Manas Satpathy

• Climate change adaptation and resilience in rural areas
• Natural resource management and watershed development
• Community-managed irrigation systems
• Women’s collectives, community institutions and local governance
• Climate-resilient agriculture and natural resource-based livelihoods
• Development practice and organisational leadership in non-profit organisations
• Civil society – government partnerships and convergence
• Practice-based learning and capacity building for development practitioners

Manas Satpathy is a Visiting Faculty at the School of Continuing Education, Azim Premji University and a senior development practitioner with over 36 years of experience in rural development in India. He is particularly interested in strengthening the resilience and prosperity of rural communities in rainfed and resource-constrained regions through better management of natural resources, water, agriculture and community institutions.

He spent his professional career with PRADAN, one of India’s leading development organisations, where he worked from 1990 to 2026 in a range of roles from project executive to programme director and Chief Executive Officer. He worked extensively with rural communities, particularly in the central and eastern tribal regions of India, supporting the development of livelihoods through natural resource management, agriculture, irrigation, women’s collectives and community institutions.

During his years as CEO of PRADAN (2012 – 2017), he provided organisational leadership to the institution’s work across several states. Subsequently, he worked on research, learning and advocacy, with a focus on strengthening development practice and generating knowledge from PRADAN’s field experience. From 2023 until his retirement from PRADAN in June 2026, he led the organisation’s Centre of Excellence on Climate Action. In this role, he worked on building the capacity of development practitioners to integrate climate change adaptation and mitigation into rural development practice. His current professional interests include climate-resilient livelihoods, community-led natural resource management and approaches for enabling rural communities to convert natural resources; particularly water; into sustained livelihood and economic opportunities.

At Azim Premji University, he contributes to the design and delivery of practice-based learning programmes for civil society organisations, development practitioners and government functionaries. His approach to learning emphasises the integration of technical knowledge with social processes, institutional arrangements and field-based problem solving.

He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering from the National Institute of Technology, Rourkela, and a Master’s degree in Water Resources Development and Management from IIT Kharagpur, where he was a topper. He was also associated with the IWMI-Tata Water Policy Research Programme as a sabbatical fellow.

Over his career, he has worked closely with civil society organisations, government agencies and community institutions to design, implement and learn from development initiatives at scale. His current work seeks to build on this experience by connecting practitioners and organisations working on climate change, natural resource management and rural livelihoods and by strengthening the practice of climate-resilient development in India.