Dipika Chawla serves as Lead Technical Director for Investment on Africa Trade and Investment (ATI), the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)’s flagship continental effort under the Prosper Africa initiative that is expanding and accelerating two-way trade and investment between African nations and the United States. ATI facilitates collaboration between USAID Missions and the private sector to achieve Africa’s vision for inclusive economic growth. Dipika oversees the technical direction of ATI’s Investment portfolio, deploying blended finance interventions that leverage donor funding to mobilize much greater sums of private capital into African small firms, funds, and infrastructure across priority sectors. ATI’s investment mobilization approach supports catalytic funding, climate finance, transaction advisory services, fund structuring, and market assessments.

This position is a continuation of Dipika’s career in private sector engagement and her prior role as Strategic Investment Advisor on USAID INVEST, a global buy-in mechanism focused on mobilizing private sector financing for development. INVEST mobilized over $1.6 billion in private investment over its lifetime, with Dipika’s portfolio contributing $924 million to that total during her tenure on the project through a diverse set of impactful transactions supporting SMEs, local funds, and infrastructure projects.

Before joining USAID INVEST, Dipika worked in private sector consulting, where she provided advisory services to multinational corporations to co-design and deliver sustainability initiatives, building a deep understanding of how to operationalize cross-sector partnerships and align development objectives with core business strategy and incentives.

• M.S., foreign service, Georgetown University
• B.S., foreign service, Georgetown University