Staff Detail

Mr. Ajaya Dixit, founder of ISET-Nepal is an Ashoka Fellow who has led different projects on climate change adaptation and resilience building, disaster risk management, energy, food security and water governance. He possesses MSc in Engineering from the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK and undergraduate degree in Civil Engineering from Regional Engineering College, Orissa, India. He has directed regional research that examined climate changes impacts on flood, drought and food system adaptation in South Asia. His research focused on exploring the approaches to develop strategies for resilience building against climate change vulnerabilities at sub national scale. He coordinated and edited Nepal’s first national disaster report, which was published in 2010. He is also the lead author of the book “Nepal maa Bipad” (Disasters in Nepal) that was published in 2016. He has published extensively in prestigious journals such as the Economic and Political Weekly. His opinion is highly regarded in the international arena and has been regarded as a climate change adaptation and resilience expert in Nepal and South Asia.

Mr. Kanchan Mani Dixit holds a Masters’ Degree in Business Administration in Project Management from Kathmandu University and a Bachelor’s degree in Science from the University of South Alabama. He has 20+ years of working experience in research management and has successfully implemented multi-donor projects related to Climate Change Adaptation, Disaster Risk Management, Ecosystem-Based Adaptation, Food Security, and Water Governance. He worked with Think Tanks in South Asia to implement collaborative projects and facilitated the delivery of outputs. He has received Training of Trainers on issues related to IWRM, MEAL, and Project Management in Nepal and abroad and has facilitated training in Nepal. With his excellent communication and coordination skills, ISET-Nepal has benefited in developing partnerships and producing desired results. He is also the author of the book Air Pollution and has published articles in journals, newspapers, and magazines. He has experience teaching in colleges and universities in Nepal.

Ms. Anustha Shrestha, an Environmental Science graduate, has almost 12 years of research experience in various sectors related to disaster risk reduction, climate change, water science and governance, pollution, sustainable cities, and biodiversity conservation. With extensive fieldwork experience in Nepal and Myanmar, she has facilitation skills and rapport-building with local and international stakeholders. Her key interest areas include disaster resilience and water security, and she has visited Koshi, Gandak, Mahakali, Karnali, and Rapti River Basins as a part of her research. She has authored different reports, policy briefs, articles, and book reviews. Ms. Shrestha has established an international network with researchers and CSO members from different countries. In 2018, she was chosen as one of the 24 Young Leaders of think tanks across Latin America, South Asia, and Africa by On Think Tanks. She is a steering committee member of the Ganga-Brahmaputra-Meghna (GBM) CSO Network and is also a member of the Climate Action Network South Asia (CANSA).

Mr. Yogendra Subedi, ISET-Associate, holds an M.Sc. degree in Applied Development Studies from the University of Reading, England (2005) and a Master’s degree in Economics from Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu. He has 20+ years of work experience in the fields of climate change adaptation (CCA), disaster risk management (DRM) and social development. He also possesses superior knowledge and experience in social development and socio-economic issues such as poverty, livelihood, and inequality (mostly related to infrastructure projects such as rural drinking water supply, road, and hydropower). His current engagement includes research and implementation programs of USAID Paani program, Safer Cities, Ecosystem based Adaptation (EbA), Climate Finance, Hydropower Development, DRR Governance, Food Security and Agriculture. In many of these projects he served as a project coordinator whilst liaising with multiple stakeholders at different levels including government organizations. He worked as consultant in IUCN, JICA, TAEC Consult, ADB, SNV and New ERA in different projects. He has made extensive visits to over 65 districts of the country in and abroad in different projects. He has received a number of training on building capacities of think tanks, constructive writing and project cycle management. He has presented papers at national and international forums on various occasions. He has produced various reports and publications solely as well as a contributing author.

Ms. Rashmi Kiran Shrestha is a Water Resources Development (Hydropower) Analyst. She is a water resource manager, and an anthropologist by training, and graduated from IHE-Delft, the Netherlands through Nuffic Scholarship, and The Tribhuvan University Nepal. She has 15+ years of experience as a project coordinator and research lead. She joined ISET Nepal in 2019 as a project lead for “Expanding Water Dialogues in the Koshi Basin” project. At ISET, Ms. Shrestha helps prepare concept notes and proposals in emerging issues such as resilient rivers, women empowerment in the hydropower industry, and sustainable hydropower development. Prior to ISET Nepal, she worked at ICIMOD, where she led research on Hydropower and Benefit sharing in Nepal and India. She also led ground research on “Hydropower and Gender” for IFC. She has rich insights on the tradeoffs of water resource development from the visit of over 50 hydropower projects in Nepal and India. She has contributed to several published papers.

Mr. Anurag Pokharel is an electrical engineer and currently working as a Research Associate in ISET-Nepal. He possesses good knowledge in the field of energy, electrical safety and lightning and has been involved in various research related to political economy, energy, water, disaster risk reduction. He has visited more than 15 hydropower projects in Nepal for research and case studies. At ISET, he is mainly responsible for field visits and interactions, program coordination, writing, content design, and proposal development. One of his major achievements is successful coordination of the Sustainable Think Tank project (under Think Tank Initiative Support) where he effectively coordinated with the international partners and national academics during the book release program. He also coordinated various field level training funded by USAID Paani Program for the participants of Karnali, Mahakali and Rapti Basins.

Ms. Sushila Ghimire, a recipient of Netherland Fellowship Program holds M.Sc in Urban Development and Management from Erasmus University, The Netherlands and Masters in Sociology from Tribhuvan University, Nepal. She has +10 years working in the development sector. She has experience of working in the areas related to WASH, disaster risk reduction and management, and M&E. She joined ISET-Nepal in 2018 as a Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning (MEAL) Officer for the project “Surakshit Sahar (Safer Cities) – Urban DRR to Transit from Risk to Resilience in Kathmandu Valley”. She is responsible for keeping track of project activities, indicators and beneficiaries through use of M&E framework. She is engaged in project implementation and has been conducting training, workshops and meetings with relevant stakeholders. She has sound field experience and has effectively liaised with government officials, donors, media and community for the successful implementation of the project.

Ms. Kopila Wagley, a graduate in Environmental Science from Central Department of Environmental Science, Tribhuvan University is working as a Research Associate and a trainer in ISET-Nepal. With a focus on gender and environment, she explores the nooks and corners of society to pull out the issues that are challenging and harmful to women, marginalized and minority groups and works to enhance their capacity. She has a good experience in carrying out research and is familiar with the research based working environment. She has attended various trainings, conferences, seminars, webinars to share her results. She has also been extensively involved in local level interactions, field visits and capacity building programs. At present she is engaged on a project “Expanding water dialogues in the Koshi basin” funded by The Asia Foundation. This project focuses on maintaining river ecology, understanding the status of women and marginalized groups, disaster management capacity and their accessibility to the Koshi River as a resource.

Mr. Puskar Prasad Acharya completed his Master’s degree in 2004 with specialization in finance. With 15+ years of experience in the development sector, he has taken lead in handling administration, human resources, financial management, capacity building, project planning and budgeting, auditing, project monitoring and reviewing performance appraisal. He has experience of working with grassroots communities especially those who were affected by poverty and were deprived from their basic rights. Similarly, he worked with different INGO, multilateral organization and bilateral organizations such as ActionAid, Oxfam, CARE, INC, USAID, UNEP, IDRC, ADB and many others for successful execution of the project. He has participated in many national and international trainings, workshops and seminars that enhanced his financial management capacity. In 2010 he received a fellowship award through Danida Fellowship Center (DFC) by Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs to undertake five weeks training on “Financial Management & Good Governance” in Copenhagen, Denmark. Similarly, in 2008 he attended training on “Community Based Microfinance” at COADY International Institute, St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, Nova Scotia, Canada.

Mr. Chandra Chakradhar, IT consultant: Mr. Chakradhar has been working in the IT sector for the past 15 years. He brings innovation in web design with excellent skills on HTML, PHP, XML, ajax and Photoshop. He has effectively handled web project management and social media campaigning of ISET-Nepal and other organizations.

Mr. Bishnu Shrestha has been supporting field activities, administrative tasks and finance based activities related to tax/VAT and banking since 2006. A skillful, trusted and dependable vehicle operator, Mr. Shrestha is mainly responsible for providing transport support to the team members during field visits and has helped the team to reach the remote parts of the country.