Dr. Chona R. Echavez is the Director of the Research Institute for Mindanao Culture (RIMCU) at Xavier University – Ateneo de Cagayan and a social scientist specializing in inclusive development, displacement, gender equality, peacebuilding, and climate resilience. She brings over three decades of experience leading and evaluating large-scale, theory-based and participatory research across fragile, conflict-affected, and climate-vulnerable settings. Internationally, she served as Deputy and Interim Director of the Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit (AREU) in Kabul, where she led major studies on internally displaced populations, social protection systems, and gender relations. Her global engagements span Afghanistan, Cambodia, Bhutan, and multiple Pacific Island countries, including Fiji, Vanuatu, Tonga, Samoa, and the Solomon Islands. She has mentored graduate students under the Applied Conflict Transformation Studies (ACTS) Program in Siem Reap, Cambodia; trained researchers in qualitative methods such as the World Bank–supported Moving Out of Poverty “Ladder of Life” methodology; and designed conflict-sensitive communication and peace education tools across diverse cultural contexts.

She has also held academic and professional roles with the University of London, serving as supervisor for the CeDEP Distance Learning Dissertation Programme, and as Examiner for postgraduate programmes in Climate Change and Development and Sustainable Development. More recently, she served as Gender, Peace, and Conflict Specialist for the World Bank’s Rapid Environmental and Social Overview Assessment (RESOA) in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), and as lead facilitator in field-testing participatory tools on social equity and climate adaptation for the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) and Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR).

In the Philippines, her work includes nationally significant research on children in conflict settings, long-term cohort studies on Filipino children, education safety, mental health systems, and gender-responsive development—undertaken in close collaboration with government agencies, universities, UNFPA, UNDP, UNICEF, and the World Bank.

Among her latest fellowship awards are: Research Fellow of the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade at the Murdoch Chidren’s Research Institute in Melbourne, Australia and Summer Course Fellowship on Climate Migration Futures at the Centre for Refugee Studies, York University, Toronto, Canada.

She holds a PhD in Demography from the Australian National University, a Master’s degree in Development Communication from the University of the Philippines Los Baños, and a Bachelor’s degree in Agriculture major in Development Communication from Xavier University. Her career reflects a sustained commitment to globally informed, locally grounded, and socially just development—bringing international expertise to Mindanao and the Philippines.