Chris is a Filipino PhD scholar in education and international development with the UNESCO Chair in Adult Literacy and Learning for Social Transformation at the University of East Anglia (UK). His project is an 11-month ethnographic study exploring the learning dimension of local volunteering by ‘vulnerable’ youths and adults in an HIV/AIDS awareness group and an informal settlers’ movement in the Philippines.
Chris is involved in academic and policy-focused discussions on volunteering and development particularly in Global South contexts. He recently joined the UNV’s Expert Group to support the Plan of Action for Integrating Volunteerism into the 2030 UN Agenda.
Chris spent over five years in the Philippine development and education sectors. He was part of the volunteer development team of Gawad Kalinga Iloilo – an NGO on poverty alleviation through community building and was a founding member of Global Shapers Iloilo – the youth arm of the World Economic Forum.