RESOURCES

IIDS has a team of well qualified and experienced professionals for each of its wings: General Research, Action Research, General Services and General Administration. These human resources come from a wide range of disciplines.

IIDS currently has 38 full-time staff members including consultant enganed in various general and action research activities. Of them, eight are senior professional, five are professionals, fourteen are action research field staff members, and the remaining eleven are support staff. 

In addition, IIDS has built up a network of subject matter specialists and professionals from various disciplines, such as Agriculture, Economics, Education, Forestry, Gender, GIS, Governance, Livestock, Natural Resources, Public Administration, Rural Development and so on. It associates these experts as and when needed. It has working relationships with a number of high- and mid-level professionals from various disciplines, who are called upon to involve in its studies and research. Policy research and studies have been accomplished with the involvement of well-known subject matter specialists in the country.

 General Research Wing

Mr Shanker Krishna Malla, Executive Director

Mr Shanker Krishna Malla holds a bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from Roorkee University, India, in 1956, and a D.I.C. in Hydropower Engineering from Imperial College of Science and Technology, London, in 1960. Mr Malla started his career as an assistant engineer at the Department of Electricity, HMGN, from 1956 to 1961 and became the chief engineer of the department from 1973-1979. He has also served as Executive Chairman of Nepal Electricity Corporation (1979-1981), Secretary of the Ministry of Commerce and Supplies, HMGN (1981-1982), Member Secretary of the National Planning Commission (1982-1988) and Chairman of the Electricity Tariff Fixation Commission (1994-1997). Mr Malla has extensive experience of working in several regional projects related to water & energy resources in collaboration with similar institutions in India & Bangladesh.

Dr Dwarika N Dhungel, Senior Researcher

An MA (Political Science) from Tribhuvan University, Nepal, PhD (Social Sciences) from Nagpur University, India, and Graduate Student, Department of Urban Studies and Planning, MIT, Massachusetts, USA, Dhungel started his career as Lecturer in Political Science at the Trichandra College and the National College, Kathmandu, in 1968. He entered government’s administrative service in July 1970 as Officer, Reserve Pool, in the then Administration Management Department and thereafter served in various positions. After quitting the service in June 1998, he became a freelance social scientist and social activist. His publications include Contemporary Nepal, Governance Situation in Nepal and a host of articles on different aspects of social sciences.

Mr Shankar Aryal, Research Fellow

An MA (Political Science) from Tribhuvan University. He started his career as District Census Officer at the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), His Majesty’s Government of Nepal. Specialising in time-series data management, he has worked in more than 30 socio-economic research works. He has undergone training in different aspects of research work and has participated in several national, regional and international workshops and seminars, including in Bangladesh, Brunei, Russia and Sri Lanka.

Mr Samesh Adhikari, Research Officer

An MA (Economics) from International University of Japan, Niigata, Adhikari specializes in economic research and surveys. Experienced in monitoring and evaluation of development and health-related programmes operating in Nepal, Adhikari has expertise in econometric analysis using econometric techniques and econometric software like EViews, SAS and statistical software like SPSS.

Action Research Wing 

Mr Madhu Ram Maharjan, Programme Officer

An BSc (Agriculture) from the Institute of Agriculture & Animal Sciences, Rampur, Chitwan. He has been involved in several policy and action research programmes aimed at poverty alleviation through self-help group endeavour, securing livelihoods and equity consideration and has supervised field-based action research, provided training backstopping to field-level operations and staff, and carried out process documentation of a number of action research programmes.

Dr Vikash Raj Satyal, Senior Statistician

An MSc (Statistics) and (Economics) from Tribhuvan University and PhD in Statistics from the University of Vienna, Austria. He has long teaching experience in Statistics in different colleges of Kathmandu. He has written several publications on technical aspects of sampling, sources and surveys.

Mr Anil Shrestha, Editor

An LLB and MA (English Literature) from the University of Delhi, India. He started his career as a journalist with New India Publications, New Delhi. Before joining IIDS in 1996, he was working with the International Irrigation Management Institute as a researcher. He has edited and translated a number of books into English, and has published short stories and articles in several newspapers and magazines in Nepal and India.

Mr Ashwasthama Pokhrel, Senior System Analyst

An Bachelor in Law from Tribhuvan University. He started his career as Field Enumerator at Land Resource Mapping Project (LRMP), HMGN, in 1980. He joined IDS in 1984 as Data Processor. Specializing in field management and data management, he has taken part in more than 50 socio-economic research. He has travelled as a field surveyor in 72 districts of the country.

Mr Puranjan Bista, Senior Administrative Officer

An BA (Economics) from Tribhuvan University. He started his career as Computer Assistant at Programme Budgeting & Project Monitoring Project at the Ministry of Finance. He joined IIDS in 1995 as Administrative Assistant to a project entitled ‘Water Resources Development Phase II Study’.

Mr Devendra Shrestha, Finance Officer

An BCom from Tribhuvan University. He has worked as accountant in several reputed companies since 1990. He joined IIDS in 1999 as Account Officer. He holds an auditor’s licence from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nepal.

Ms Silam Ranjit, Documentation Officer

An BCom from Tribhuvan University, Ranjit started her career as a receptionist at IIDS in 1990. She has taken one-month librarian training from the National Library Association of Nepal. She has also done Post Graduate Diploma in Women’s Studies from Tribhuvan University.

 2.

IIDS is located at Mandikhatar in Kathmandu.The office comprises on main building and three annex buildings of its own. The total office space is approximately 18,139 sq ft. It has 20 rooms including a conference-cum-training hall. To facilitate work, all the rooms are connected throught telephone and internet facility. Besides this, IIDS has a total 30,803 sq ft. land in Duwakot, Bhaktapur district.

IIDS is also adequately equipped with logistics and modern electronic equipment such as photocopiers, computers, laser printer, fax, email and internet to support the various research programmes.

Library

The Institute has a well-equipped library, which is managed by CDS/ISIS—a UN package for library management. The Library comprises the background and discussion papers presented at seminars and workshops by members of staff on behalf of the Institute and research and study reports prepared by it. It also has more than 1,840 books and 2,880 periodicals covering subjects ranging from economics to political science, sociology, anthropology, management, language, statistics, information science and so on.

In addition to the funds received from national and international institutions for conducting various research and action programmes, IIDS has established an Endowment Fund with a view to mobilizing resources for the long-term sustainability of the Institute. It has earmarked RslO million for the Endowment Fund from its own sources. It has also received US$850,000 from the Ford Foundation for this fund. In addition, it has received US$250,000 from the same organization to establish an endowment fund to initiate a Women Economist Capacity Building Programme. The endowment fund has been kept in a fixed account deposit. The Institute has also invested in government’s savings bonds and in the interest-bearing accounts of banks and financial institutions.