Jyotiraj Patra

Jyotiraj is an independent researcher and presently a Regional Evidence Advisor (Asia)Ecosystem Services for Poverty Alleviation (ESPA), British High Commission. He is : Responsible for enhancing impact and building a lasting legacy of ESPA research in the South Asia region. Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) at New Delhi prior to join with British High Commission he was a consultant with the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD). His research interests are in climate change adaptation (CCA), disaster risk reduction (DRR) and science-policy interface.He was anInternational Development Research Centre (IDRC)Research Award Recipient (RAR, 2014)with the Collaborative Adaptation Research Initiative in Africa and Asia (CARIAA) programme. Drawing on the case of the Uttarakhand flooding in the Hindu-Kush-Himalaya (HKH), his research looked in to the political economy of science-policy interface for flood disaster risk management in India.

Most of his professional experience has been in the design and implementation of disaster risk reduction and preparedness programmes in some of the most at-risk localities in India.As part of this, he has worked on programmes of emergency response (Cyclone Phailin, October 2013), community-based disaster preparedness initiatives and micro-insurance (DIPECHO Sixth Action Plan for South Asia, 2011-2012), ICT for coastal disaster preparedness and sustainable development. His past professional experience was with IDRC, SEEDS-India, FOCUS Humanitarian Assistance-India, Concern Worldwide, All India Disaster Mitigation Institute (AIDMI), and the Division for Sustainable Development (United Nations).He also serves as the Co-Lead of the Disaster Risk Reduction Thematic Group of the Commission on Ecosystem Management (CEM) of IUCN.

He has a Certificate of Advance Studies (CAS) in Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) from the (EPFL), Switzerland and an MPhil in Environmental Sciences from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU, New Delhi). He has undergone professional advancement trainings at the International Centre for Climate Change and Development (ICCCAD, Dhaka), Evidence and Learning from Latin America (ELLA, Brazil), the International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie, New Delhi), Partnership for Environment and Disaster Risk Reduction (PEDRR).