Manoj Rai is a development researcher and practitioner, with over three decades of experience in India and twenty other countries. He holds a Master of Science degree in Statistics, awarded with a Gold Medal. As a University Grant Commission Research Fellow, he conducted many research studies in the field of population sciences. He served as the Chief Statistician at the Nutrition Foundation of India in 1995-96.
From 1996 to 2018, as the Director of the Society for Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA), he dedicated his efforts to formulating and implementing policies and programs aimed at enhancing the capacities of communities, local governments, and public service providers. He was a member of the Working Group on Agriculture Planning under the Planning Commission of India and acted as a technical advisor to the Ministry of Panchayati Raj, representing PRIA. He served on numerous task forces and expert committees for national and state governments. The United Nations Volunteers (UNV) invited him to join an International Expert Group in Bonn, Germany, to help prepare the 2015 World Volunteerism Report.
Before joining the Institute of Social Sciences, Manoj Rai worked as the Continental Advisor for the Aga Khan Foundation (AKF). In this role, he traveled to multiple countries and collaborated with governments, non-governmental organizations, the World Bank, United Nations agencies, other development entities, and community leaders.
He has co-authored three books and over seventy papers and articles, focusing on democratic decentralization, social accountability, civil society, climate change, and public services like health, education, and leadership among marginalized groups.
