Our People .

Senior Advisor Peter Vaz

Dr. Peter Vaz is a local governance and capacity building specialist with more than 20 years of experience in decentralization, multi-sectoral governance, local government transformation, and institutional capacity-building. He joined the Chemonics’ Democracy and Governance Practice from a recent field assignment in Vietnam where he served as chief of party for the USAID Strengthening Provincial Capacity Activity. Prior to that, as chief of party for the Women’s Justice and Empowerment Initiative in South Africa, Peter managed the upgrading and expansion of rape care management centers and provided institutional support to the National Prosecuting Authority to sustain the centers. From 1996 to 2010, he supported South Africa’s decentralization and local government transformation process. For the World Bank, Peter researched issues on local resource mobilization and poverty alleviation strategies in West African countries, and on the gender impact of structural adjustment. He holds a PhD in International Economic Development from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge.