Opening ceremony of the 41st Senior Executive Development Program (SEDP) was conducted online on 29th Poush 2077 (13th January 2021) to formally welcome 25 senior executives (Joint Secretaries or equivalent) from different ministries and departments of Nepal Government. The opening ceremony was graced by the online presence of Executive Director Dr. Rajan Khanal, Deputy Executive Director Mr. Narayan Gopal Malego; and Senior Directors Mr. Bishnu Lamsal and Mr. Ananda Raj Dhakal.
Speaking during the ceremony, Senior Director Mr. Dhakal heartily welcomed the participants and shared the importance of the program in terms of learning and developing the capacity of the aspiring Secretaries. He emphasized on the intricacies of the training program, its implications and inference in effective service delivery. He pointed that the training would enhance the knowledge, skills and attitude of the participants and also help in building a network of likeminded officials. He concluded by sharing his hopes of active participation from the participants for successful completion of the training program.
Senior Director Mr. Lamsal said that the training program is an opportunity to be joined together as a team of seamless members sharing constructive ideas through active participation. He emphasized that the platform would encourage the sharing of issues and challenges to articulate effective solutions through collaborative learning approach. He assured that NASC would put in optimum efforts to ensure an interactive co-learning environment to enrich the learning experience within a framework to address the leadership, integrity, strategic management, governance and policy issues. He concluded by welcoming the participants and wishing them the very best.
Deputy Executive Director Mr. Malego said that the competency based training program has been designed and developed to build the capacities of the participants by engaging them to attain experience based solutions. He stated the significance of learning in the journey of continuous professional development and encouraged the participants to build a co-constructive learning environment. He said that the COVID-19 pandemic has led to the customization of the existing program to fit in online modality with the purpose of imparting the intended learning objectives without any variance. He concluded by motivating the participants to involve in fruitful discussion and wished for a successful training.
Sharing his opening remarks, Executive Director Dr. Khanal welcomed the participants and stated that the scope of work and roles of the officials has been redefined with the change in the governance structure and system of the country. He also shared that federalism has expanded the expectation of the citizens, thus demanding the need for a proactive person incorporating the qualities of a transformational leader with integrity, strategic vision, and an eye for governance reform through effective policy making. He said that the training addresses these needs by incorporating dynamic subject matters in five different modules and action learning modality. He specified that the training would assist to develop the participants towards becoming an effective change agent. He concluded by encouraging the participants to throw quality questions on the floor to gain maximum benefit from the training.
Director of Studies, NASC Mr. Basanta Raj Sigdel facilitated the opening ceremony and briefed about the design and delivery of the competency informed program. He provided details on the training modality, rules and regulations for conducting the six-month long training program. The formal opening was followed by technical orientation by Senior Assistant Mr. Sushil Thapa.