Prof. Vishwa Ballabh is a Professor in Economics area, Xavier Labour Relations Institute, Jamshedpur. Prior to joining XLRI, he was Reserve Bank of India Chair Professor at the Institute of Rural Management, Anand. Professor Ballabh graduated in Agriculture from Pant Nagar and holds a Ph.D. in Agricultural Economics from Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi. He has been a Post-Doctoral Fellow at the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) and was a visiting scholar at the Indiana University, USA and a visiting scientist at the International Rice Research Institute, Philippines. He has over twenty years of teaching and research experience. His major area of research interest has been institutions and natural resource management. He is a member of several national and international professional societies in agricultural, natural resource economics and development fields.

Dr. Sabina Faiz Rashid, before joining the James P Grant School of Public Health BRAC University in Dhaka, Bangladesh in 2004, was working as a research anthropologist, conducting qualitative research studies on gender, adolescents, sexuality and sexual and reproductive health issues in rural and urban areas of Bangladesh, at BRAC (NGO and sister institution of BRAC University). She has worked in UNICEF and Grameen Trust, Grameen Bank in Bangladesh and has published widely in a number of peer-reviewed journals, published book chapters, and co-authored a book on pregnancy and birthing practices in rural Bangladesh. Dr. Rashid is an Assistant Professor and teaches courses in Qualitative methods, Anthropological understandings of reproductive and sexual health and rights of vulnerable populations. Dr. Sabina Rashid is a member of the National Women's Forum on AIDS, Bangladesh, Member of the Coalition of Bodily and Sexual Rights, Turkey; and Member of the Advisory Group on Sexuality and Rights, Institute of Development Studies, IDS, UK, and a Working Group Member of Bangladesh Health Watch.

Dr. Sabina Faiz Rashid

Assistant Professor
James P Grant School of Public Health
BRAC University, Dhaka, Bangladesh
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Mr. G. Karma Chhopel is at present the Water Resources Expert, National Environment Commission, Bhutan. He has done his M.Sc. in Aquatic Biology from Texas State University, USA. He is an executive member of the Bhutan Water Partnership and the Head, Water Resources Division where he is the focal person on water and aquatic resources of the country He was also the coordinator of the drafting of Water Act of Bhutan. He has successfully conducted the 5th ASSESS-HKH Project Steering Committee Meeting, Thimphu/ Paro, Bhutan, 5 – 8 August 2007 where scientists from 8 countries and 10 institutions from Austria, Germany, Czech Republic, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Nepal, India, Pakistan had participated.

Dr. Deepa Joshi has extensive work experience in South Asia and has also worked in Africa and Latin America. Her skills range from project management at International and grassroots NGOs to leadership and management of international, multi-disciplinary research. Deepa joined Winrock International as Innovations Program Officer in May 2007. Prior to this, she was working at the International Water Management Institute as Researcher, Gender, Poverty and Livelihoods, where her role was to build an interface between domestic and productive water sectors and to provide a gender and livelihoods perspective in ongoing programs. Earlier, as a Senior Fellow at the Institute of Irrigation and Development Studies, University of Southampton she was engaged in international research on poverty and gender in South Asia and Africa. She is author of several academic papers on water and development, poverty and inequality; gender and development.

Program Officer
Innovation Investment Program, Winrock International
1621 N. Kent St., Suite 1200, Arlington, VA 22209
tel. + 1-703-525-9430 ext 620 (o), +1 571 480 0411 (c)

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Dr. Nitish Jha is an independent consultant working in Viet Nam where he advises the Asian Development Bank with regard to its country strategy for rural water supply and sanitation besides overseeing some of its ongoing projects in this sector. He received his Ph.D. in social anthropology from Brandeis University in 2002, after which he was a postdoctoral researcher at the International Water Management Institute in Pretoria, South Africa. He later worked as a consultant on various development projects while based in Chennai, India, and then as a Fellow in the Water Resources Division at The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), New Delhi, before taking up his current assignment. Besides project management and research, he is currently engaged in writing several articles based on field studies done in South Africa and India as well as a book based on extensive fieldwork he conducted in Indonesia. His research interests include the governance of common property regimes, property theory, natural resource management in the context of socioeconomic development, multiple use water systems, and institutions and policies for integrated water resources management. The issue of equity—including gender parity—is a central concern of all his work. In May 2010, his paper titled “Access of the Poor to Water Supply and Sanitation in India: Salient Concepts, Issues and Cases” was published by the International Policy Centre for Inclusive Growth (IPC-IG), under the aegis of the UNDP. He is now co-editing a special issue on irrigation communities in Bali, Indonesia, which is due to appear in the journal Human Ecology in late 2010.

Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Consultant
Asian Development Bank, Viet Nam Resident Mission
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Dr. Suresh Das Shrestha , received his Masters Degree in Geology from Tribhuvan University, Nepal in 1983 and Masters Degree in Environmental Geoscience from Shimane University, Japan 1992. He did his PhD from Osaka City University, Japan in Groundwater Geology in 1996 and then went for post doctorate research at the University of Texas at Dallas, USA in 2004. Dr. Shrestha has more than 20 years of experience working as a hydrogeologist in various water related issues, conducting lectures and supervising thesis works for PhD and Master Level students of Hydrogeology. At present, he is engaged in developing policies, institutional setup planning for sharing and developing water resources. He is also actively engaged in various academic and social organizations.

Reader, Central Department of Geology
Tribhuvan University
Kathmandu, Nepal
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Dr. Abdul Majeed, is a civil engineer by profession with a Master’s degree in Water Management from Wageningen University, the Netherlands and a PhD in Engineering Science (Specialization Water) from the Washington State University, USA. Dr Majeed has served the Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources for 30 years. He has also served the United Nations Development Programme as Water Resources Adviser in Balochistan for almost 4 years and worked as a consultant to Agricultural Development Bank of Pakistan on loaning policies in water sector. He has been a visiting faculty member with Center of Excellence in Water Resources Engineering in Lahore. Dr Majeed has many publications in national and international journals to his credit and is the co-author of a book on “WATER RESOURCED DEVELOPMENT AND MANAGEMENT IN PAKISTAN” published by UNICEF. He is also the author the Background Paper on “Water” for the Balochistan Conservation Strategy document prepared by International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), where he is currently employed as National Water Expert. His special interest is in artificial recharge, IWRM and water management best practices.

National Water Expert, IUCN Pakistan, and Manager, IUCN Balochistan Programme office
Marker Cottage, Zarghoon Road, Quetta
Tel: +92-81-2840450, 451, 452 (o)
Fax: +92-81-2820706
Mob.: +92-300-8380282
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Dr. (Mrs) Champa Navarathne, has been teaching Hydrology, Water Management, Irrigation, Drainage and Agro-climatology for more than 23 years at the Department of Agricultural Engineering, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Ruhuna, Sri Lanka. She has a B.Sc. Agriculture, M.Sc. in Computing and a PhD. in Agricultural Engineering related to Irrigation and Water Management. Apart from teaching, she has also been conducting research on above mentioned fields for more than 20 years and has published more than 25 research articles. She has a keen interest in organizing community awareness programs related to water management, water security, and climate change and has functioned as a resource person for many of awareness programs, seminars and conferences to talk on water, climate change and disaster preparedness.

Head, Department of Agricultural Engineering
Faculty of Agriculture. University of Ruhuna
Mapalana, Srilanka
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Dr. M.M.M. Najim is a Senior Lecturer in Environmental Conservation and Management, Faculty of Science, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka. Dr. Najim graduated in Agriculture from University of Peradeniya and holds a M.Eng in Irrigation Engineering and Management from the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT), Thailand and a Ph.D. in Water Resources Engineering from University Putra Malaysia, Malaysia. He is a visiting faculty of the Postgraduate Institute of Agriculture. He has over thirteen years of teaching and research experience. His major area of research interests has been irrigation water management, wastewater agriculture, evapotranspiration and hydrological modeling. He is a member of several professional societies and holds important positions in many of such societies.

Arpita De did her MSc degrees in Geography (Presidency College, Calcutta) and Population & Development (London School of Economics). She has worked in the charities/development sector of both, India and the UK. She was engaged in sexual and reproductive health, HIV/AIDS, gender, poverty and governance issues in urban as well as rural sectors of India. In the UK, she worked with migrants, asylum seekers and people with physical disabilities and/or long-term illness on issues of exclusion, unemployment, rights and social care. Currently, she is working in the SaciWATERs team to develop and implement communication strategies and to liaise and network for maximum outreach in supporting the organisation’s mission.