Dr. Edgard Rodriguez, Lead, Myanmar Initiative & Senior Program Specialist, International Development Research Centre in Ottawa. Dr. Rodriguez has been at IDRC since 2006. He is an expert on capacity building for public policy (think tanks), economic development (mainly, small enterprise development) and labour markets in Asia and Latin American economies. On capacity building for policy research, Dr. Rodriguez has worked with universities, think tanks and networks at IDRC promoting better training and mentoring of emerging thought leaders in social and economic policies in Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Philippines, Sri Lanka, and Vietnam.

Since 2017, he has led until recently an initiative to promote gender-sensitive public policy in Myanmar working with think tanks, universities, and civil society. On enterprise development, Dr. Rodriguez has worked on entrepreneurship in South-East Asia at IDRC in Ottawa, evaluation of small enterprise development projects, mostly in South-East Asia at the World Bank in Washington, D.C., the Asian Development Bank in Manila, Philippines, and the former Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). Prior to his time at IDRC Dr. Roriguez had positions at Global Affairs Canada, Finance Canada, the Asian Development Bank, and the World Bank. He holds a PhD in economics from the University of Toronto with specialization in economic development and labour economics.