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Abdul Tawab Balakarzai is a PhD candidate at the Community Water Innovation Lab in the Department of Geography and a graduate student research fellow at the Water Innovation and Global Governance Lab in the Centre for Global Studies at the University of Victoria. His research interests encompass water governance, nature-based solutions, and higher education for sustainable development in low-resource contexts.

Prior to commencing his PhD studies, Balakarzai held various academic leadership roles, including Head of the Civil Engineering Department, Founder and Head of the Water and Environmental Engineering Department, Dean of the Engineering Faculty, and Vice Chancellor at Kandahar University (2010-2017). Subsequently, he served as Acting Minister/Deputy Minister for Academic Affairs at Afghanistan’s Ministry of Higher Education (2017-2021).

During his tenure at the ministry, Balakarzai spearheaded national policy reforms to enhance higher education, established over 130 new programs and founded the Afghanistan National Water and Environmental Research Center. He also developed and revised over 60 regulations, initiated e-governance initiatives, and launched an equity, diversity, and inclusion program to increase access for underserved populations, particularly women.

In addition to leading various academic committees and councils in higher education in Afghanistan, he has served on several national platforms, including the Supreme Councils of Water, Land, and Urban Development; Academic, Cultural, and Human Resources Development; Standards; the Medical High Council; the High Commission for Legal Aid; and the National Academy of Science Reform Committee. He led Afghanistan’s ratification of the Tokyo Convention 2011 (Asia-Pacific Regional Convention on the Recognition of Qualifications in Higher Education) with UNESCO. Internationally, he has co-chaired the Education Confidence Building Measures in the Heart of Asia Istanbul Process, participated in the SAARC Ministers of Education/Higher Education Committee, and served on the governing board of South Asian University.

He taught hydrology, water supply and environmental engineering in the Faculty of Engineering at Kandahar University (2006-2017) and the Faculty of Environmental Sciences at Kabul University (2018-2021). He holds a B.Eng. in Civil Engineering and a Master’s in Water Engineering and Management.