Ajaya Dixit

Mr. Dixit served as the Executive Director at Institute for Social and Environmental Transition (ISET–Nepal), Kathmandu. Previously, Mr. Dixit served as a faculty at Institute of Engineering, TU Kathmandu and Nepal Water for Health among others. He has published extensively in prestigious journals such as the Economic and Political Weekly the most recent publication relating to Climate Change Vulnerabilities and Ecosystem-based Adaptation (2015). Mr. Dixit’s research interests include water economics, irrigation, hydro-electricity and related engineering and energy, disaster risk management, mainstreaming climate resilience and climate change adaptation. He has published extensively in prestigious journals such as the Economic and Political Weekly the most recent publication relating to Climate Change Vulnerabilities and Ecosystem-based Adaptation (2015).

Akhilesh Kumar 

Mr. Kumar is Director at Social Statistics Division, Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, Government of India. He was member of a team to prepare SDGs baseline report for Government of India. The Social Statistics Division is entrusted with monintoring of SDGs progress in India and report to the United Nations. He has been part of Indian delegation to United Nations Statistical Commission to UN HQ Newyork. He also represented Government of Indian in different international forums to share progress on SDGs. 

Anukool Bhatnagar

Mr. Bhatnagar is the Managing Director of Nepal SBI Bank Limited since November 2015. He holds a Bachelors Degree in Science, Master's Degree in History and is a Certified Associate of Indian Institute of Bankers. Mr. Bhatnagar started his career in SBI in 1985 and has held diverse portfolios in Banking-operation, Administration, Credit, Human Resources, International Banking and NRI business. During his illustrious career spanning 32 years in State Bank of India, he held several important positions. Before joining Nepal SBI Bank, Mr. Bhatnagar was DGM (B & O) at SBI, Administrative Office, Indore. 

Arjun Bahadur Thapa

Mr. Thapa is a Nepali diplomat and former  Secretary General of SAARC. He served the Government of Nepal in different capacities including Foreign Secretary. Mr. Thapa also served as the Ambassador of Nepal to the United Arab Emirates (December 2007 –January 2012) and Deputy Permanent Representative/Minister Plenipotentiary, Permanent Mission of Nepal to the UN, New York (August 2006 – February 2007). Mr. Thapa has extensive knowledge of SAARC, BIMSTEC, South-East and Pacific regions.

Balananda Paudel

Mr. Poudel is Chairperson of National Natural Resource and Fiscal Commission, the Constitutional Commission mandated for preparing basic framework and policy of revenue sharing among federal, provincial and local governments. He also served as Chairperson of Local Level Restructuring Commission where he played key role in restructuring of local level that are serving as autonomous local units with Constitutional mandates. Mr. Poudel has also served in the Government of Nepal in the different capacities and took retirement from the position of Secretary. 

Bhim Prasad Subedi

Dr. Subedi is Chairman of University Grant Commission Nepal. He served as a professor of Geography at Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu, Nepal. He is a Ph.D. in Geography (Population Geography), University of Hawaii, U.S.A, 1993. He also served as a member at Academic Council and Research Committee of Faculties of Humanities and Social Sciences, Tribhuvan University. Mr. Subedi is also a member of the Faculty Board, Faculty of Arts and Research Committee, School of Education at Kathmandu University. His major areas of specialization are migration and social and gender dimensions of population, social safeguards, ethnic diversification, population aging, and livelihood studies. 

Bimala Rai Poudyal

Dr. Paudel is Member of National Assembly in Federal Parliament of Nepal. She also served as advisor to the President’s Office and Member of National Planning Commission. She has extensive work experience on different portfolios at government, non-government and development organizations. She is also strong advocate of democratization of Nepal’s public sector governance and improving professionalism. She equally raises voices and writes regularly on women’s empowerment, public sector governance and development.

Bishnu Dev Pant

Dr. Pant is the Executive Director at IIDS. Dr. Pant has over 30 years of national and international work experience. A Ph.D. from the Indian Statistical Institute, Dr. Pant began his professional career at the Agricultural Projects Services in 1977 and served for 7 years. He served in the National Planning Commission (NPC), United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UN-ESCAP) in Bangkok, Asian Development Bank in Manila in different capacities. After taking retirement from the ADB in July 2008 he worked as Professor at the South Asian Institute of Management until he joined the Institute for Integrated Development Studies (IIDS) in June 2010. An applied statistician with over 30 years of national and international experience, Dr. Pant has extensive management and leadership experience. He has managed statistical offices in international agencies, devised statistical programs for less advanced countries, undertaken evidence-based policy research and data analysis.

Bishnu Prasad Lamsal

Mr. Lamsal is Secretary at Office of Prime Minister and Council of Ministers. He has served as Member Secretary in the National Planning Commission, Nepal and as secretaries in different ministries and commission including Public Service Commission, Ministry for Defense, Ministry for Labour among others. As Member Secretary in the Planning Commission, he played key role in localization of SDGs in Nepal and developing framework for implementation. Mr. Lamsal has depth knowledge on Nepal’s development issues and public sector governance.

Bisow Poudel

Dr. Poudel completed his PhD from the University of California at Berkeley in 2011. Currently, Dr. Poudel currently a visiting associate professor at Kathmandu University School and an economic advisor at International Labor Organization (ILO). Dr. Poudel previously worked at Office of Millennium Challenge Nepal (OMCN) and provided advisory services to the National Planning Commission (NPC) in the past. His areas of interest include labor economics, and natural resources economics.

Deependra Bahadur Kshetry

Mr. Kshetry served as the Vice Chairman of National Planning Commission (May-October 2007).  He has also served as the Governor of Nepal at Rastra Bank, the Central Bank of Nepal (January-July 2009). He was member of Nepal's National Development Council and Mid-Western Rural Development Bank and he had also chaired the Eastern Rural Development Bank. Mr. Kshetry has in-depth knowledge of Nepal’s economy, development issues, public and monetary policy. He is a strong advocate of expanding market opportunities for prosperity.  

Dinesh Paudel

Dr. Paudel is an Assistant Professor in the Sustainable Development Department at Appalachian State University in North Carolina, the USA. He received his PhD in Geography from the University of Minnesota in 2012. One of his current research projects focuses in exploring the inherent relationships and complex entanglements between the rising Asian economies, growing environmental degradations and rapidly expanding rebellious politics in South Asia.

Hari Dhungana

Dr. Dhungana is Associate Professor of Development Management and Administration in Nepal Open University. At NOU, he coordinates the program Master of Science in Development Management and Governance (MSDMG), and teaches courses including “Development Philosophy and Theories,” “Development Planning and Implementation, and “Ethics and Accountability”. He served as Governance Expert at Nepal Administrative Staff College (NASC) for National Governance Survey 2017-18 and led thematic paper on Integrity in Nepal: Transparency, Corruption and Accountability. He is also a member of Research Committee at NASC. He is also engaged in sectoral political economy studies in service delivery areas, such as on education sector and disaster risk reduction. His further engagements include political economy studies in river basin management, local governance, and study on governance system in general.

Jagadish Chandra Pokharel

Dr.Pokharel received Ph.D. degree in Regional Planning from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1991. He served as Vice Chairman of the National Planning Commission (NPC) of Nepal two times between 2006-8 and 2009-2010 and in the capacity of Member of the same Commission for five years—1997-2002. During his tenure in the Commission, he was responsible for guiding country’s local governance policies as well as overseeing the implementation of devolution and decentralization policies of the country. His contribution towards designing of special and targeted policies and programs for remote areas, disadvantaged groups, and indigenous ethnic groups is well appreciated. Dr. Pokharel is recognized for his scholarly knowledge on economic policy and plan, development planning and public sector reform.

Lal Babu Pandit

Mr. Pandit is serving as the Minister of Federal Affairs and General Administration since last March 2017. In this portfolio, he led the administrative federalism to ensure implementation of constitution federalism. He also served as Minister for General Administration in 2014 and played key role for reforming public sector governance in Nepal. Mr. Pandit has served in different roles and capacities in public sector reform and well received politician in Nepal. He also played role in Nepal’s Constitution making as member of Constituent Assembly. 

Lal Babu Raut

Md Raut is the first Chief Minister of Province 2, one of seven federal States in Nepal. He is the parliamentary party leader of Federal Socialist Forum-Nepal for Province 2. He is the first Madheshi Origin Nepalese Muslim leader of Nepal to become the Chief Minister. He was elected to the 2017 provincial assembly elections from Parsa-2(A). Earlier, he served as a member of the Constituent Assembly which promulgated the Constitution of Nepal 2015.

Maha Prasad Adhikari

Mr. Maha Prasad Adhikari is the Chief Executive Officer of the Office of the Investment Board, Nepal (IBN) since June 2016. Prior to joining IBN, he served as the Deputy Governor of Nepal Rastra Bank, the Central bank of Nepal. Mr. Adhikari, a career central banker for over three decades, has a profound experience in core central bank activities, including banking regulations, supervision and international finance. He has published several articles on banking regulations and on the implementation of capital framework in Nepali Banking industry. He has also served as the Director in the Boards of large public sector enterprises. He is also a chartered accountant qualified in 1993 from The Institute of Chartered accountants of India.

Mehnaz Rabbani

Ms. Rabbani is an Economist by training and currently is Programme Lead for Research, Policy and Good Governance at BIGD, BRAC University. In her current capacity, she is leading research and capacity building initiatives focused on Innovations in Public Service Delivery. Mehnaz has worked both as an academic and a practitioner for almost 15 years. Prior to BIGD, she worked at Save the Children Asia Regional Office, where she has been involved in capacity building of research teams around the region, developing policies and guidance for improved research and knowledge management and development of country strategic papers. Before Save the Children Mehnaz was a Lecturer at McGill University, teaching Development Economics and Agricultural Economics at both undergraduate and graduate levels. She started her career at BRAC, as a Research Fellow. She is passionate about building innovative and effective ways of learning within the development and public sector, practical use of evidence based learning and strengthening networks for capacity building.

Min Bahadur Shrestha

Dr. Shrestha, Ph.D. in Economics from University of Wollongong, Australia was the Vice-Chairperson of National Planning Commission (NPC), Nepal since September 2016. Prior to joining NPC, Dr. Shrestha served at the Nepal Rastra Bank, the central bank of Nepal for 28 years where he served as the Executive Director for six years. He has led and conducted a number of research projects on central bank policies, financial economics and economic development. He has also served as the Senior Economist and the Visiting Research Economist at the South East Asian Central Banks Research and Training Centre based in Kuala Lumpur. Dr. Shrestha also worked as the member of Nepal country economist team for the US Millennium Challenge Corporation’s growth constraint analysis of Nepal. Shrestha holds. 

Mohan Das Manandhar

Mr.  Manandhar is the Executive Director of Niti Foundation and also leads the work within Niti’s ‘Energy Infrastructure and Hydropower’ thematic area. Similarly, Mr. Manandhar also serves NASC as the Senior Academic Advisor to Nepal Administrative Staff College (NASC). Prior to his work at Niti Foundation, Mr. Manandhar was a policy advisor to the Government of Nepal’s National Inclusion Commission within the Office of the Prime Minister and Cabinet of Ministers. He was one of the designers of a research program ‘Social Inclusion Research Fund (SIRF)’ in 2006 to address the issue of exclusion. Mr. Manandhar also worked with the Ash Centre for Democratic Governance and Innovation at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. He served as a board member of the Government of Nepal’s Alternative Energy Promotion Development Board.

 Narayan Gopal Malego

Mr. Malego holds Master of Public Administration, Bachelor of Law and Diploma in Public Administration. He has experience of working as a Secretary in various ministries (including Ministry of Home Affairs) of the Government of Nepal. He has served as CDO in different districts and as a Chief/Executive Officer of Kathmandu Metropolitan City. His areas of interest are local administration, decentralization, governance and service delivery. 

Patrick Duong

Mr. Duong is the Regional Advisor on Local Governance and Decentralization in the Asia and the Pacific, UNDP Bangkok Regional Hub. Since 2015, he has been working on ‘localizing the SDGs at the subnational and local level’. He has over 20 years of experience on local governance and decentralization both at policy and technical level. He advised Governments in a number of Chief Technical Advisor positions. Prior to joining the Regional hub, Patrick headed the UNJPLG-Somalia which is the largest global UN Joint Programme on local governance, including UNDP, UNCDF, UNICEF, UN Habitat and ILO. Patrick started his carrier working with NGOs and worked with DFID and the EU in Africa, the Middle East, the Balkan region and Asia. He also lectured international relations and international public law. Patrick is originally from Vietnam; he was born in 1967 in Morocco, grew up in several countries in Africa and studied in France where he obtained a Master in Political Sciences and another one in International Public Law (Université de Paris).

Potaraju Geetha

Dr. Geeta is an Associate Professor at Institute of Public Enterprises (IPE), Hyderabad, India. She holds a Ph.D. in Management from University of Osmania, India. She has more than 2 decades of experience in management and development consulting. Her areas of expertise include Participatory Governance and Civic Engagement, Health System Strengthening, Administrative Reforms, Institutional Reforms, Organizational Behaviour, Change Management, and Capacity Building. In the IPE, Dr. Geeta coordinated a number of training programmes and workshops. She has extensively published on the areas of public policy, governance, accountability, citizen charter, public sector reforms/management, disaster and environmental issues.

Punya Prasad Neupane

Mr. Neupane has served as a Secretary for different ministries of Government of Nepal before joining as the Executive Director of NASC in 2010. He has been appointed as the Executive Director for the second term- for next five years in 2015. He holds Master of Arts and Bachelor of Law from Tribhuvan University. His areas of specialization are management, governance, decentralization, gender and social inclusion, conflict resolution and peace building. 

Puspa Raj Kadel

Dr. Kadel is the Vice-Chairman of National Planning Commission (NPC) of Nepal. As a chairman, he plays a key role in 15^th Periodic Plan of Nepal. Dr. Kadel is mainly responsible for overall coordination of Sustainable Development Goals along with macroeconomic, finance, economy, investment forum and M&E sector of NPC. He served as a professor in Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu, Nepal. Dr. Kadel also served as the Chairman of Tourism Development Bank Limited and as a Director of Nepal Bank Limited. He holds a PhD in management. 

Puspa Sharma

Puspa Sharma is the Deputy Executive at South Asia Watch on Trade, Economics and Environment (SAWTEE). He has been researching and publishing in the area of trade and development for the past 15 years. He has authored and edited research reports, book chapters, policy briefs, briefing papers and articles on trade and development issues, including on regional economic integration in South Asia.

Mr. Sharma recently completed his PhD in Public Policy from The Australian National University. He also holds an M.A. in Economics awarded by the Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu, and an M.A. in Global Finance, Trade and Economic Integration awarded by the University of Denver, Colorado. He is an alumnus of the Fulbright Programme and the Australia Awards Scholarship Programme.

Ram Kantha Makaju Shrestha

Dr. Shrestha is the Vice-Chancellor of Kathmandu University since 2012. He is also the founder director of Dhulikhel Hospital and one of the doctors registered with Nepal Medical Council. At Kathmandu University, he is the professor of Surgery at School of Medical Sciences. In addition, he has served Kathmandu University in different capacities such as Senator Member, Member of Board of Trustees, Member of Academic Council, Member of Executive Council, and Associate Dean, School of Medical Sciences in different time periods. Dr. Shrestha holds an MD from Austria. 

R.K. Mishra

Dr. Mishra, Senior Professor, Director and ONGC Subir Raha Chair Professor, Institute of Public Enterprise Hyderabad, a graduate of International Management Programme, SDA Bocconi, Milan, Italy. He has an enormous experience in teaching, research, management and so on. He is a member of the UN Task Force on International Standards of Excellence in Public Administration and Education. He is Vice President, International Association of Schools and Institutes of Administration, Brussels. He is special invite on OECD Working Group on Privatization and Corporate Governance of SOEs and Asian Network of Corporate Governance. He is also a Member 'Panel of Experts on Reforms in Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs)' set up by the Planning Commission, Govt of India. Dr. Mishra has authored a great number of books and is on the editorial boards of many national and international journals, and publications brought out by publishers of repute from India and abroad. His areas of interest include Corporate Governance, Corporate Social Responsibility, Sustainable Development, Public Enterprise Management, Corporate and International Finance.

Reshmi Raj Pandey

Mr. Pandey is a Secretary of the Government of Nepal. He is one of the most profound advocate of decentralization and strengthening local governance and served in the then Ministry of Local Development for a long time as the Joint Secretary. Mr. Pandey also served as the Principal Secretary in the Office of the Chief Minister and Cabinet of Ministers, Province 3.

Shishir Dhungana

Mr. Dhungana is Secretary at the Office of Prime Minister and Council of Ministers (OPMCM). He heads Economic & Infrastructure Development and Administration section at OPMCM. He has also served as Secretary (Revenue) in the Ministry of Finance. Mr. Dhungana has good knowledge of Nepal’s public administration, governance and economic reform. He has served in different capacities in a tenure of two decades in the Government of Nepal.

Srikrishna Shrestha

Dr.Shrestha is a Professor of Public Administration and one of the  prominent scholar of public sector governance. Dr. Shrestha served Tribhuvan University for more than 30 years and also chaired the Central Department of Public Administration. In addition to teaching, Dr. Shrestha provided advisory services to various ministries, public sector organizations and corporate institutions too. Dr. Shrestha writes extensively on public administration, governance and public management. Currently, Dr. Shrestha serves  as the Chair and Chief Education Director of Institute of Business and Management Studies (IBMS), Kathmandu.

Sk. Tawfique M. Haque

Dr. Tawfique is the Professor of Public Policy and Governance and the Director of ‘South Asian Institute of Policy and Governance (SIPG) in North South University (NSU), Dhaka, Bangladesh. He is also Chair of the Department of Political Science and Sociology of North South University in Dhaka, Bangladesh. He is a Ph.D. in Public Administration, University of Dhaka, Bangladesh and did his Post Doc. in Public Administration from University of Bergen, Norway.

Sultan Hafeez Rahman

Dr Sultan Hafeez Rahman, a former Director General of Asian Development Bank (ADB), South Asia, is the Executive Director of the Institute of Governance Studies (IGS). Dr Rahman, a reputed economist, started his professional career in the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS) in 1975. Throughout his professional career of 37 years, Dr Rahman has published on a wide range of economic issues. His current research interests are in the areas of economic growth and inequality, ‘green growth,’ macroeconomic policy, financial sector policy, governance and regional economic cooperation and integration. Dr Rahman obtained his Ph.D. from Stanford University, USA.  

Swayam Sampura Panigrahi

Ms. Panigrahi is currently pursuing her Ph.D. in Operations Management from Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar (XIMB), Odisha and awaiting doctorate upon the final submission of her thesis by July, 2019. She bagged the Best Paper Award in the WIPRO-XUB, Sustainability Summit held at Xavier University, Bhubaneswar (August, 2016). She was also selected for the MSME Fellowship by National Institute of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, NIMSME, Hyderabad, under the Ministry of MSME, Government of India (2016-17). She holds a degree as Master of Technology in Production Engineering for the Batch of 2013-15 from one of the premiere engineering institutes i.e., Veer Surendra Sai University of Technology (VSSUT), Burla (formerly known as UCE, Burla). She has been adjudged as the University Best Post Graduate in Dept. of Production Engineering during her M.Tech and was awarded the Silver Medal by the Vice Chancellor of the University. 

Trilochan Pokharel

Mr. Pokharel is Director of Studies and Center Chief for Centre for Research and Development of Nepal Administrative Staff College (NASC) and faculty of public policy and governance at NASC. He is the lead author of “Nepal National Governance Survey 2017/2018” and “Quality of Public Service in Nepal- Further Analysis of Nepal National Governance Survey 2017/18” published by NASC. Mr. Pokharel is Gold Medallist in his Master’s Degree and batch topper in MPhil from Tribhuvan University. He also served to Tribhuvan University and Pokhara University as a lecturer. He is also a visiting faculty for 'Democracy and Inclusive Governance' at Nepal Open University. Mr. Pokharel has provided several consulting services to the Government of Nepal and public organizations on public sector reform. Currently, he is working with Gandaki Province for Organization and Management Survey and lead author of 'Handbook of Governance' (under preparation in Nepali). He is Managing Editor of Journal of Management and Development Studies, a peer reviewed journal published by Nepal Administrative Staff College.

Uddhav Pyakurel

Dr. Pyakurel is PhD from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), India and currently serving as   Associate Professor at Kathmandu University School of Arts, Nepal. He is also associated with Nepal Center for Contemporary Studies (NCCS). He contributes articles to journals and newspapers on contemporary issues of Nepal’s pubic governance and international relation. He is the author of ‘Maoist Movement in Nepal: A Sociological Perspective’ (2007). 

Usha Jha

Dr. Jha is a Member at National Planning Commission of Nepal since May 2, 2018. She has served as an faculty at the Institute of Agriculture and Animal Science (IAAS), TU. Further, she is a proven development worker today with an experience of almost two decades. As a development worker, she has experienced working with Ministries, NGOs, INGOs, Donors, UN and National NGOs network group against AIDs.

Yam Kumari Khatiwada

Ms. Khatiwada is currently the Secretary at Ministry of Industry, Commerce and supplies for the Government of Nepal. She has been serving for more than 24 years in various capacities within the government. Prior to her current appointment, she was the Secretary at National Information Commission and Regional Administrator of Western Development Region of Nepal. She has also served as Joint Secretary at Industrial Promotion Division in the Ministry of Industry for more than seven years, dealing with the policy issues of the Industrial sector under various responsibilities such as project Chief of Special Economic Zone, National Program Director of Micro Enterprise Development Program, Chairperson of Cottage and Small Industrial Development Board, and Coordinator of Nepal Business Forum, among others. She has published many articles in several national media outlets on contemporary issues. Ms. Khatiwada obtained her Master’s degree in Public Policy and Management from KDI School of Public Policy and Management, South Korea. She has also completed MPA, MA and Bachelor’s in Law from Tribhuvan University Nepal.

Yubaraj Khatiwada

Dr. Khatiwada is Minister for Finance, Government of Nepal since February 2018. He held the position of the Vice Chairman of the National Planning Commission of Nepal during 2015-16 and 2009-10. Further, he served as the Governor of Nepal Rastra Bank, the Central Bank of Nepal during 2010-15. He served the UN System as a Senior Economist in the Regional Centre of UNDP for Asia and the Pacific (2006-2009). He had served the government as a Member of the National Planning Commission, Government of Nepal from 2002 to 2005. He was Head of the Economic Research Department of the Nepal Rastra Bank from 1999 to 2002.