops, and worked directly with communities, from teaching English to Hmong children in Laos to leading results-based management trainings for government officials and partner staff.

A consistent part of this work has been translating complex or technical topics into something more accessible and practical.

Experience

UN & International Organizations

Project Analyst & Reporting Specialist

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) · Aug 2023 – Sep 2025 · Remote

Produced donor-facing terminal reports for completed agricultural and climate resilience projects across 10+ countries, synthesizing technical data, outcomes, and lessons learned into clear, results-based narratives.
Coordinated with FAO country offices, technical divisions, and project teams to ensure findings were accurately captured and aligned with donor requirements and FAO quality standards.
Developed project highlight sheets to enhance visibility and dissemination of results to resource partners and governments.
Thematic areas included climate-smart agriculture, soil health management, gender-responsive planning, integrated pest management, and farmer capacity development across Africa and the Near East.

Monitoring & Evaluation (M&E) Specialist

United Nations Satellite Centre (UNOSAT) / UNITAR · Dec 2019 – Jun 2023 · Geneva, Switzerland

Served as M&E lead for multi-country capacity development and geospatial mapping projects focused on climate adaptation and disaster risk reduction across Africa and the Asia-Pacific.
Designed and maintained project frameworks, theories of change, logical frameworks, and SMART indicators; managed data collection, beneficiary surveys, and partner reporting.
Built and maintained dashboards in Excel and Power BI to track project indicators and visualize results for quarterly and annual donor reporting.
Key projects: CommonSensing (£2M, UK Space Agency) in Fiji, Vanuatu, and Solomon Islands; NORAD Programme ($1.5M USD) across eight countries in Asia, Africa, and the Pacific.
Served as UNOSAT's Gender Focal Point: conducted gender analyses, organized webinars, and made recommendations to ensure equitable participation across activities.
Facilitated results-based management (RBM) trainings for government officials and partner staff; authored case studies and impact stories published on UNOSAT/UNITAR's website.

Planning, Performance Monitoring & Evaluation Trainee

United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) · May 2019 – Nov 2019 · Geneva, Switzerland

Coordinated baseline, midline, and endline evaluations across UNITAR's seven divisions, overseeing timelines, deliverables, and compliance with the organization's M&E policy.
Developed M&E plans, results frameworks, logframes, and SMART indicators for Global Environment Facility (GEF) and World Bank proposals.
Created guidance materials and best-practice documents for the organizational intranet, standardizing M&E approaches across divisions.
Contributed to the design and delivery of an e-learning course on evaluation methods for tracking SDG progress.

Programme Intern

United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) · Oct 2017 – Apr 2018 · Osaka, Japan

Assisted in the design of Green Climate Fund (GCF) proposals on climate resilience and waste-to-energy, including research on waste management frameworks and GHG emissions in Mongolia.
Conducted a final project evaluation using OECD-DAC criteria, informing future programme design.

Environmental Affairs Intern

United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) · Mar 2015 – Jul 2015 · Bangkok, Thailand

Contributed to flagship environmental reports and wrote case studies on natural capital, energy reform, water management in the Mekong, and deforestation in Vietnam and Indonesia.
Supported preparation of high-level meetings, including the 2015 Asia-Pacific Forum for Sustainable Development.

Academic Field Research

Master's Thesis Researcher: Food Security, Migration & Climate Change

GerHub NGO / University of Edinburgh · Feb 2024 – Mar 2025 · Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

Conducted mixed-methods research on the relationship between climate-induced rural-to-urban migration and food security among households in Ulaanbaatar's informal ger districts.
Partnered with local NGO GerHub to facilitate focus group discussions with migrant mothers; conducted key informant interviews with sub-district government officials.
Analyzed UNICEF MICS household survey datasets using SPSS, comparing food insecurity indicators and dietary diversity by dwelling type across three survey years.
Key finding: households in ger areas were significantly more food insecure and consumed fewer fruits and vegetables, with over 22% reporting going an entire day without food.
Findings provided direct recommendations to GerHub on expanding their community garden program to include adults, broadening its impact on household nutrition.

Field Researcher: El Niño, Water Scarcity & Smallholder Farmer Livelihoods

Yayasan Konservasi Sawah Bali · Mar 2017 – Jun 2017 · Bali, Indonesia

Conducted master's thesis research on the impacts of the 2015–16 El Niño drought on rice production and smallholder farmer livelihoods across six villages.
Collected qualitative and quantitative data through 60+ interviews with farmers, local government officials, NGO staff, and agricultural extension officers.
Compared outcomes for farmers using conventional chemical inputs versus agroecological methods; found that organic/SRI farmers experienced lower losses and greater resilience during the drought.
Contributed to planting and harvesting activities at Sawah Bali's pilot project site in Ubud.

Volunteer & Community Work

Visiting Researcher & Community Garden Volunteer

GerHub NGO · Feb 2024 – Mar 2025 · Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

Supported GerHub's community garden initiative in Ulaanbaatar's ger districts, aimed at improving nutrition and food self-sufficiency among residents of the city's informal settlements.
Germinated seeds and contributed to hands-on preparation and activity planning for the garden site.
Authored a funding proposal to Germany's IKI Climate Fund to support the project's expansion, including a greenhouse, composting station, and age-appropriate workshops for children, teens, and adults covering gardening, nutrition, and small-scale entrepreneurship.

Aquaponics Greenhouse Farmer

Mediamatic · May 2018 – Sep 2018 · Amsterdam, Netherlands

Worked in Mediamatic's experimental aquaponics greenhouse integrating fish cultivation and plant production in a closed-loop, chemical-free ecosystem.
Daily responsibilities included system maintenance, water quality testing (pH, nitrogen, ammonia), seedling propagation, planting, and harvesting.
Researched suitable crops for polyculture systems, identified potential nutrient deficiencies, and explored organic pest management strategies.

Field Worker: Humanitarian Aid

Dråpen i Havet · Apr 2016 – Jun 2016 · Athens, Greece & Aegean Islands

Assisted with food preparation and distribution at official and unofficial refugee camps in Lesvos, Chios, and Athens.
Identified vulnerable families with children and distributed care packages; organized donation stockrooms and supported children's informal classes and activities.

WWOOF Volunteer: Sustainable Farming & Community Development

SAE LAO Project · Jan 2015 – Feb 2015 · Vang Vieng, Lao PDR

Worked alongside local community members in Nhakong Village on farming activities and livestock care.
Taught English to children of the Hmong ethnic minority tribe; participated in sustainable building projects including mud brick construction and biogas system maintenance.

Education

MSc Global Food Security and Nutrition

The University of Edinburgh · 2021–2024 · Remote / Part-time

Completed part-time while working full-time, a move to build deeper expertise in food security and nutrition. Thesis focused on food insecurity and migration in Ulaanbaatar; see Field Research section for full detail.

MSc Sustainable Development

Utrecht University · 2015–2017 · Utrecht, Netherlands

The foundation for my research methodology and entry into field-based work. Included three months of field research in Bali studying climate resilience among smallholder farmers, and a research semester exploring humanitarian aid provision in refugee camps in Greece and Turkey.

BA International Development

McGill University · 2009–2013 · Montreal, Canada

A broad grounding in development theory, global systems, and political economy.

Working with Data

A Note on My Approach to Data

My work with data has grown organically throughout my career, from designing surveys for farmer interviews in Indonesia, to building monitoring dashboards for multi-country UN projects, to conducting statistical analysis on household survey data for my master's thesis. I've always been drawn to what data can reveal about people's lives, especially when it's disaggregated to make disparities visible rather than hidden in averages.

More recently, I've started building technical skills in SQL and Python. I'm still early in that process, but I'm keen to apply those tools to real questions, using data to clarify problems, improve programs, and ground decisions in reality.

Tools & Methods

Practiced in Professional & Research Contexts

Excel (Advanced) Dashboards, indicator tracking, data cleaning, and reporting for UN projects spanning multiple countries and partners.

Power BI Built monitoring dashboards for the NORAD programme ($1.5M USD, 8 countries) integrating Microsoft Forms survey data for real-time reporting.

SPSS Analyzed UNICEF MICS household survey datasets for master's thesis: food insecurity indicators, dietary diversity, dwelling-type comparisons, significance testing.

MAXQDA Qualitative data coding and analysis for research work.

Survey Design SurveyMonkey and Microsoft Forms for beneficiary surveys; field questionnaire design for Indonesia and Mongolia fieldwork.

Mixed-Methods Research Designed and implemented studies combining quantitative datasets with qualitative focus groups and key informant interviews.

Foundational Courses Completed (Certificates Available)

SQL Completed structured coursework in SQL querying, database logic, and data retrieval.

Python Completed foundational Python course covering data structures, basic scripting, and introductory data analysis.

Other Tools

QGIS / Elementary. Exposure through UNOSAT work on geospatial projects. Canva / Professional-level. Communications materials, presentations, visual reporting. SharePoint / Microsoft Teams / Project knowledge management and team coordination. Adobe Creative Suite / Basic.