Mona Dhamankar is currently working as an Advisor, Sustainable Economic Development Division, Royal Tropical Institute, The Netherlands. She had been an independent consultant since August 2001 and works with government and non-governmental organizations as facilitator for project formulation, program evaluation, development orientation of professionals, process documentation, capacity building, and institutional development for field-based programs. Her domain expertise is in capacity building for rural extension and livestock-based livelihood interventions.
Presently, she is on long term assignment (10 days a month) with the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) an apex organisation promoting dairy cooperatives esp. of women. As a consultant she has been team member on evaluation missions to projects funded by CIDA and DFID in teams comprising of professional from India, UK, Nigeria and Canada, and has travelled extensively in rural (and urban) India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka. She also has worked for 14 years as development professional in large Indian NGO (BAIF) operating in 9 states; as head of BAIF’s Dr Manibhai Desai Management Training Centre, she was responsible for information, project formulation, documentation and training.
Mona holds a Masters degrees in Information Science (MLISc) and in Sociology (MA) and is presently pursuing a PhD at the dept. of Communication and Innovation Studies, at the Wageningen University in the Netherlands. She is a Fulbright Scholar (USDA-NAL 1991-92), is trained in human process facilitation at the intra-personal, interpersonal, inter-group and with collectivities, and is a versatile user of participatory video for development.