The US-Nepal Policy Research Center’s (US-NPRC: http://usnprc.org/) fourth policy & development conference, “Development, transparency, and good governance,” held at the Faculty Club of the University of California, Berkeley concluded on May 25, 2019.

The conference attracted a good attendance of researchers, policymakers, lawyers, media persons, practitioners, and academicians from Nepal, Canada, and The United States of America.

The conference had three sessions. In the first session, five panelists from Nepal, Canada, and the United States: Hari Bahadur Thapa (Editor-in-chief of Annapurna Post), Om Aryal (a senior advocate at the Supreme Court of Nepal); Dr. Narayan Ghimire (Senior advocate);  and Dr. Surendra Devkota, and Tarun Poudel, discussed the current status of corruption, root causes of corruption, and cost of corruption to citizens in Nepal. This was followed by a vibrant discussion on why transparency is essential, and how transparency in government, the private sector, and non-government organization can be increased to foster economic development in Nepal.

During the two technical sessions, Nepal and US-based researchers from the private, government, non-government sectors, and universities presented eleven research papers. The presentations ranged from climate change to vector-borne disease, the prevalence of hypertension and risk factors among indigenous Nepali communities, to increased crop productivity, using biotechnology, hunger and poverty alleviation, nutrition, and health security through toxin minimization and disaster preparedness, and foreign direct investment, and application of technology to curb corruption.

In the first technical session, Dr. Yadav Prasad Joshi, Assistant Professor at Manmohan Memorial Institute of Health Sciences (MMIHS), Kathmandu, Nepal presented a paper on challenges and gaps in climate change and health research in Nepal. Dr. Keshav Bhattarai, from the University of Central Missouri, presented a paper on “Alleviating pollution and traffic congestion in the Kathmandu Valley of Nepal by adopting a bus rapid transit (BRT) System.” Dr. Aashish Jha from Stanford University presented “The looming threat of chronic non-communicable diseases (NCDs) on Nepal’s economic development.” Dr. Umesh Aryal presented findings of the research, “Applying Multi Theory Model to smoking cessation: Findings from Nepal.” Moreover, Dr. Bikash Shakya from Stanford University presented his findings, “Elucidating the entry of malaria parasite into the red blood cell.”

In the second technical session, Dr. Ramesh Pant presented his findings of the decade long research on “Development of self-decontaminating surfaces, a new generation disinfectant of pathogens.” The presentation was followed by two presentations on increased crop productivity using biotechnology, hunger and poverty alleviation, nutrition, and health security through toxin minimization and disaster preparedness.  Ayush Pandit, a graduate student at Stanford University, presented “The application of directed evolution to the development of new pesticides for agriculture.” The senior seed scientist, Dr. Peetambar Dahal, gave a talk on “Hunger and Poverty Alleviation, Nutrition and Health Security through Toxin Minimization and Disaster Preparedness.” Dr. Desh R Sanyok and Dilli Bhattarai gave a presentation on “Diaspora Engagement Policies towards Foreign Direct Investment in Nepal,” and “Role of FDI in Emerging Economies.” And, Dr. Amod Pokhrel, from the University of California, Berkeley, briefly talked about a concept of possibility of utilization of smart plug to curb corruption in the electricity department.

The one-day conference ended with an active call to summarize the deliberations and points made at the conference. The participants also emphasized the need to increase collaboration and interdisciplinary work to address some of Nepal’s challenges.

On the same day, the US-NPRC members also formed a new executive committee of the board, which Dr. Rajan Pant (Chairperson) will lead. Other executive committees for the year 2019-2022 includes Dr. Sumar Parajuli (executive officer), Tarun Poudel (spokesperson), and Dr. Desh Raj Sanyok, Deen Bandhu Bhatta, Dr. Ishwor Shrestha, Jagadamba Adhikari, Shristhi Bhattarai, and Dr. Lekh Nath Adhikari as executive members.

On behalf of the 2017-2019 executive committee, Drs. Amod Pokhrel (past chairperson), and Arjun Banjade (past executive officer) thanked all the members for their support during their tenure.

About US-NPRC:

 The US-NPRC (www.usnprc.org) is a non-profit organization and has tax-exempt status under Section 501 (C) (3) of the IRS Internal Revenue Code.  The US-NPRC envisions to advance policy research to address some of the United States and Nepal’s challenges.