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President, Society for Participatory Research Asia, Chairperson, Global Alliance for Community Engaged Research (GACER) Co-Chair, UNESCO Chair on Community-based Research and Social Responsibility of Higher Education

New Delhi

India

Summary biography: 

Dr. Rajesh Tandon is an internationally acclaimed leader and practitioner of participatory research and development. He founded the Society for Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA), a voluntary organization providing support to grass roots initiatives in South Asia, in 1982 and has been its chief functionary since then. Under his leadership, PRIA has developed numerous methodologies of participatory learning and training, participatory bottom-up micro-planning, and participatory monitoring and evaluation.

A PhDD. from Case Western Reserve University and an electronics engineer from IIT, Kanpur with a graduation in management (IIM,Calcutta), Dr. Tandon has specialized in social and organizational change. His contributions revolve around issues of participatory research, advocating for people centered development, policy reform and networking in India, South-Asia and beyond. He has advocated for a self-reliant, autonomous and competent voluntary sector in India and abroad. Building alliances and partnerships among diverse sectors in societal development is another current area of his work.

He has served on numerous government task forces, committees and the boards of many civil society organizations. He is the founder and has been Chairperson of the Board of Directors of CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation; Chairperson of The Global Alliance on Community-Engaged Research (GACER) network; Chair, External Advisory Committee, Office of Community Based Research (OCBR), University of Victoria, Canada; and has chaired the session on ‘University–Community Engagement for Societal Change and Development: Possibilities and Challenges’ at the UNESCO World Conference on Higher Education, July 5-8, 2009 at Paris. Currently he is the Chairperson of the Board of Directors of Montreal International Forum (FIM),Montreal,Canada.

Dr Tandon was awarded Honorary Doctor of Laws Degree by the University of Victoria in 2008.