WGWLO
Executive Director,
Global Land Alliance
Having completed his graduation in English Literature (NEHU), Dr. Mizinksa Daimari went on to pursue a postgraduate in Development Studies (IIT Guwahati) and thereafter, a Ph.D. He has an academic research paper published recently with Springer. He is currently working as a Consultant with CIMMYT.
Trained in Development Studies, his research interest lean towards agrarian issues. His Ph.D. thesis, focuses on Agrarian Transition in a hitherto under-researched plains tribe dominant area of Assam, more specifically in the Bodoland Territorial Region (BTR; erstwhile BTAD).
Consultant (CIMMYT)
IIT Guwahati
Head- Metropolitan and Union Territories Division of TCPO
Mr. R. Srinivas has been working in TCPO since 1991. He has done his Post Graduation in Urban and Regional Planning from IIT Kharagpur and Professional Masters in Urban Planning and Management from ITC Netherlands. He has been heading the Metropolitan and Union Territories Division of TCPO, and is responsible for rendering technical advice and assistance on various issues pertaining to planning and development of Delhi NCR and Chandigarh, and advising and assisting the Department.
Independent development professional
Development Practioner, PRADAN
Associate Fellow at NCAER
Secretary ILDC
Founder NRMC-CLG (Intellecap Subsidiary)
Former Country Director,
Oxfam
Dy Project Director CLLMP – World Bank, Meghalaya
James has more than 21 years in the field of Social Development and has extensively worked on Participatory Watershed Development, NRM and Livelihood services in North Eastern Region.
Senior Natural Resources Specialist, World Bank office in Jakarta, Indonesia.
Jagat Basnet
CSRC(Nepal)
Jagat Bahadur Basnet is a policy researcher, development practitioner and founding member of the community Self-reliance Centre (CSRC), the non-violence movement based social organization and PhD from Rhodes University South Africa on de- peasantisation in Nepal. Currently, he is serving the Provincial Policy and Planning Commission, the government think-tank, of Bagmati Province as a Vice-Chairperson. He has been facilitating the land and agrarian rights movement in Nepal since 1994 mainly through formation and promotion of peoples’ organizations, Land Rights Forums for comprehensive land and agrarian reform in Nepal. That has resulted in a people led land reform model.
ILDC 2021 Speakers
Shah Mobbin Jinnah
CDA (Bangladesh)
SDF(India)
Geminiano Sandoval is a lawyer from the Philippines. He is also involved in public policy and governance
KPA (Indonesia)
Roni is the head of Policy Advocacy Department in Consortium for Agrarian Reform (KPA).
Marianne is human settlements planning major who has been working in the development field since 2013. She was previously engaged in academic research in the urban sector before joining ANGOC in 2014. Since then, she has served as a Project Officer of ANGOC, mainly involved in research and campaigns on agrarian reform, land use, and indigenous peoples. She is also a licensed Environmental Planner, and has been involved in a few local development planning projects in other provinces in the Philippines
SHAH I MOBIN JINNAH (72 years) is the founding Executive Director of Community Development Association (CDA), in Bangladesh. He is a member of several Development Networking Organizations at National, Regional and International levels. He has got longest experience from the realities over 4 decades in the field of Rural Development, Land Rights, Land Use and Agrarian Reform in South Asian perspective.
He is one of the popular development initiator and Human Rights activist and the Land Rights defender from south Asia. Academically, being a Sociologist working with the rural peasants from the community level to constituency level, he is actively involved in different social and mass movements against the injustice and discrimination in his areas deductively.
Since long with the principles of the People Centered Land Governance with a view to release from hunger & poverty and for in equalities through building up an alternative structure for empowering the disempowered and for excluded people’s participation from the grassroots for social transformation.
He is the member of Land Watch Asia of LRBHR, ANGOC & ILC. At the moment Mr.Mobin Jinnah is the member of IP & Ethnic Minorities Land Right Policy formulation committee under the NHRC in Bangladesh.
Former NCAER Director General & World Bank Regional Economic Adviser for South Asia.
Dr Shekhar Shah was until recently the Director General of the National Council of Applied Economic Research in New Delhi. As the CEO during 2011-21 of India’s oldest and largest, independent, non-profit, economic think tank, he managed NCAER’s wide-ranging research across all sectors of the economy, including its extensive data collection, analytical, and curation activities. He is credited with NCAER’s outstanding institutional transformation, the redevelopment of its new, world-class campus, and the significant role NCAER now plays in economic research and public policy discussions in India.
Prior to joining NCAER, Shah was the World Bank’s Regional Economic Adviser for South Asia and, earlier, Sector Manager in the Bank’s research complex and a principal author of the 2004 World Development Report, Making Services Work for Poor People. During a World Bank career spanning more than two decades, Shah also served as the Bank’s Deputy Research Administrator, Sector Manager for Public Sector Management for Europe and Central Asia, and Lead Economist for Bangladesh.
Before joining the World Bank, he was the Ford Foundation’s Program Officer for Economics and International Relations for South Asia. He worked earlier in Washington DC consulting for the US Federal Reserve Board, FDIC, the OCC, and US banks and bank holding companies. Shah received his BA in Economics from St Stephens College, Delhi University, and his MA and PhD in Economics from Columbia University.
ANGOC
Dr. Rikardo Simarmata is a professor at the University of Gadjah Mada, Yogyakarta, Indonesia, and a researcher on land and natural resources. He has 20 years’ experience in the field of natural resource law with a special focus on customary rights over land and forest resources. Since 2015, he has been researching the recognition and protection of customary land rights; regional development and indigenous peoples’ rights; settlement of forest tenure conflicts; the definition of the legal personality of indigenous peoples; legal enforcement in cases of forest fires set by small holders; and customary land tenure systems
University of Gadjah Mada, Yogyakarta, Indonesia.
Mai Van Phan holds a doctoral degree in land administration and management. He has been the General Director for Land Administration (GDLA) of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment of the Government of Vietnam. Currently, he is the Deputy Director General responsible for land policy and legal development and land administration in GDLA.
Deputy Director General, General Director of Land Adminstration MoNRE, Government of Vietnam.
Dr. Dzung The Nguyen is an agricultural and rural development specialist. He has over 35 years’ experience working with national and international development institutions in Vietnam. Till 2015, he worked at the World Bank Office in Hanoi as Senior Rural Development Specialist, a successful 14-year career in rural and land policy development and design and implementation of investments in land administration, rural finance, and information technology for sustainable and inclusive development. Currently, Dr. Dzung is serving as Land Policy Advisor for the Mekong Region Land Governance Project (MRLG). He provides MRLG and its alliances in the country with strategic advice on land policy framework and with technical inputs to protect tenure rights of small holders, especially women and ethnic minorities.
Vietnam.
Ram Prakash Danuwar works passionately with highly marginalized and socially excluded families to find their voice to access their rights focusing on land and housing. Coming from a marginalized group himself, Ram has empathetically worked for 20 years to bring systematic change in Nepal advocating with the Government for groups such as landless, poor vulnerable and socially excluded ethnic minority, Dalit (So called untouchable cast), ex-bonded labour, Haliyas. As the Program Operations Manager at Habitat for Humanity Nepal, Ram has progressively worked towards a partnership with the Government of Nepal to build safe and affordable housing for marginalized families with secure land tenures registered jointly in the name of husband and wife. His keen interest in land rights also comes from his background in Natural Resource Management.
Habitat for Humanity Nepal
Mr. Jagat Deuja is currently working as an Executive Director of Community Self Reliance Centre (CSRC). He is a renowned land right activist who has been involved in the land rights movement for more than two decades. He was directly involved in the number of land related policy and laws making processes and contributed to include pro-poor agendas in those policies and laws. He was an expert member of the Land Issues Resolving Commission (April 2020 – August 2021). He published a number of articles in national papers and journals on land, land use and poverty issues.
Former Expert Member, (LIRC), Nepal
Dr. Reshma Shrestha is an Assistant Prof. in the Department of Geomatics Engineering at Kathmandu University. Dr. Shrestha has more than ten years of experience in the academic field. Besides academics, she has professional experience in many projects related to the application of geo-information technology in land management. She was the Co-chair of the working group in FIG commission 2 from 2015 to 2018. She has coordinated international conferences like “Transparency Land Administration in 2010” and recently “FOSS4G-Asia 2021” which was successfully conducted in hybrid mode. Her research interest is in the domain of Urban Land Governance, Land Use Planning, and Management for tackling societal issues like informal settlements, gender mainstreaming by applying Geo-information Technologies. She holds a Ph.D. in the Title “Understanding Urban Land Governance through” Action Space”: Implications for Access to Land for Low-Income Housing in Managing Informal Settlements” from the Faculty of Geo-information Science and Earth Observation, University of Twente, the Netherlands.
Dr Walter Fernandes, formerly Director of the Institute, Director of Research, Director of Tribal Studies, and Editor of Social Action at Indian Social Institute, New Delhi (1977-99) founded North Eastern Social Research Centre, Guwahati (NESRC) and was its Director till 2011. He was later Senior Fellow and once again Director of NESRC. He has done extensive research on tribal issues, land and livelihood, development-induced displacement, gender issues and conflicts and peace. He has more than 50 books, over 200 professional articles and 150 newspaper articles on these issues to his credit.
S.J. North Eastern Social Research Centre, India.
Frankie has been working in Tanintharyi region, Southern Myanmar in armed insurgency conflict areas where power and authority favour financial sources of development that impact the local poor including indigenous people. He has been engaged in research and the development of forest policy for forest dependent communities promoting indigenous knowledge and culture .
Director, Tripnet
Mr. Saw Doh Wah, Deputy Program Director, Land Core Group, has around 20 years’ experience in the field of climate change, environmental governance, and land and natural resource governance. His career has spanned government service, UN agency work, and a productive stint with International Alert. He is a forestry graduate from the University of Forestry and Environmental Sciences, Myanmar. He also holds Master’s Degrees in Forestry and Rural Development from the Technical University of Dresden, Germany, in addition to a Master’s in Theology from the Myanmar Institute of Theology.
Deputy Program Director, Land Core Group, Yangon
Dr. Hery Santoso is affiliated with Java Learning Centre (JAVLEC), the NGO based in Java, concern in social forestry and other community based forest management. He is currently working as freelance expert in Sustainable Palm Oil Support (SPOS) project, Indonesia Biodiversity Foundation; and freelance expert of Social Forestry issues in Tropenbos Indonesia.
Researcher at Palm Oil Research Institute of Indonesia.
Dr Bitopi Dutta is an Assistant Professor at the School for Life at the University of Petroleum and Energy Studies, Dehradun, India. She is a former IRC Scholar and has a PhD from Dublin City University, Ireland. She earned her MA in Social Work from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, and her BA Honours in Sociology from Lady Shri Ram College, Delhi University, India. Her research interests include Development Induced Displacement (DID), traditional methods of conflict resolution, gender studies and indigenous people. She has co-authored and edited several book publications on DID and on traditional methods of conflict resolution in Northeast India.
University of Petroleum and Energy Studies, Dehradun
Dr Oliver Scanlan is a Research Fellow at ULAB’s Center for Sustainable Development. He has a PhD in Politics and International relations from Dublin City University, and a Master’s from the University of Amsterdam, both focusing on customary land and forestry rights in India and Bangladesh. His research interests include how customary tenure regimes relate to climate change resilience and adaptation measures. He is a Fellow of the Oxford Research Group’s Sustainable Security Program, specializing in climate change and its implications for global security. He is a member of the UN Environment Program’s Geneva-based Science Policy Platform, in which capacity he presented at the Munich Security Conference in 2018. He has worked for several International NGOs and multilateral organizations, including Oxfam, Save the Children and UN Environment.
Center for Sustainable Development, University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh
Glenn Hunt has been working on land and forest governance issues, with both local and international NGOs, in Laos and Myanmar since 2004 with a specific focus on customary land tenure. Having lived in Myanmar from 2014 until the recent coup, since 2018 he is working with the Centre for Development and Environment, University of Bern in Switzerland, on their Myanmar project as a researcher and senior land advisor.
Researcher at CDE in Myanmar.
Dr Iwan Gunawan, Senior Natural Resources Specialist, World Bank office in Jakarta, Indonesia.
Lead Land Administration Specialist at the World Bank Office in Singapore
Mr. Mika-Petteri Torhonen is a Lead Land Administration Specialist at the World Bank based in Singapore. He leads the Bank’s land investment development in the East Asia Pacific and South Asia regions. Mika has worked on tenure security and access to land for over thirty years globally and his current focus lies with the climate actions related to communal land rights, public lands, and infrastructure and energy investments. He is a Finnish National and holds a Doctor of Science Degree from the Helsinki University of Technology.
Associate Professor of Law and Vice Chairman of the Hanoi Law University
Dr Nguyen Quang Tuyen, Vietnamese national, is Associate Professor of Law and Vice Chairman of the Hanoi Law University Council and Dean of the Economic Department. He teaches land law, civil rights, and economic laws. He has been with the university since 1989 and specializes in land law and related subjects. He is the author of dozens of law reviews and over 120 scholarly articles. He has also written 30 books on land administration, land management, and land governance, aimed at policy makers, undergraduate students, and research scholars. Much of his recent and ongoing research is concerned with the complexities stemming from land policy and implementation of land law in Vietnam. In addition to his research and writing, Dr Tuyen leads a research group that is assessing the implementation of the Party’s Resolution no. 19 and Land Law 2013.
Former NCAER Director General & World Bank Regional Economic Adviser for South Asia
Dr Shekhar Shah was until recently the Director General of the National Council of Applied Economic Research in New Delhi. As the CEO during 2011-21 of India’s oldest and largest, independent, non-profit, economic think tank, he managed NCAER’s wide-ranging research across all sectors of the economy, including its extensive data collection, analytical, and curation activities. He is credited with NCAER’s outstanding institutional transformation, the redevelopment of its new, world-class campus, and the significant role NCAER now plays in economic research and public policy discussions in India.
Prior to joining NCAER, Shah was the World Bank’s Regional Economic Adviser for South Asia and, earlier, Sector Manager in the Bank’s research complex and a principal author of the 2004 World Development Report, Making Services Work for Poor People. During a World Bank career spanning more than two decades, Shah also served as the Bank’s Deputy Research Administrator, Sector Manager for Public Sector Management for Europe and Central Asia, and Lead Economist for Bangladesh.
Before joining the World Bank, he was the Ford Foundation’s Program Officer for Economics and International Relations for South Asia. He worked earlier in Washington DC consulting for the US Federal Reserve Board, FDIC, the OCC, and US banks and bank holding companies. Shah received his BA in Economics from St Stephens College, Delhi University, and his MA and PhD in Economics from Columbia University.
Co founder,
Landesa and CEO,
Chandler Foundation, USA
Mr. Tim Hanstad is the Chief Executive Officer at the Chandler Foundation. Prior to joining the Chandler Foundation in 2018, Tim co-founded Landesa with Roy Prosterman and spent over three decades with the organization, which included launching programs in China, the former Soviet Union, and India, where he lived for five years. Tim is a Skoll Social Entrepreneur Awardee and Schwab Foundation Outstanding Social Entrepreneur. He has authored numerous books and articles on economic and social development, including One Billion Rising with Roy Prosterman and Robert Mitchell. Tim holds two law degrees from the University of Washington and a bachelor’s degree from Seattle Pacific University.
Country Director – ICRISAT
Arabinda Kumar Padhee is an Indian national. He has a Master’s degree in Agricultural Science from Banaras Hindu University (BHU) and a PhD from Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), New Delhi. He also holds a Master’s degree in Public Administration (MPA) from University of Birmingham, UK. He has taken public policy courses at University of Toronto; Civil Services College, Singapore; and University of Cambridge at various points in his career.
Dr Padhee joined the Indian Administrative Services in 1996 and belongs to Odisha cadre. Among the various positions he has held are District Magistrate and Collector; Director, Agriculture and Food Production; Director, World Bank assisted Rural Livelihoods Project; Revenue Divisional Commissioner, Cuttack; Chief Administrator, Shree Jagannath Temple, Puri; Commissioner-cum-Secretary, Tourism and Culture Department, Odisha and Joint Secretary, Department of Fertilizers, Government of India, New Delhi. During his tenure with the Odisha Government, he was instrumental in drafting the Odisha State Agriculture Policy in 2008. He has also served as a member of the Technical Support Group of the erstwhile Planning Commission that prepared the District Agricultural Plan manual. Government of India appointed Dr Padhee as the first nodal officer to implement Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) in fertilizers in 2016.
Assistant Professor, Kathmandu University, Nepal
Executive Director,
Association for Advocacy and Legal Initiatives (AALI)
Ms. Renu Mishra, Executive Director of Association for Advocacy and Legal Initiatives (AALI, a women’s right organisation), is a lawyer and women’s rights activist who has been active in the field of women’s empowerment for about 2 decades. The focus of her work has been the access to justice for women and children. She strongly believes in the power of the law as a tool for social change and has tirelessly worked towards developing a human rights-based understanding of the fundamental rights and special laws especially in the Hindi speaking States, as the language of the law is predominantly English and complex. Ms. Mishra specializes in feminist counselling, casework strategy, and laws combating violence against women and those promoting women’s socio-economic and civil and political rights. Renu Mishra is dedicated towards effecting structural change for the promotion and protection of women’s human rights and acts as technical member and consultant to several national networks as well as State Departments. In 2016 her contribution to the women’s movement in Uttar Pradesh was recognized and honoured by the State Government and in 2014 she was presented with the Hindustan Times Woman of the Year Award for her work on women’s empowerment. She holds a L.L.B. from Lucknow University, a Master’s Degree in Commerce.
Dr Kanchan Sinha is a developmental professional, a researcher and an academic with more than four decades of experience in programme management, policy research, development planning, gender studies and teaching. She worked with Oxfam GB for nearly two decades in many positions including Country Programme Director in India and Country Director in Tanzania. She has been visiting scholar at University of Wisconsin, Madison, USA and at Brandeis University, Waltham, MA, USA. Prior to joining the development field she was a University faculty teaching philosophy. She was a postdoctoral fellow at Boston University, Boston, USA. She has a PhD degree in Philosophy.
Director- Women’s Land Rights, Landesa
Shipra Deo leads Landesa’s work for gender equal and inclusive land governance in India. She is passionate about the gender dimension of social development and specializes in designing and implementing gender responsive strategies and programmes including those related to land. In the recent years she has done intensive research on inheritance by women and gendered aspects of land laws. Her work in the past two decades has focused on expanding opportunities for rural women and girls enabling them to have more control over their lives. She has intensive experience in strategic planning, management of cross-functional teams and catalysing positive changes in challenging contexts.
Head, Sustainable Banking India, NatWest Group and Head, NatWest India Foundation
Mr. N. Sunil Kumar, Head, Sustainable Banking India, NatWest Group and Head, NatWest India Foundation (formerly RBS Foundation India). He has more than 2 decades of diverse experience in business strategy, public affairs, sustainability and communications with specialization on climate change/forest sector, environment. Have worked with Government institutions, International organizations and corporate sector. Mr. Sunil previously worked with National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) and served on the boards of Regional Rural Banks, National Biodiversity Authority’s Senior Expert Group on Access Benefit Sharing; MP Tiger Foundation Society, volunteering time for strategy and field work in NGOs. He studied in XLRI Jamshedpur and did the General Management Programme (GMP 2006-07), a wildlife enthusiast by his passion and travels across the forest landscapes in India and perfectly aligned the foundation’s mandate through partnerships with the civil societies for the supporting enterprises of the communities living around critical fragile ecosystems. Mr. Sunil is supporting the voluntary resettlement of villages living inside the core and buffer areas of Critical Tiger Habitats (CTHs) in India since 2006 in partnership with IGS and the State Forest Departments in Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Odisha.
IFS (APCCF Retd.)
Dr. Ramesh Pratap Singh, IFS (APCCF Retd.), Consultant and Advisor to Government of Madhya Pradesh. During his 35 years of service in the elite Indian Forest Service (IFS), Dr. Singh has undertaken several outstanding innovations and policy measures having powerful impact in field of wildlife conservation and forest management. His dedication to forest conservation has been awarded and recognised in illustrious private as well as public forums at the national and state level like Sanctuary Asia Wildlife Service Award (2017), RBS Green Warrior Award (2015), Prime Ministers Award for Wildlife Management (2016) and Chief Ministers Gold Medal for Relocation (2016). He is the person, who anchored voluntary relocation of villages from the Tiger Reserves in the state. Dr. Singh demonstrated this initiative by undertaking voluntary relocation of 42 villages (about 15,000 people) from core area of Satpura Tiger Reserve when he was Field Director during 2011-15. He later facilitated the relocation of 25 more villages from Sanjay Tiger Reserve, Nauradehi and Kheoni Wildlife Sanctuary (WLS). His efforts in Wildlife conservation & Enforcement through habitat improvements programme created thriving habitats for tigers & Barasingha in Kanha and Satpura Tiger Reserves and facilitated resurgence of endangered species from the brink – Eurasian and Smooth coated otter, Indian Skimmer, Indian grey wolf. He facilitated and mastered the task of releasing enclosure reared Tigers and Hard Ground Swamp Deer (Barasingha). When, he was the State Head of MP Special Task Force (STF), he built the momentum of provisioning of greater legal and structural powers to the STF. Dr. Singh also catalyzed several productive partnerships with CSR, Civil Societies, UN organizations and local communities to support conservation of wildlife and habitats.
AVP & Head, Natural Resource based Livelihood Programs, Indian Grameen Services
Mr. Sanjib Sarangi is the AVP & Head, Natural Resource based Livelihood Programs at Indian Grameen Services ,leading the theme, Natural Resource based Livelihood Programs. He has completed his masters in zoology from Ravenshaw University and EEP Leadership program from IIM , Bangalore.
He has been an integral part of Odisha Forestry Sector Development Project to facilitate community IGA enterprises of forest dwellers Agri. and forest produces .He has worked for Conservation and Livelihoods: Ecotourism at Mangalajodi, Chilika to Facilitate Community Institution in managing Ecotourism at Mangalajodi in Ensuring Green Livelihoods and conservation Based Livelihoods at Critical Ecosystem, an Action Research based Livelihoods Project with dual reinforcement of conservation and peoples livelihoods implementing at Similipal Biosphere Reserve of Odisha State.
Independent Journalist and Founder, Land Conflict Watch and Member, The Reporters Collective
Mr. Kumar Sambhav Shrivastava is a Delhi-based independent journalist. He reports and writes on issues at the intersection of environment, business, politics and social justice. He is also a co-founder of Land Conflict Watch, the first-of-its-kind data journalism project that maps land conflicts in India. He has proficiently reported from rural and semi-urban areas across 21 Indian states making him a finalist for the Global Investigative Journalism Network’s Global Shining Light Award in 2017. He received ‘National Award for Excellence in Journalism’ for ‘Development Reporting’ from the Press Council of India in 2014 and was chosen the ‘Young Journalist from the Developing World Award (Runner Up) by the Thomson Foundation in 2015. He was also a finalist for India’s Red-Ink Journalism Awards in 2015 and the ACJ Award for Investigative Journalism in 2016. In the past, he has worked for the Business Standard, Scroll.in, Hindustan Times, Down To Earth and the Times of India on governance, business and social justice
Land Information Management and Advocacy Consultant
Land Portal Foundation
Dr. Charl-Thom Bayer is a specialist in land governance and administration with a background in land surveying and information systems design. He is a versatile and seasoned project coordinator with more than twenty years’ of experience in leading multinational teams and initiatives in pursuit of improved land governance and development. He holds an extensive experience of working in capacity development with partners in higher education, civil society and policy makers and is passionate about open data, knowledge diffusion and land administration. Prior to joining Land Portal Foundation, he worked as a Land Tenure Consultant, Land Surveyor and as the Head of Department for Land and Property Science at the Namibia University of Science and Technology. He was born in Namibia and currently resides there.
Mr. Pranab Ranjan Choudhury is an expert with more than 20 years of experience in Natural Resources Management and Governance in India and abroad. He has founded and coordinates NRMC Center for land Governance, a think tank attempting inclusive and informed dialogue around land governance in India for shared prosperity. A post-graduate in Forestry, Mr. Pranab has earlier worked as a Scientist with Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR) for about 8 years. He has coordinated implementation of LGAF for World Bank in India and has carried out studies on women land rights, forest rights and land governance with international agencies. He has also worked closely with Govt. Departments across hierarchies (primarily with land use and land administrative departments including Revenue, Forest, Water, and Agriculture etc.), with International and National Donors, NGOs and CBOs in many states of India. His past/ongoing clients/partners include the Donors (The World Bank, UNDP, DFID, JBIC, JICA, EED/BfW etc.), Consultancy Firms (NR International, Pragmatix etc.), State Govts (Odisha, Gujarat, Bihar, UP etc.), International Research Institutes (ICRISAT, ICRAF), INGOs (Caritas, RDI-Landesa) and NGOs. He is well versed with the legal-institutional frameworks and stakeholders (in Govt, Academics and NGO sector) around land and land-use sector in India.
National Coordinator,
Ekta Parishad.
Ramesh Sharma works as the General Secretary of Ekta Parishad. Ekta Parishad is a mass-based peoples’ movement for land rights with an active membership of 250,000 landless poor and is regarded as one of the biggest people’s movements in India with an iconic status globally. In 2012, Ekta Parishad was responsible for organizing and leading a foot march of more than 100,000 landless people for over 300 Km (from Gwalior to Delhi) to demand land rights.
As the Campaigner, Ramesh is one of the leaders of such large-scale mass struggles and is mainly involved in campaign planning and advocacy. In the last 20 years, Ramesh has played an instrumental role in strengthening and expanding Ekta Parishad as one of the most significant peoples’ struggles for land rights. Ramesh is also engaged in many peacebuilding initiatives especially in the conflict zones of Central and North-Eastern India.
Ramesh has been part of several land reforms committees of the Government of India and state governments. In 2008, Ramesh was appointed by the Government of India, as a member of the National Committee on Agrarian Crisis and Land Reforms. In 2012, Ramesh is nominated as a member of the National Task Force on Land Reforms (Government of India); Being member of Task Force – he is engaged in drafting the National Homestead Rights Act, National Land Reforms Policy, designing the institutional Set up for Land Tribunal(s), and various other pro-poor institutional & legal remedial measures towards land reforms.
Ramesh is also part of many research & advocacy projects carried by the Food and Agriculture Organization (United Nations FAO), Cambridge University (UK), Rutgers University (USA), LBS National Academy of Administration (India) etc. Ramesh is an author of several research papers and policies related to land rights, peacebuilding, gender justice, agriculture and environment, etc.
Prerna Prabhakar is an Associate Fellow at NCAER. Her areas of research include international economics and urban/land policy issues. She has also worked on trade-related areas in Research and Information System for Developing Countries and Centre for WTO Studies, Indian Institute for Foreign Trade. Her assignments at NCAER include NCAER Land Records and Services Index (N-LRSI); pilot impact assessment exercise of the Digital India-Land Records Modernisation Programme ; NCAER State Investment Potential Index (NSIPI) ; providing inputs to 15th Finance Commission. She is currently involved in the integrated study of demand side NLRSI and Prindex India which is proposed to be a survey of 25 Indian States/UTs. She has also contributed papers and articles in various media.
She has a PhD in International Trade from the Department of Business Economics, University of Delhi, and MSc in Economics from TERI University.
Research Associate, Land Rights Initiative,
Centre for Policy Research
Vrinda Bhardwaj is a Research Associate at CPR’s Land Rights Initiative. Her research interests include policy matters pertaining to real estate, land acquisition/requisition and constitutional interpretation of land laws.
Before joining CPR, she has worked as a Judicial Clerk-cum-Research Assistant to Hon’ble Justice Madan B Lokur and Hon’ble Justice Hemant Gupta, Supreme Court Justices. During the judicial clerkship, she researched on substantial questions of law for the promulgation of judgments in matters relating to juvenile justice, prison reforms in India, victims’ rights in criminal trials and guidelines for media reporting addressing issues of child sexual abuse. With a predilection towards legislative drafting, she assisted Members of Parliament (MPs) of Biju Janata Dal (BJD) in drafting Private Member Bills, Private Member Resolutions, Short Duration Discussions, and Questions for Winter Session 2019 and Budget Session 2020.
Bhardwaj holds a Bachelor’s degree in Law from Indraprastha University (GGSIPU)
Executive Director,
Internet Freedom Foundation
Apar is a lawyer and the Executive Director of the Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF). For his work on digital rights, he was elected as an Ashoka Fellow in 2019.
He completed his post-graduate studies from the Columbia University School of Law and has practised for more than a decade. After graduation, he worked as a commercial litigator in top law firms such as Karanjawala & Co. and was a partner at Advani & Co. During this period, he represented a diverse set of clients from India’s top corporate groups, high net worth individuals and public sector units, even being retained as a counsel for the government of India in the High Court of Delhi. he continue to write op-eds and journal articles for Indian Express, The Hindu, IIC Quarterly and Seminar etc. and has written a book on the I.T. Act, 2000 published by LexisNexis.
From 2015, he has been working extensively on public interest issues which include strategic litigation and organisation of campaigns and collectives. In courts, my work as a lawyer includes key digital rights cases on privacy and censorship. He is part of key constitutional challenges on Section 66A, the Right to Privacy and Aadhaar representing public interest litigants. Beyond court work he has worked extensively with activists and set up digital campaigns such as those on Net Neutrality (SaveTheInternet.in), fight against defamation laws (SpeechBill.in) and safeguard privacy (SaveOurPrivacy.in).
He is committed to advancing values of the Constitution of India in a digital, technology mediated society.
FES
Sanjoy has been engaged in rights-based work on natural resource management for close to three decades with core competency on policy research and advocacy action on land and forests. Sanjoy specialized on innovative programme planning and design on rural livelihoods – productive land use, land to the landless, forest produce marketing including inclusive and decentralized planning exercise as key components of empowered local governance system. At present Sanjoy is engaged as Strategic Policy Advocacy Adviser in Foundation for Ecological Security, and provides strategic guidance to elevate the debate on Commons and Climate Change. Prior to that Sanjoy served as the India Country Director, Landesa and designed a range of land rights programmes with special focus on land to landless and women’s land rights.
Land Accelerator
Kavita Sharma is a Manager with the Sustainable Landscapes and Restoration team at WRI India and leads the work on Land Accelerator, South Asia.
Earlier she was associated with Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare in establishing Agri-Business Incubators across the country under the RKVY-RAFTAAR scheme. Kavita is an Agri-Business professional and environment enthusiast, focused on entrepreneurship development, business mentoring, start-up funding. She has experience in the corporate sector in developing agriculture marketing infrastructure, modern wholesale markets and value chains for perishables in the states of Maharashtra, Karnataka, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh. She has worked as Technical Consultant for six months with Rungis Market International, Paris, France, for developing India International Horticulture Market (IIHM) Project at Ganaur, district Sonipat, Haryana. Kavita holds a PG Diploma in Agri-Business Management from National Institute of Agricultural Marketing, Jaipur and a bachelor’s in Agriculture with a Vice-Chancellor’s Gold Medal from GB Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pant Nagar. She is a nature lover and likes reading newspapers and journals
Development Economist
Global Development Institute
University of Manchester
Prof. Bina Agarwal is Professor of Development Economics and Environment at the University of Manchester, UK. Until recently she was Director of the Institute of Economic Growth, Delhi University. She is also President of the International Society for Ecological Economics. Educated at the Universities of Cambridge and Delhi she has lectured worldwide and held distinguished positions at many universities, including Harvard, Princeton, Michigan, Minnesota (where she held the Winton Chair), and the NYU School of Law. An economist with a keen interest in interdisciplinary and intercountry explorations, her publications include nine books and over seventy-five professional papers on subjects such as land, livelihoods and property rights; environment and development; food security, the political economy of gender; poverty and inequality; law; and agriculture and technological change. Her writings placed the issue of women’s land rights centrally on the agenda of governments, civil society groups, and international agencies. In 2005, she also catalyzed a successful campaign for the comprehensive amendment of Hindu Inheritance law in India to make it gender equal. n 2008, Agarwal received a Padma Shri from the President of India for her contributions to education; and in 2010 the Leontief Prize from Tufts University ‘for advancing the frontiers of economic thought.’
Coordinator GLII & Gender Lead of Land GLTN
Ms. Everlyne Nairesiae is a social scientist, with over 17 years of experience working on gender, land and natural resource governance at policy and practice; strategic planning; research; program monitoring and evaluation at national, regional and internal level. She is the Coordinator of the Global Land Indicators Initiative (GLII) at the Global Land Tool Network (GLTN); Land, Housing and Shelter Section in UN-Habitat. She is also the Gender Lead for Land and GLTN. She is known for her contribution in coordinating and facilitating global networks, development of global methodologies and tools for land governance including monitoring of land in the SDGs and impact evaluation; research and analytical frameworks and strategies for mainstreaming gender in natural resource governance and management; and capacity development for governments, CSOs and other actors. She has written several papers and articles that underscore the link between land tenure, gender and land degradation neutrality, land governance monitoring and sustainable development. She previously worked as Women’s Land Rights Adviser at Oxfam International; Senior Regional Program Coordinator for Relief, Development and Protection at Church World Service in Africa. Everlyne holds a Master of Philosophy in Guidance and Counselling, and bachelor’s degree in Geography and Kiswahili from Moi University, Eldoret in Kenya.
Chief Programs Officer and Founder Cadasta Foundation
Frank Pichel is the co-founder and Chief Programs Officer at Cadasta Foundation. He is a land administration specialist with experience designing, managing, and implementing land-related projects with a technology focus around the globe. He has worked both with the private sector in implementing programs while based in West Africa, as well as designing and managing programs as part of the Land Tenure and Property Rights Office for the US Agency for International Development (USAID).
Ranjan Praharaj from Cuttack district of Odisha, India is a Master in Social Work. He has more than 2 decades of experience in the development field, particularly in the domain areas of Land Rights, Natural Resource Management (NRM), Participatory Irrigation Management (PIM), Water Security and Rural Livelihood. He is presently working with Professional Assistance for Development Action (PRADAN) as State Programme Manager, Odisha in the Land Rights Programme. His special focus is to coordinate for technology adoption in the implementation of the Forest Rights Act, 2006 with the objective to ensure tenure security, contribute towards the protection of forest ecology and promote forest-based livelihood.
Co-Founder, Trustee , Arch Vahini
Ambrish Mehta is one of the founding members of the organization known as ARCH-Vahini and has been working in the tribal areas of Gujarat since the early 1980s. Worked initially on the issue of Rehabilitation of the tribal families, who lost their lands and houses for construction of the Sardar Sarovar Dam. Thereafter from 2000 onwards he has been working on the issues of forests and forest rights, mainly in the Narmada district of Gujarat. From 2008 onwards he is working full-time with his wife Trupti for proper implementation of FRA in Narmada and other tribal districts of Gujarat for both IFR and CFRs. Have developed a method to help Gramsabhas in using GPS and Satellite Imageries to substantiate their claims under FRA. The use of this technology has led to the approval of more than 90% of more than 3000 claimants with the proper area. He is working with the Gramsabhas on carrying out post rights tasks, that they are envisaged to carry out under FRA. This includes helping them in preparing CFR management plans for sustainable use of the Community Forest Resources as well as documenting the positive impacts of recognition of individual as well as community forest rights.
Shilpa Vasavada is a Gender, Land and Livelihood professional with experience in advancing women’s land rights and gender mainstreaming in livelihoods, largely with the nonprofit sector in India. She is the founder convener of a network of women’s land rights issue in Gujarat. Issue of Women’s land rights issue has been close to her heart and she is associated with the issue in different capacities. Her proficiency in gender analysis and mainstreaming in agriculture has led her to look at the issue of climate change closely, including for gender mainstreaming in climate smart agriculture projects. She is a trained Social scientist from Tata Institute of Social Sciences and her field work has been largely in western, central and eastern states of India.
Director, SWATI
Poonam kathuria is the director of Society for Women’s Action and Training Initiatives-SWATI (http://www.swati.org.in). Poonam has over 20 years of experience in a leadership role working for the prevention of gender-based violence, women’s empowerment & leadership. She is a founder member of the Working Group of Women and Land rights.
She bridges the divide between practitioners and academia . Her latest work is an edited collection titled ‘Indian Feminisms- Individual and Collective Journeys
https://zubaanbooks.com/shop/indian-feminisms-individual-and-collective-journeys/ . During CoViD 19 SWATI has undertaken concerted advocacy on gendered impact of CoViD on women and conducted and published studies on GBV, livelihood, education and land rights.
Research and documentation consultant, SWATI
Karen Pineiro works with SWATI as a consultant and has 5 years of experience in gender, education, health, livelihoods and other social issues.
Senior Technical Expert, GIZ
Ms. Aparna Das got trained as an architect and later received a Master of Science degree in Urban Development Planning from Development Planning Unit, University College London. She was also a Special Program for Urban and Regional Studies (SPURS) Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), USA, during 2018-19. At present, she is working as a Senior Advisor in the Sustainable Urban Development – Smart Cities (SUD-SC) project of GIZ. She is working with the line ministries of Government of India at the central, state, and local level to implement various housing and urban development programmes. In a career spanning over twenty years, she has worked with different sector partners; national and international NGOs and other multi- and bilateral agencies, such as the World Bank, UNICEF, UNDP, DFID India. In recent years, she has been focusing on the contestations over land in urban areas and equity concerns in cities.
Programme Director at DAG – Cape Town
Helen is a Programme Director at DAG – Cape Town based NGO. Helen has over seventeen years of experience in the urban development sector. Helen is the current project lead for a National Programme on Land Value Capture in partnership with the National Treasury Cities Support Programme and Lincoln Institute of Land Policy geared to providing technical support and training to metros. Over the last five years Helen has worked in partnership with the City of Cape Town and local civics around neighbourhood regeneration and social housing in the inner city which has resulted in the delivery of the first transitional housing project in Cape Town. Helen has extensive expertise in informal settlement upgrading and regularisation, including the coordination of the NUSP socio-technical assistance to the City of Cape Town for 32 informal settlements and pioneered the Hangberg in situ upgrade in 2008.
Secretary,
Centre for Research and Advocacy,
Manipur
Jiten Yumnam is a journalist, human rights advocate and environmental activist in the state of Manipur. He is a deep understanding about the economics and its effects. He is from the indigenous population of Manipur. He is a part of the group, Center for Research and Advocacy Manipur (CRAM) along with many other human rights groups have been involved in protesting against the exploitation of natural resources and human right violations in the Manipuri state. They have been working towards promoting sustainable development in the region. Shri Jiten has been giving a strong opposition against AFPSA and its enforcement to justify extra judicial killings of many in Manipur. He had been arrested in 2009 for continuously raising voices against the act but was finally released after human rights groups’ pressure. He is one of those people who has deep understanding of the issues in NE India on human rights and environmental awareness.
President-Sikkim Indigenous
Lepcha Tribal Association
Ms. Mayalmit Lepcha is a strong flag bearer of Lepcha culture and traditions and has been working to protect Dzongu, the homeland of Lepchas (Indigenous Sikkimese Tribe) for as long as she can remember. She and her organization have been fighting for over 14 years against onslaught of large run of the rivers to build dams in Dzongu and other parts of Sikkim. She has also dedicated a lot of efforts to keep Lepcha culture and traditions alive and passing them onto the future generations of young Lepchas. She is the President of the Sikkim Indigenous Lepcha Tribal Association and regularly organizes events and programs for young Lepchas. She is a believer of gender equality and regularly encourages young Lepcha women to take a more active role in leadership.
Kamal joined RSPO as the India Representative in October 2017. Based in New Delhi, he is responsible for outreach and engagement activities to members and stakeholders in India, as well as formalizing the RSPO’s presence in this important market.
Prior to joining RSPO, Kamal was the Founder & Chief Happiness Officer of Human Circle, located in New Delhi, where he worked to create experiential programs like Young India Challenge, for the youth in India to connect their career with the idea of #DoWhatYouLove and ‘Sustainable Development Goals’. He was also responsible for content development, communications and public relations. He has been a regular public speaker at forums like TEDx and Startup Weekend.
Previously, Kamal was a finance recruitment specialist for Michel Page in a consultative sales role. He was a part of the initial team in India, responsible for building the portfolio of ‘Fortune 500’ clients like Nestle and Philips. He has also been a youth influencer for Microsoft and Dainik Jagran – an Indian media house. In the last 10 years, Kamal has delivered entrepreneurship & leadership development programs and talks across Europe and Asia in more than 20 countries so far.
Joanna Dawson love planning and executing projects with teams, researching topics, and developing thought leader content. She like to get behind things and push them to completion. She has found ethnographic analysis as useful as conventional analysis tools. She worked on a number of projects with autonomous responsibility and leading small teams; that’s the great part about working in start-ups. Much of my work has been in project management and developing marcom, including for social media. She ike to use Design Thinking and the TOC (Theory of Constraints) methodologies in my work.
Balipara Foundation
Dr. Omokolade Akinsomi is an Associate Professor at the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa. He holds a PhD in Real Estate Finance from the National University of Singapore and his research interests includes real estate investment trust (REITS), real estate portfolio management, real estate capital markets, Emerging Real Estate Markets and Housing Economics. Omokolade has published articles in journals such as Empirical Economics, Journal of Property Research, International Review of Economics and Finance specifically in Real Estate Finance and Investments. Omokolade sits on the editorial board of international real estate journals such as the Journal of Property Investment and Finance, Journal of Real Estate Literature and on the editorial board of five other built environment journals. He has won the best paper award at the African real estate society conference in real estate finance and investments in 2017. He is the recipient of the Young Researcher Rating Award by the National Research Foundation (NRF) of South Africa, an award conferred to researchers under 40 based on their research impact and potential. Omokolade is the President of the African Real Estate Society. In addition, Omokolade is an advisory member of the South African Council for Property Valuers Profession (SACPVP) and member of the SA REIT Research Committee.
Associate Professor,
University of the Witwatersrand
Director General NICMAR, Pune; An eminent scholar, an expert in urban regeneration and real estate research with 20 years’ experience in practice, academia, and research in India and abroad. Dr. Kashyap holds a bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering with distinction from NIT Kurukshetra, a post-graduate degree in Urban Planning from School of Planning & Architecture (SPA), New Delhi, and a Ph.D. from University of Ulster, United Kingdom. He was earlier Head of School, Geography, Planning & Environmental Management with University of the West of England, Bristol, United Kingdom. Dr. Kashyap is a Chartered Member of the Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI), London, Member of Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), London and a Fellow of the Institute of Town Planners (ITPI), India. He is also a Fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy. Kashyap has research interests in urban infrastructure and development financing agenda in developing nations. He has been Founding academic member, Professor, and Director of School of Real Estate, set up for RICS In India.
Director General NICMAR, Pune
Director General NICMAR, Pune; An eminent scholar, an expert in urban regeneration and real estate research with 20 years’ experience in practice, academia, and research in India and abroad. Dr. Kashyap holds a bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering with distinction from NIT Kurukshetra, a post-graduate degree in Urban Planning from School of Planning & Architecture (SPA), New Delhi, and a Ph.D. from University of Ulster, United Kingdom. He was earlier Head of School, Geography, Planning & Environmental Management with University of the West of England, Bristol, United Kingdom. Dr. Kashyap is a Chartered Member of the Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI), London, Member of Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), London and a Fellow of the Institute of Town Planners (ITPI), India. He is also a Fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy. Kashyap has research interests in urban infrastructure and development financing agenda in developing nations. He has been Founding academic member, Professor, and Director of School of Real Estate, set up for RICS In India.
Associate Professor of Real Estate Finance at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIMA)
Ms. Aparna Soni is an architect- Urban Planner by discipline, presently working as an Assistant professor, in the department of planning, at the School of Planning and Architecture, Bhopal. Having nearly ten years of experience in academia, her subject areas include urban governance, land management and real estate development. She is presently perusing her doctoral studies from the Jindal Global University (JGU) where she is studying and exploring the various land assembly models across states in India.
Assistant professor, Department of Planning, School of Planning and Architecture, Bhopal
Mr. Deo Shankar Tripathi has over 39 years of commercial banking experience. He joined the Union Bank of India in 1977 as Probationary Officer and held diverse positions, managing varied assignments till his superannuation as General Manager. He holds the distinction of heading premier zones of the bank, namely Mumbai and New Delhi. His wealth of experience spans several locations across the heartland of India as well.
His last over 8 years stint has been in the housing finance industry in leadership roles. As the Managing Director and CEO of Aadhar Housing Finance Ltd, Mr. Tripathi has spearheaded the policies and processes to make housing loan accessible to low income and informal segments. Under his leadership, Aadhar Housing Finance has grown to become one of the largest affordable housing finance companies in India.
On functional expertise, Mr. Tripathi has managed varied roles in bank covering Corporate Finance & Credit Management, Retail Banking, Collection Management, Rural Banking, Transaction Banking, Resource Mobilisation, Customer Relationship Management, Branch Network Expansion and Human Resource Management.
A postgraduate in Chemistry from Lucknow University Diploma in public administration, and a certified Associate of Institute of Bankers, he has attended various management, leadership and other training programmes in leading institutions across India and overseas. He is a Guest Speaker at various forums, having spent valuable time coaching young minds on management expertise.
Managing Director & Chief Executive, Aadhar Housing Finance Ltd. Officer
Sudha Narayanan joined IFPRI’s South Asia Regional Office in December 2020 as a research fellow. Sudha’s research interests straddle agriculture, food and nutrition policy, and human development. She is particularly interested in survey-based research using micro econometric approaches to understand broader questions of agrarian change and state delivery systems for nutrition security. Her research focuses on contract farming, agrifood value chains, technology adoption in agriculture, public policies for food security and employment and agriculture-nutrition linkages.
She was previously an Associate Professor at the Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research (IGIDR), Mumbai. She obtained a PhD from Cornell University in 2011, specialising in agricultural economics. She earlier obtained M.A. and M.Phil. degrees in Economics from the Delhi School of Economics, India. Prior to studying for a doctoral degree, Sudha worked with the Institute of Economic Growth, Delhi, the Right to Food Campaign in India and Cornell University, among others
Research Fellow, IFPRI
Chockalingam S, Director General, Yashwantrao Chavan Academy of Development Administration (YASHADA), Pune
Chockalingam, an IAS officer of the 1996 Batch, was born and brough up in Pudukottai in Tamilnadu. While completing his LLB, he got fascinated by Civil Services and became an IAS in 1996. He served in almost all regions of Maharashtra during his career as an Indian Civil Servant in various capacities. As the Land Settlement Commissioner of the state, he spearheaded the mapping of rural settlements in Maharashtra using drone and CORS technology to create rural property records, which brought him to limelight in Indian Land Administration scenario. He was appointed as a member of the Expert Committee on Land Titling constituted by the Government of India and as a member of the Task Force of NITI Ayog on Land Titling, contributed to the report- “Land Titling-A Road Map” and to the drafting of the “Model Land Titling Bill and Rules”. Further, he helped to establish the Country’s First Land Titling Centre at YASHADA, Pune.
He has helped the federal government in designing a national rural property card scheme called SVAMITVA which aims to map India’s 0.66 million villages.
He is currently posted as the Director General, Yashwantrao Chavan Academy of Development Administration (YASHADA), Pune.
Director General, Yashwantrao Chavan Academy of Development Administration (YASHADA)
Ms. Anna Locke is former Director of ODI’s Sustainable Environments and Societies programme. She joined ODI in July 2011 after having worked for 19 years in development, 12 of which were based in Mozambique. Anna has in-depth experience of working with market-led agriculture, analysing and advising on how to develop agriculture to promote sustainable growth and reduce poverty, based on principles of competitiveness, market access and inclusiveness. Her focus in recent years has been on land governance and large-scale investment, biofuels and food security.
Principal Research Fellow, ODI
Lennart Ackzell is a Senior Advisor for International Affairs for the Federation of Swedish Farmers (LRF) that promotes development of green industry and supports individuals and small enterprises. From 2011-2020, Mr. Ackzell served as the Vice President of the International Family Forest Alliance (IFFA) that advocates for privately owned and managed forests and exists to give family forestry a voice at the international level. He is a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Agriculture and Forestry. Lennart has a master in Forestry and a Ph.D. in Forest Genetics. Mr. Ackzell has worked in Sweden, Canada, Burkina Faso and Kenya, and has worked for smallholders and family forestry since 2008.
Senior Advisor for International Affairs , Federation of Swedish Farmers (LRF)
Girija Godbole is affiliated to the Centre for Policy Studies at IIT Bombay. She is leading the study “Ground- eye view of existing agricultural tenancy in western Maharashtra in the times of increasing land sales” under the Nudge Foundation Research Innovation Grant. She is also a co-investigator of the study “Surviving violence: Everyday Resilience and Gender Justice in Rural- Urban India” funded by the British Academy.Trained in anthropology, Girija has worked in the environment and development sector for many years.
Senior Project Research Scientist
Centre for Policy Studies, IIT Bombay
Mr. Malcolm Childress is a multi-disciplinary land resources specialist with 30 years of global experience, including urban and rural property rights, and strategy for managing critical global ecosystems. His focus areas include land policy and governance, land markets, land registration, property taxation, cadastral systems and spatial planning.
Dr. Dalip Singh is a senior officer who joined Indian Administrative Service in 1982 and belonged to Haryana cadre. He served on senior positions in Government of India as well as in the State Govt. Of Haryana and retired from the service in the year 2016. As a member of the IAS, his contributions have been across departments, including Urban development, District administration, Health & Family welfare, Parliament affairs and Human resource development. Dr. Singh worked from 1980-82 as a Faculty Member at the Faculty of Management Studies, University of Delhi before joining the IAS. He has substantial experience of corporate would and has been Director in many Boards of Government companies including RINL, MOIL, ICVL, OMDC & MSTC.
DDG(AC), Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare
Having completed his graduation in English Literature (NEHU), Dr. Mizinksa Daimari went on to pursue a postgraduate in Development Studies (IIT Guwahati) and thereafter, a Ph.D. He has an academic research paper published recently with Springer. He is currently working as a Consultant with CIMMYT.
Trained in Development Studies, his research interest lean towards agrarian issues. His Ph.D. thesis, focuses on Agrarian Transition in a hitherto under-researched plains tribe dominant area of Assam, more specifically in the Bodoland Territorial Region (BTR; erstwhile BTAD).
Consultant (CIMMYT)
IIT Guwahati
Akeina Gonmei is a trained social worker from Nirmala Niketan, Mumbai. She has worked as a development secretary of Rongmei Baptist Association (RBA) for sixteen years. Akeina Gonmei was probably the first woman from the Rongmei Naga tribe to have completed the Master of social work (MSW) course from Nirmala Niketan. Ms. Gonmei has successfully initiated community development through the Church. She has closely worked with the tribal women in Nagaland and has introduced Wadi cultivation in place of Slash-and-Burn cultivation. Her development interventions include livelihood promotion, health, water and sanitation facilities. All her activities and intervention have an inclusive approach.
Development Secretary
Rongmei Baptist Association (RNBA)
Kinjal Pillai, Coordinator at Working Group for Women and Land Rights, Gujarat state based network committed to sustained grassroots action and policy advocacy around the issue of women’s land rights, including access and ownership over Land and other productive resources. Initiated in 2002, WGWLO today has a diverse membership of more than 40 NGOs and CBO (community based organization) and individuals with varied expertise, across 17 out of total 33 districts of Gujarat. Kinjal Pillai is a Sustainable Development Specialist working in the field of Sustainable. She has done her Masters in Environmental Planning (MTech) from CEPT University, Ahmedabad and has experience of 14 years in the field of sustainable development. Her interest area is working for resolving gender issues in focusing on building their resilience. She also has experience of working with communities, training and them on various aspects of sustainable development and building resilience on climate change. Currently she coordinates WGWLO and the three thematic areas vis., women and land rights, sustainable agriculture and forest rights. Women having land ownership empowers her and gives her decision-making power enabling her to take decision to move towards sustainable agriculture thus leading towards sustainable development. Her experience includes working in the field of climate change through adaptation projects ranging from preparation of State Action Plan of Climate change for Gujarat State to evaluating community based adaptation projects for Earth Care awards, (a climate change award where CEE is Knowledge partner) as an evaluator.