Rajesh Tandon, co-discussant of the Commonwealth study, is President of PRIA (Society for Participatory Research in Asia). He was co-founder of PRIA in 1982 following his tenure as Fellow, Public Enterprise Centre for Continuing Education, New Delhi. Over the last 25 years, Dr. Tandon has been a practitioner of participatory research and development and become an internationally acclaimed leader in the area. His work has covered a wide variety of themes to strengthen the capacities and institutional mechanisms of voluntary development organisations in India and other developing nations. He specializes in development management; training of trainers in participatory monitoring; networking, coalition and alliance building; participation and governance. He chairs the boards of many national and international civil society organisations and is part of the Founding Board of Directors of CIVICUS. He is also Chairperson of the Montreal International Forum (FIM). He has authored many books and articles on civil society and governance. He was awarded a Social Justice medal by the Institute of Gender Justice and NALSA, Department of Law & Justice, Government of India on the International Women’s Day 2007.