Senior Research Professionals

Karin has a Master’s in Sustainable International Development from Brandeis University, USA. She has over 15 years’ experience in implementing Development and Environmental Management projects with NGOs and multilateral agencies. Karin has in-depth knowledge and expertise in Sustainable Development, Monitoring and Evaluation, Facilitation and Training.  She has carried out many research assignments, consultancies, generated and contributed to many knowledge outputs. Karin is also a Qualitative Researcher. At CEPA, she heads the Sustainable Development Thematic Programme that concentrates on building evidence and generating a dialogue on sustainable systems in order to integrate this knowledge into development policy and practice at local and global levels. Over the past 12 years at CEPA, she has led and managed multiple research projects that cover numerous topics related to the environment and climate change, estate sector, labour, education, infrastructure, and resettlement.

Areas of interest: Sustainable Development, Environmental and Natural Resource Management and Impact Monitoring. 

Gayathri obtained her PhD from the Wageningen University in the Netherlands, studying how intersectional social identities shape livelihoods in post-war contexts. She has twelve years of research experience, and experience as a trainer/facilitator on qualitative research methods. Her past research and publications include post-war development and rebuilding, livelihoods, gender and intersectional identities, entrepreneurship, with a specific focus on coastal communities. Her methodological orientation is qualitative and includes ethnography. At CEPA, Gayathri leads the Livelihoods and Employment Thematic area.

Areas of interest:  Conflict, Post-War Development and Livelihoods including Small and Medium Enterprises and Value Chain Analysis.

Munas obtained his PhD from Radboud University, Nijmegen, Netherlands. His doctoral research looked at the complexities of diaspora engagement in post-war communities of Sri Lanka. Munas received his Master’s Degree in Economics from the University of Colombo and Bachelor’s Degree in Agriculture at the University of Peradeniya. Munas’s research and publications focus on transnationalism, migration and development, transnationalism and diaspora engagement in post-war recovery, using alternative dispute resolution mechanisms for sustainable peace, reconciliation and social cohesion, poverty and conflict and fisheries sector issues.

Munas has extensive experience in carrying out evaluations and assessments of development interventions, including peacebuilding projects for development agencies and government of Sri Lanka using OECD-DAC evaluation criteria. He also conducts training in qualitative research methods and qualitative data collection using computer assisted qualitative analysis software such as NVIVO. Munas currently leads the Labour Migration Thematic at CEPA.

Areas of Interest: Poverty and Conflict, Post-War Development and recovery, Post-development, Transnationalism and Religious Identities, Diaspora Engagement, Evaluations.

Indika has a PhD in Sociology from the University of Colombo and an MPhil in Social Anthropology from the University of Sussex, UK. She was a Fulbright Scholar at the Elliot School of International Relations, George Washington University in Washington D.C in 2009, and was also the recipient of the UNESCO Fellowship in 2001 for her studies at the University of Sussex.

Indika has worked with several bilateral organisations and NGOs in areas related to conflict, reconciliation, land rights, land distribution and water tenure. Her strengths are in qualitative research with over 15 years’ fieldwork experience. She has also many publications to her credit. She is a visiting academic in the Master’s in Peace and Conflict Studies at the Faculty of Graduate Studies, University of Colombo. She also has experience in diverse fields of teaching for undergraduate and masters students at the Open University of Sri Lanka. Prior to joining CEPA she worked as Head of Public Relations at the Open University of Sri Lanka.

Areas of interest: Skills development, Post conflict, trauma, recovery and disability, Political violence, Land and Water tenure, Female migrant labour.

Rajindra Rohitha has a B.Sc. (Agric.), University of Peradeniya, and a  M.Sc (Aquaculture), Asian Institute of Technology, Bangkok, Thailand. He also has a Postgraduate diploma in Regional Industrial Development from NIBM Sri Lanka. Additionally, he has followed some advanced courses in environmental and resource economics, affiliated to international networks.

He is an experienced development practitioner worked as an expatriate in International Organizations and INGOs in several countries such as Zambia, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan. His areas of interests are Food & Nutrition Security, Climate Change, Disaster Risk Reduction and Livelihoods. During his career, he has notable innovations; some of them are forest market gardens as a climate smart cropping system, farmers field school in climate change adaptation, threshold level investment methodology in livelihood development and use of analytical hierarchy process in vulnerability analysis.  He is also an expert in result based planning process.

He works at CEPA as the Programme Development Specialist

Nadhiya Najab, has over seven years of research experience in the areas of post-war resettlement, labour and livelihoods, and employability of vocational training graduates. Using both quantitative and qualitative methods, Nadhiya has conducted research and project evaluations in the Northern and Eastern regions as well as elsewhere in Sri Lanka. She has contributed to a number of CEPA publications including publishing a working paper on the political economy of beedi rollers in Sri Lanka. Prior to joining the research team full-time, Nadhiya was a core member of the communication team at CEPA.  Nadhiya has a Masters in Development Studies from the University of Colombo, complementing her Bachelor’s degree in Economics and Bachelor’s degree in Communication with a minor in International Studies from Monash University in Malaysia.

Areas of interest: Post-War Development and Livelihoods, Understanding Determinants of Labour Force Participation and Impact Evaluations of Development Interventions. 

Basith has a Bachelor’s Degree in Social Science from the University of Colombo. He has completed his Master’s in Conflicts and Peace Studies at the Faculty of Graduate Studies, University of Colombo. He holds international licenses from the Wageningen University, The Netherlands, on Multi Stakeholder Process and Social Learnings, and on one of the social accountability and good governance tools – the Citizen Report Card, the methodology introduced by the Public Affairs Centre, India. He has over seventeen years of extensive experience in mixed method (qualitative and quantitative) data collection at thinks tanks and research institutes, and at CEPA has taken the lead in implementing projects with social accountability and good governance tools -the Citizen Report Card and Community score cards. He is attached to the the Basic Services and Social Protection research team of CEPA.

Areas of Interest: Good Governance and Accountability, Multi Stakeholder Process, Post-war Development and Social Protection. Trainer, facilitator, moderator and translator

Nilupulee holds an MSc in Development Economics from the University of Nottingham, UK, and a BA in Economics from the University of Colombo, Sri Lanka. She is a Commonwealth scholar who was awarded the Commonwealth Shared Scholarship by the Commonwealth Scholarship Commission in the UK for the academic year 2021/22 to pursue her postgraduate studies. As an economic policy researcher, Nilupulee focuses on gender disparities, labour market dynamics, and development related issues. She is currently working at CEPA within the livelihoods and employment thematic. Prior to joining CEPA, Nilupulee worked with the Department of Economics at the University of Colombo and the Institute of Policy Studies of Sri Lanka.

Chathuri Jayawardena holds an MA in International Law and Human Rights from the University of Peace, Costa Rica and an MA in Political Science (Global Politics) from the Ateneo de Manila University, the Philippines. She was awarded the Asian Peacebuilders Scholarship from the Nippon Foundation for her post-graduate studies in 2017. She has been working in the fields of human rights, workers’ rights and access to justice. She is currently working with the Social Cohesion and Reconciliation team at the CEPA. Previously, she worked as the Project Manager of the Centre of the Study of Human Rights, Faculty of Law, University of Colombo.