Suraj Kumar

Advisor and Chief Mentor, Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS) and Neeti Foundatio
India

Dr Suraj Kumar, Advisor, Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS) and Chief Mentor, Neeti Foundation has strong competencies and over 25 years of experience in communications and media, policy analysis and evaluation techniques. He has an extensive network of researchers, media leaders (journalists and film-makers) and policy interlocutors across India.

Dr Kumar is a thought leader in the area of communications for development, subnational

governance reform and SDGs. Over a career of twenty-five years, he has developed strong working relationships with opinion makers and influencers in national media, civil society, private sector and international partners across India.

He has prepared the Sustainable Development Vision & Action Plan for Government of

Chhattisgarh and the SDG Global Vision for Digital India for India’s national Ministry of

Electronics & Information Technology, linking the SDGs and targets with ICT for development initiatives. He is currently working on Localising SDGS for South Asia and on state level SDG documents, building upon his extensive work on subnational Human Development Reports with 23 state governments across India.

Prior, Dr Kumar has worked in the development sector since 1993 at progressively senior

levels (nearly 17 years with the UN) in design and implementation of programmes on

sustainable urban governance and poverty, human development, women’s empowerment

and UN coordination to meet MDGs. As Head of Governance for South Asia at UN Women, he led the programme management and policy advisory role for a large Programme on Gender Responsive Governance for five countries in South Asia.

Dr Kumar is an alumnus of St. Stephen’s College, Delhi University and completed graduate studies (MA & PhD program) at the State University of New York at Binghamton. He has lectured at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, University of Texas at Austin, Jindal Global University and at research & training institutions such as IGIDR, LBSNAA, NIRD, RBICAB and others. He has contributed to national HDRs for Bhutan and Cambodia as also conducted peer reviews for Egypt NHDR and South Asia HDRs.