Our Team

Prof. Kailash N. Pyakuryal, Ph.D. (Sociology), Vice Chancellor, University of Agriculture and Forest Science (2011-2015)

Prof. Pyakuryal is a founder Chair of COLARP and  a rural sociologist with 45 years of work experience: 11 Years with the government in the Ministry of Agriculture (1965-1976) and 30 years with Tribhuvan University (1976-2006), and from 2006- 2010 with Kathmandu University. He has offered his consultancy services to various organizations such as the USAID, FAO, ILO, SDC, UNCDF, FINNIDA, GTZ, JICA, Action Aid, ANSAB, ICIMOD and OXFAM. His consultancy service abroad was in Lebanon.

Dr. Purna Bhanadur Nepali

Dr. Purna Bhadur Nepali is Associate Professor, Master of Public Policy and Management (MPPM), Kathmandu University School of Management (KU SOM), Balkumari, Lalitpur. Dr. Nepali is Research Fellow (non-resident), Harvard Kennedy School and Hutchins Center, Harvard University, US where he is undertaking his research on Political Economy of Inclusive Agrarian Transformation: Comparative Analysis of Race-Caste of US and Nepal/South-Asia. Previously he was the Regional Project Coordinator, Regional Food Security Governance Project in South Asia and East Asia (Nepal, India, Bangladesh, Myanmar) at DanChurchAid (DCA), funded by the European Union. For the past decade he has researched land rights and food rights, and advocates for evidence-based policy and reform in South Asia from a civil society perspective. In addition, he teaches graduate courses for masters and PhD students as an adjunct professor at the Kathmandu University and the Agriculture and Forestry University in Nepal.

Mr. Dhanej Thapa, Executive Director, COLARP

Mr. Dhanej Thapa is a land, agriculture and CCA/DRR expert, who has more than 13 years of research and development experience in Nepal and South Asia. Prior to joining COLARP, he provided consulting services to DFID, Mott-Mcdonald, UNDP, UNRCO, CORDAID, UN-Women and other international organizations. Similarly, he was engaged in various climate change, livelihood and food security-related research tasks at Forest Action Nepal, Nepal Development Research Institute (NDRI), and Southasia  Institute of Advanced Studies (SIAS). He worked as a  focal person managing most of their research project activities, some of which were multi-country projects.He has been continuously working with senior scholars in various academic and applied research works, including publishing articles in international, national journals and other publications.

Nabin Karki, Finance and Admin Officer

Mr. Karki has a good experience in financial auditing and account handling. He has already completed his Bachelor in Business Studies (BBS) from Tribhuwan University and is ACCA accredited auditor. He has good experience of working in audit firms and development sector. He has recently joined COLARP and is handling finance and administration of the organisation.

Saurab Man Shrestha (MA), Economist, Institute for Integrated Development Studies (IIDS), Research Fellow, COLARP

Mr. Shrestha holds a Masters in Arts degree in Development Economics from South Asian University (SAU), India. He has been working as Economist at IIDS. He is the coordinator of IIDS’ annual flagship publication “Nepal Economic Outlook” and has been involved in various researches representing the organization. Currently, he is working on DFID funded Skills for Employment program as migration and remittances specialist and on an IIDS/CNI joint study on infrastructure needs of Nepal. He has worked as team member in KOICA and IOM funded study “Role of Remittance as effective Development Finance”. He has written a policy brief entitled “Land Reform in Nepal”. He has also written an empirical paper entitled “Remittances, Economic Growth and Human Development”.

Krishna Sharma (M.Phil.) Research Fellow, COLARP

Mr. Sharma holds a Master in Philosophy in Economics from South Asian University, New Delhi, India. His research areas primarily involve the issue of Macro-economics, Agricultural Economics and Public Policy. His M.Phil. thesis was on ‘Rental Market of Agricultural Capital Goods- An Analysis of Nepal’s Plains’ where he has carried out an extensive survey of 300 households across three districts of Nepal – Mahottari, Nawalparasi and Chitwan. Currently he has been involved in analysing the Nepal’s growth trajectory. Further, he has been working on status of ‘Land Tenancy in Nepal’. He has worked as Research Consultant at National Institute of Public Finance and Policy-an autonomous research institute under the Ministry of Finance, Government of India, where he was actively involved in analysing various public policies of Government of India such as Impact of Pradhan Mantri Awwas Yojana; Estimating the GDP (Gross Domestic Product) back series data of India. Currently he is lecturer at National College affiliated to Kathmandu University, where he teaches courses on economics.

Nabin Shrestha (MA), Research Officer:

Mr. Shrestha hold’s Master’s in International Cooperation and Development from Mid- Western University. He is a well-qualified and technically proficient researcher with four years’ experience and excellent academic qualifications on Urban Planning with well-honed research and writing with meticulous attention to details. He has an extensive expertise on planning, organizing and carried out long term and short-term research projects with minimal supervision, analysed and studied on different topic around the valley and outside the valley on Urban Planning and,social issues.He has maintained details records for procedural and statistical purposes, gained significant independent research and writing experience.

Mr.Bal Bahadur Chaudhary (MA), Field Coordinator

Mr. Chaudhary is working as field coordinator in Kailali district to oversee the context mapping of land and natural resources mapping of Bhajani Municipality under the project of ILC. Two enumerators are working under him.