Dr. Yogesh Kumar completed his Ph.D. from the Giri Institute of Development Studies, Lucknow as an ICSSR Doctoral Fellow in Development Economics in 1990. Dr. Kumar is the founder member and Executive Director of “Samarthan – Centre for Development Support” working in the states of Madhya Pradesh and Chattisgarh. He has an experience of more than 25 years in the development sector and is a professional of international repute on the issue of participatory governance and development.
Dr. Kumar has active engagement in local governance, accountability and transparency discourses with expertise in participatory planning, social audits, citizens report card, community score cards etc. He facilitated emergence of a network of elected representatives of Panchayati Raj Institutions in Madhya Pradesh.
Mr. Venkat Balsure is an Administrative officer with National Centre for Advocacy (NCAS) he has been working with NCAS since 1997.also he has worked with other various organisations like Save the Children’s, Centre for Environment Education.He did his graduation in B.A. Sociology from Tilak Maharashtra Vidyapeth, Pune in 2006.
Jagadananda presently leads the Centre for Youth and Social Development (CYSD). He demitted the office as the State Information Commissioner, Odisha to advance the Right to Information (RTI) agenda in the State in August 2013 and was a member of the State Planning Board of Odisha, following his active campaigning for people-centric decentralized planning. He is also the President of the National Social Watch (NSW). In 2008, he was a Member of the Committee on State Agrarian Relations and the Unfinished Task in Land Reforms.
Josantony Joseph is an international trainer on capacity building, strategic planning, and team building programs for various NGOs and INGOs, mainly on social advocacy, human rights training programs, leadership programmes for both national and international groups including ActionAid South Asia, TROCAIRE Ireland, WelthungerHilfe Germany, National Centre for Advocacy Studies (NCAS India) etc.
He is one of the founding members of NCAS and assisted the organisation in streamlining their administrative, financial, and program functioning on many levels. Presently, he is the training consultant for NCAS and an esteemed member of the executive board of the organisation.
Formerly to become a full-time trainer and a resource person, Josantony held many important positions at senior management levels both in India and abroad in organisations like Asia Partnership for Human Development, Hong Kong as the Executive Secretary (CEO), Former Advisor (Maharashtra) to the Commissioner appointed by the Supreme Court in connection with the Right To Food PIL, Director, West Zone, Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan. Ministry of HRD, Govt. of India to name a few.
Being not limited to a successful career as a resource person on rights-based advocacy, for organisations like Oxfam India, UNICEF, Water Aid etc for more than 38 years now, he has published many papers in periodicals and co-authored many books. His work in FOOD published in Ireland on ethical issues connected with food security, COMBATING POVERTY IN A MARKET-DRIVEN WORLD, research study named LOOKING BACK, LOOKING FORWARD commissioned by the United Nations Population Fund, New Delhi, on “missing girls’ in India, are worth noteworthy.
A graduate from University of Mumbai, Josantony holds a bachelor’s degree in English, bachelor’s degree in Philosophy from Pune & Rome, Masters of Divinity from Chicago, USA and diplomas in Mass Media, Counselling, Marathi Visharad etc from both India and USA
