Abdul Tawab Balakarzai

Dr. Abdul Tawab Balakarzai is a research scholar with the Water Innovation and Global Governance Lab in the Centre for Global Studies at the University of Victoria. His research encompasses water governance, nature-based solutions, social-ecological systems resilience, and higher education for sustainable development in low-resource contexts.

Prior to his doctoral research at UVic, Dr. Balakarzai held various academic and government leadership roles in Afghanistan. He served as Acting Minister and Deputy Minister for Academic Affairs at Afghanistan’s Ministry of Higher Education (2017-2021). Previously at Kandahar University, he served as Vice Chancellor and Founder and Head of the Water and Environmental Engineering Department (2010-2017), following earlier terms as Dean of the Engineering Faculty and Head of the Civil Engineering Department.

During his tenure at the ministry, he 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 led the development and revision of over 60 regulations, initiated e-governance initiatives, and launched an equity, diversity, inclusion, and accessibility (EDIA) program to increase access for underserved populations, particularly women.

In addition to leading various academic committees, he has served on several national platforms, including the Supreme Councils of Water, Land, and Urban Development; 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 2011 Tokyo Convention with UNESCO. Internationally, he has co-chaired the Education Confidence Building Measures in the Heart of Asia–Istanbul Process, represented Afghanistan at 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 PhD in Water Governance from the University of Victoria, a Master’s in Water Engineering and Management, and a B.Eng. in Civil Engineering.