Chetan Kumar

Chetan Kumar is Senior Conflict Prevention Advisor with the Governance and Peacebuilding Pillar of the Bureau for Policy and Programme Support of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). His current work focuses on building national and local capacities, as part of development assistance, for the prevention and resolution of violent conflict or potentially violent tensions and for the constructive management of diversity or rapid change through national or local dialogue. He has provided significant assistance for the development and implementation of such initiatives in nearly 15 countries over the past two decades in the Caribbean, sub-Saharan Africa, South-and-South-East Asia, and the South Pacific, with results including the successful prevention of anticipated elections-related violence, and the reduction of potentially violent tensions or the launch of sustained dialogue efforts.

From 2004 to 2012, he initiated and managed the Joint Programme on Building National Capacities for Conflict Prevention, a joint initiative of the UNDP and the Department of Political Affairs. He has worked for the Office of the Special Representative of the UN Secretary General for Children and Armed Conflict; the International Peace Academy; and the Programme in Arms Control, Disarmament and International Security at the University of Illinois. He holds a Ph.D in Political Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, and has authored several publications on issues pertaining to conflict prevention and peace-building.