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Sadar Ginting, Dr.PH., Ph.D.

Executive Director & Co-Founder

Email: sadar.engender@globaldeepnetwork.org

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Dr Sadar Ginting is a public health and environmental health researcher whose work connects Indigenous knowledge, food systems, ecological justice, community health, and climate resilience. As Executive Director of DEEP EnGender, he leads the organisation’s strategic development and works with communities, civil society organisations, researchers, and institutional partners to develop evidence-informed and community-led initiatives.

His work is grounded in sustained engagement with rural and Indigenous communities in Indonesia, particularly the Suku Anak Dalam in Jambi and farming communities affected by the Mount Sinabung eruptions in North Sumatra. Through this engagement, he examines how environmental change, land-use pressures, disasters, and structural inequalities influence food security, health, cultural continuity, and community resilience.

Dr Ginting joined DEEP EnGender as Project Coordinator in 2023 and became Executive Director in 2025. In this role, he supports the organisation’s programmes and partnerships across ecological justice, gender justice, Indigenous rights, food sovereignty, climate adaptation, youth leadership, and inclusive public dialogue. He is committed to research practices that respect communities as knowledge holders and ensure that evidence is accessible, ethically produced, and relevant to the people whose lives and knowledge inform it.

He holds a PhD in Environmental Health Sciences from Chiang Mai University and a Doctor of Public Health in Community Health from Naresuan University, Thailand. He also holds a Master of Public Health in Community Nutrition Policy and Administration and a Bachelor of Public Health in Public Health Nutrition from the University of Sumatera Utara, Indonesia.

His research has been published in international peer-reviewed journals, including Sustainability, Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems, and Ecology of Food and Nutrition. He also contributes to public and policy dialogue through environmental media, including a commentary published by Mongabay on the implications of a World Bank-supported carbon programme for the rights of an Indigenous community in Indonesia.

Dr Ginting has received research, training, and professional development support through programmes administered by the WWF Russell E. Train Education for Nature Program, the Climate, Food and Farming–Global Research Alliance Development Programme, Chiang Mai University, Naresuan University, the Institute of Development Studies, the University of Antwerp, and the Asia Research Institute at the National University of Singapore. He has also contributed to international academic and practitioner forums addressing Indigenous knowledge, locally led adaptation, sustainable food systems, climate resilience, and community health.

Education

  • 2025 — PhD in Environmental Health Sciences, Chiang Mai University, Thailand
  • 2022 — DrPH in Community Health, Naresuan University, Thailand
  • 2013 — MPH in Policy and Administration of Community Nutrition, University of Sumatera Utara, Indonesia
  • 2009 — BPH in Public Health Nutrition, University of Sumatera Utara, Indonesia

Selected Awards and Fellowships

  • CLIFF-GRAD Awardee, Climate, Food and Farming–Global Research Alliance Development Programme, CIMMIT, Mexico, 2024
  • Global Environmental Summer Academy Fellow, Global Diversity Foundation, UK, 2024
  • WWF Russell E. Train Education for Nature Awardee, 2023
  • Social Science in Humanitarian Action Platform Fellow, Institute of Development Studies, UK, 2022
  • International Training Programme Fellow, Global Health Institute, University of Antwerp, Belgium, 2021
  • Asian Graduate Student Fellow, Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore, Singapore, 2019
  • Presidential Scholarship Recipient, Chiang Mai University, Thailand, 2022
  • International Postgraduate Scholarship Recipient, Naresuan University, Thailand, 2017

Selected International Engagements

  • Selected Participant, research seminar and consultation on Human Rights and the Digitalization of Food Systems, organised by the DigiFood Research Project in collaboration with the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Rome, 2026
  • Fellow Representative, Symposium on Strengthening Evidence on the Outcomes of Locally Led Adaptation, Stockholm Environment Institute, Bangkok, 2026
  • Fellow Representative, 9th Asia-Pacific Climate Change Adaptation Forum, Bangkok, 2025
  • Presenter, International Workshop on Climate-Resilient Development in Southeast Asia, Harvard University, Cambridge, United States, 2024
  • Presenter, 18th Congress of the International Society of Ethnobiology, Marrakech, Morocco, 2024
  • Presenter, Inaugural Conference on Global Indigenous Studies from Multiple Perspectives, Indiana University Bloomington, United States, 2024

Selected Publications/Public Commentary

Dewi, C., & Ginting, S. (2026). Beyond resistance: Indigenous counter-narratives on embedded extractivism in Indonesia. Development in Practice, 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1080/09614524.2026.2740121

Kurniawan, F. E., Ginting, S., and Suwardi, A. C. (2026). “World Bank Carbon Program Risks Further Infringing upon Rights of Indonesian Indigenous Community.” Mongabay, 28 January 2026.

Ginting, S., Wongta, A., Yadoung, S., Ounjaijean, S., and Hongsibsong, S. (2025). “Food Insecurity and Community Resilience Among Indonesia’s Indigenous Suku Anak Dalam.” Sustainability, 17(17), 7750. https://doi.org/10.3390/su17177750

Ginting, S., Wongta, A., Ounjaijean, S., and Hongsibsong, S. (2025). “Indonesia’s Indigenous Suku Anak Dalam: Knowledge for Food and Environmental Sustainability.” Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems, 9, 1587094. https://doi.org/10.3389/fsufs.2025.1587094

Ginting, S., Kitreerawutiwong, N., and Mekrungrongwong, S. (2023). “Factors Correlated with Child Undernutrition in Rural Communities Affected by Sinabung Eruptions in Indonesia.” Ecology of Food and Nutrition. https://doi.org/10.1080/03670244.2023.2258794

Ginting, S., Kitreerawutiwong, N., and Mekrungrongwong, S. (2022). “Food Access, Food Consumption, and Children’s Nutritional Status of Smallholder Farmers in Sinabung’s Eruption-Prone Areas, Indonesia.” Ecology of Food and Nutrition, 61(3), 319–336. https://doi.org/10.1080/03670244.2021.1987231

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