Isuru Udakara joined LIRNEasia in February 2023 and currently works as a Junior Researcher. He is presently involved in the Ed-tech policy project, in addition to having contributed to a range of projects including the 20‐Month Dataset on Household Electricity Consumption and Its Drivers, Social Safety Nets and the State of Poverty in Sri Lanka, Rapid Assessment of the Social Registry and Aswesuma, Model Disability Assessment (MDA), Human Factors in Information Disorder and Finding Measures to Counter Misinformation, Data for Development, and the Qualitative Study to Understand the Effectiveness of Digital and Media Literacy Training to Counter Information Disorder in Sri Lanka.
Isuru holds a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) degree in Development Studies with First Class from the University of Kelaniya, where he was awarded the Golden Medal by the Distinguished Professor N.K. Dangalle Foundation for Most Outstanding Student of the Year. He also earned a Diploma in Geographic Information Systems and Remote Sensing from the University of Sri Jayewardenepura. He is currently pursuing an MPhil in Multidisciplinary Studies at the University of Sri Jayewardenepura.
He has completed fellowships with the Civil Society Alliances for Digital Empowerment (CADE) and the G17 University Ambassadors Consortium Fellowship, where he served as National Project Development Executive. He is currently a Local Pathways Fellow under the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network Youth Initiative.
Isuru has actively contributed to numerous national and international academic conferences, presenting research on diverse topics including, sustainable development, poverty analysis, educational challenges in developing countries, gender stereotypes, land use change, and public service efficiency. Notable presentations include his research at the 15th International Conference on Sustainable Built Environment (ICSBE 2024), the Second International Conference on Social Sciences and Languages, and the International Seminar on Social Issues and Challenges (ISSICCS 2024). He has also participated in gender-focused conferences, such as the 2nd International Conference on Gender Disparities and the 1st National Conference on Gender.
Isuru’s publications cover areas including social capital and development, sustainable development approaches, poverty analysis, educational issues in developing countries, gender studies, land use change, public service efficiency, and economic growth in Sri Lanka. His work has appeared in conference proceedings such as the International Conference on Multidisciplinary Approaches (iCMA), International Conference on Sustainable Built Environment (ICSBE), International Conference on Social Sciences and Languages, International Seminar on Social Issues and Challenges, and International Conference on Gender Disparities. He has also published in academic journals like Thirasaara and the Research Symposium on Social Sciences.
You can find Isuru Udakara’s professional and academic profiles on the following platforms:
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/isuru-udakara-yakandawala-84054a261/
- ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0000-6743-9657
- edu: https://independent.academia.edu/IsuruUdakaraYakandawala
- ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Isuru-Yakanadawala?ev=hdr_xprf
- Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=aRFuaC0AAAAJ