Parashu Ram Nepal is an experienced training and executive education expert. He has founded a training organization, International Development Institute (IDI) to cater capacity building and institutional strengthening needs of private and public sector agencies in developing and emerging economies.

The primary focus areas include financial sector reform, private sector development, trade policy, rule of law and good governance. Previously, Mr. Nepal worked as project manager administering global projects for a wide array of multilateral agencies, including the African Development Bank, Asian Development Bank, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, USAID, and the World Bank. He served as a Project Manager for International Law Institute in Washington, D.C., providing project management and business development support to ILI’s technical advisory projects and executive education programs in the areas of banking, finance, capital markets, pension reform, trade policy, anti-corruption, procurement. Prior to joining ILI, Mr. Nepal served as a Project Coordinator for the Intrados Consulting Group in Washington, D.C., providing management support to an various donor funded projects in the areas of finance, trade and privatization. Responsibilities included managing all aspects of the business development, proposal preparation and project management. Before joining Intrados, he worked as a manager at Standard Charted Bank in Kathmandu, Nepal where he was responsible for reporting branch performances to its head-quarter and he established two bank branches in western Nepal. Mr. Nepal has Masters in International Management (MIM) from Thunderbird, the American Graduate School of International Management in Glendale, Arizona. He has an Undergraduate degree in Business Administration from Strayer University in Washington DC. He also has Bachelor’s degree in Economics and Mathematics from Tribhuban University in Kathmandu, Nepal.

Suman Raj Timsina is an accomplished Manager with 20 + years of leadership with strategy, management, and execution experience. He highly motivated dynamic leader who drives growth from a deep understanding of customer behavior, technology, product design and execution. Proven track record of designing, developing, planning and delivery of innovative strategy, complex Profit & Loss (P&Ls) and cross-functional change programs.

Prior to joining IDI, he was a Vice President at Bank of America. He has been heavily involved with global Nepali diaspora in a number of capacity. He is a Past President of Non Resident Nepali National Coordination Council of USA.  He is currently a board member of America Nepal Medical Foundation. He has been affiliated with number of organizations. His areas of interest have been innovation, entrepreneurship, mentoring, diaspora study, community development, education and health care. He has numerous policy papers on these issues. He was also an adjunct faculty in Temple University in Philadelphia. He has studied at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi (India) and University of Pennsylvania. He has authored a book and edited a number of magazines. He is also a Fulbright recipient of 1991.

Dr. Arun R. Joshi is Founder of Leadership Academy Nepal (LAN) and a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Integrated Development Studies (IIDS) in Kathmandu, Nepal. He is also an Adjunct Professor at George Washington University, Washington D.C. He worked at the World Bank, Washington D.C. for over two decades. His experience spans education policy reform and program development in a diverse range of countries in the Middle East, Africa, and South Asia. He has a master’s degree in international education policy and a doctorate in human development from Harvard University.

Mr. Baxter is a South African who lives in the USA.  He is currently a Senior Advisor to the International PPP Resilience Center (IPPPRC) in New Orleans which is affiliated organizations of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE).  Additionally, he advises the Afghan PPP Hub located Kabul and the Istanbul PPP Center of Excellence. As a freelance consultant in international development, procurement, and Public-Private Partnerships he works all over the world on projects, primarily with the public sector.

He has provided capacity building programs and infrastructure procurement consulting services to many international clients located in Africa, North and Central America, Latin America, the Middle East, Europe, and Asia.    Many current and past client projects are sponsored by development/donor agencies including USAID, MCC, ADB, the Dutch Foreign Ministry, the African Development Bank, and the World Bank.

He has also lead alliance-building initiatives with institutions around the world that that have included the UNECE PPP Center of Excellence in Geneva, the African Development Bank, the PPP Center of Excellence in Istanbul Turkey, the Monterrey Institute in Mexico, the World Bank and the African Development Bank.

He is an internationally recognized PPP thought leader and has contributed to publications distributed by the World Bank and The Global Infrastructure Hub.  He is a prolific writer of opinion pieces on PPP best practices.  His insights can be read on LinkedIn

Sangya Gyawali is a lead consultant at International Development Institute. She’s consulted with large corporations, local NGOs, and venture-backed startups alike on business and product development. The intersectionality of her experience gives her the capacity to work creatively with a diverse group of cultures, norms, and business practices. Her work spans across the United States, China, and Africa at large. He bring strong background in business strategy, operations, and product development. Her strength in research and data analytics makes her a very strong team member. Sangya has undergraduate degree from University of Pittsburg and Master’s in Management Science degree at Tsinghua University as a Schwarzman Scholar.

Roshan Ghimire joins as a Country Coordinator (Nepal) in 2018. His areas of expertise include but not limited to the following: NGOs, Youth Engagement, Digital Marketing, Social Media, Journalism, Writing, Policy Issues and many more.

Roshan completed his undergraduate from University of DC (USA) and MBA form South West Minnesota State University (USA). He also completed program on Mass Media from Northern Kentucky University (USA).

Ahmed Abdelhakim Hachelaf is an Educationalist and Civic Engagement Specialist. Hachelaf’s work focuses on capacity building and making impact on youth education and engagement. He is also a teacher trainer at Ecole Nromal Supérieure in Algeria. He is a former Research Fellow at the Moynihan Institute at the Maxwell School of Syracuse University. He previously worked as the Director of Studies at Bridges Institute where he co-designed syllabuses and managed academic affairs of the institute. He has also worked for national Algerian NGOs and supervised a nationwide active-citizenship program as well as the training of local NGO leaders on community service and leadership in three Algerian provinces.

Finally, Hachelaf founded an initiative that fights 21st-century illiteracy by teaching IT skills to women. This project allowed marginalized segments of society to benefit from access to technology and widened their opportunities.

Ahmed is also a frequent presenter on civic education and democratic schooling in the Middle East and North African region. In 2012, Ahmed was chosen as a Leaders for Democracy fellow and subsequently was chosen to be the delegate of Algeria in a UN event in New York and most recently as a Caux Scholar in Switzerland. His work has appeared in Revolution by Love, where he spoke to issues of social change through education. 

Mr. Asad Hossain is a veteran development practitioner in the area of project management, monitoring and evaluation, capacity development and contract management. He brings his experience in education and it’s subsectors reform – primary, secondary, tertiary, TVET and non-formal. He worked under direct contract with different bilateral and multilateral development organizations including World Bank and Asian Development Bank. Mr. Hossain provided support to design and implement major donor funded projects in Bangladesh. He supported donor task teams to prepare PAD, DPP and TPP documents. On behalf of the task teams and also supported executive agencies to develop their capacity on project implementation.

Mr. Hossain also has decades of experience in commercial consulting industry. He developed project concepts and prepared project proposals for different donor funded projects. He has clear understanding about the procurement methods of different governments and donor organizations. He has worked in Bangladesh, China, Myanmar, India, Philippine, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Indonesia, Georgia, Mongolia, Cambodia, Lao PDR, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Maldives, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Bhutan, and Viet Nam.

Sukriti Adhikari joined IDI as a business analyst and now works as a Communication Coordinator.  She is responsible in direct communication with clients, preparing brand materials and playing a major role in business development. She has been playing a major role in leading STEM, Cooperative Leadership and other programs. She played a very active role in International Conference on Accessible Tourism and leads STEM program..

Sukriti is very well travelled and a graduate of James Madison University with major in International Studies.

Matthew Uzukwu is an Adjunct Professor of Healthcare Administration at the Newport News Virginia Center of Saint Leo University. He was an Adjunct Professor of Production and Operations Management at Bowie State University, Maryland, USA for several years.

Dr. Uzukwu earned his MBA from Howard University and his Ph.D from Walden University. He has published several books, book chapters and scholarly articles. His doctoral dissertation on HIV/AIDS was published as a book by Lambert Academic Publishing in 2012. Dr. Uzukwu’s recent scholarly article “ Issues Of Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) and End-Stage Kidney Disease (ESKD) in Southeastern Nigeria: A Study of Patients On Dialysis,” co-authored with Dr. Obi Ekwenna, Transplant Surgeon and Assistant Professor of Urology and Transplantation at the University of Toledo Ohio, was accepted for publication in the International Journal of Public Health and Safety in May 2018. Dr. Uzukwu’s research interests are in healthcare/hospital management, healthcare policy, healthcare access in developing countries, and the applications of Six Sigma to achieve hospital management cost reductions and continuous healthcare quality outcomes. He has trained various staff of several organizations. Dr Uzukwu is a Six Sigma Black Belt and has the capacity to lead Six Sigma organizational turn-around projects. He is a certified instructor of CPR/AED/BLS.

Ameen Habibi served in many capacities in the government of Afghanistan including Acting Deputy Minister for Policy and Director General for Policy, Coordination and Program Implementation at the Ministry of Finance and Co-chaired the Asset Transfer Commission, which oversaw the transfer of military bases/Provincial Reconstruction Teams from International Security Forces to the Government of Afghanistan. Mr. Habibi has more than a decade’s experience of national level policy-making, programs and projects management, preparation of strategic papers, donor relations, fund raising and stakeholders (international financial institutions, civil society, academia, etc.) coordination, and leading organization of international pledging events.

As part of Mr. Habibi’s last assignment in the Government of Afghanistan, He successfully organized and managed, the Brussels International Donors’ Conference on Afghanistan on October 5, 2016, where $ USD 15.2 billion were pledged to Afghanistan for the years of 2017-2021. Prior to that Mr. Habibi organized and managed the Tokyo and London International Donor Conferences on Afghanistan in 2012 and 2014 respectively. Mr. Habibi was the main negotiator from government of Afghanistan side for many of the aid effectiveness mutual accountability mechanisms introduced by the international community in Afghanistan, individually or collectively. These included the Tokyo Mutual Accountability Framework (which in later avatars is now called SMAF (Self-reliance through Mutual Accountability Framework) and New Development Partnership of USAID. In addition, Mr. Habibi led the technical teams, which drafted the Afghanistan National Peace and Development Framework, the five-year national development plan of Afghanistan and preparation of National Priority programs.

Mr. Anand Kumar brings over a decade experience in the area of Produrement, Procurement to Pay (P2P), and Project Management. His years of experience and knowedge of prcuement, project management and contract management adds lots of values to IDIs initiative to develop training and capacity buiding programs in the field of procuement management. 

Anand is based in New Delhi (India). He has earned Executive Master’s in International Business from Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, New Delhi. He has earned number of certification programs including Shipping, Logistics and Port Operation Certification at The Port of Antwerp, Belgium; Strategic Sourcing professional from ISM (Institute of Supply Management - USA); Purchasing & Sourcing Management Professional Credential – CEPSM (From SITMI); Certificate Program in Public Procurement – CPPP (From the World Bank) and  Certificate Program in Contract Management – CPCM (From the World Bank).

Jamal Boubakri is passionate about International Affairs, Trade, Economics, IT, Business, Finance and Investment. He earned his Master’s Degree in Business Administration (MBA) from Stratford University in Falls Church, Virginia.   Mr. Boubakri obtained his Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science from the Intercontinental University –Sup Management School- in Fez, Morocco. He also holds an associate degree in IT & Business Management from the University Of Fez (E.S.T). Throughout his career, Mr. Boubakri had worked for well-known companies in Morocco such as the National Office of Electricity. After receiving his MBA, Mr. Boubakri joined the International Development Institute in Washington, DC as a Business Consultant in 2010. He co-founded an IT and Marketing agency in his home country. Mr. Boubakri is a member of the Internet Society – a global institution that ensures that the Internet continues to develop as an open platform. He’s a blogger, social media specialist and an independent International Affairs writer for “Moroccoworldnews.com” and other websites. He lives in Washington, DC metropolitan area.

Ms. Elizabeth Kasonde brings an unique and diversfied experience in rural agriculture development; Foreign Direct Investments; human rights, and peacebuilding. She is also a member of the Alliance for Peacebuilding (AfP) based in Washington, DC. AfP is the institutional home for the peacebuilding community – a network of over 100 organizations working to resolve conflict and create sustainable peace in 153 countries through education and various peacebuilding approaches.

She has earned master’s degree in Globalisation and Development from the University of Sussex in the United Kingdom and a master’s degree in International Development from Eastern University in the United States. She will be coordinating IDI's program in number of countries in Africa. She is originally from Zambia and currently resides in Pennsylvania (USA).

Nripa Devkota joined IDI as an intern and currently she is working as a Business Associate. Her responsibilities include building and cultivating strong relationships with clients, identifying new business opportunities and potential clients. She assists drafting reference materials and other documents as required.

Beside her professional responsibilities, she also keeps keen interest on inclusion of persons with disabilities and loves doing sign language interpretation for the deaf community based in Nepal. She also enjoys travelling, hiking and mobile photography.

She is a Development Studies graduate from Kathmandu University .

Angela Hanson Ocloo joins IDI with years of experience in busienss development in health care and finance. She has Post Graduate Diploma in Mgt. Studies from Concord Business College in Ghana.

Aderonke Coker brings a wide range of sales and marketing experience to IDI. She has earned Bachelors degree from Binghamton University, State University of New York, Binghamton, NY (USA) and Masters in Global Affairs and Management from Thunderbird School of Global Management. 

Sharmila Pradhananga comes with a proven track-record in primary level teaching over a decade. She is passionate about children centric teaching and learning. She holds a Post Graduate Diploma from Kathmandu University-School of Education. She has attended a number of trainings / workshops including ‘Educational leadership program’ at George Mason University in the US in 2018.  

She was a member of Everest Toastmasters Club. Now she is involved in activities lifting up the soft skills for students. She loves travelling and networking. 

Prasanna Poudyal joined IDI as a creative designer and also works as a logistics manager.  He is responsible in creating audio visual  products to support IDI programs. He also manages logistics for program participants.

Hemanta Gautam has been associated with IDI for last 2 years in promoting STEM program and outreaching schools in Nepal. 

Dr. Ana M. Ferreras often serves as a speaker, professional developer, consultant, evaluator, researcher, fundraising expert, and advisor for organizational leaders in the private sector, academia, and federal government. She is a Senior Program Officer at National Academy of Science. She is the leading author of “Company Success in Manufacturing Organizations: A Holistic Systems Approach” where she shares with company leaders how to achieve success in manufacturing organizations.
Dr. Ferreras is one of the few industrial engineers in the United States working on STEM policy and STEM diplomacy. She is a Senior Program Officer at the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine where she manages the U.S. National Committees for theoretical and applied mechanics, physics, radio science, crystallography, and mathematics instruction. Dr. Ferreras earned a PhD in industrial engineering and management systems (IEMS) at the University of Central Florida (UCF) and her doctoral research focused in the development of mathematical models to assist organizational leaders making wiser decisions in complex situations.
She also holds an MS in engineering management from the Florida Institute of Technology and a BS in electrical engineering from UCF. During her doctoral research, she assisted the IEMS Department at UCF reengineering the undergraduate curriculum. Prior to getting into STEM policy and STEM diplomacy, Dr. Ferreras was a winter 2008 Christine Mirzayan Policy Graduate Fellow with the Center for Advancement of Scholarship on Engineering Education at the National Academy of Engineering.

Sidi Sanneh is a versatile and skilled diplomat, professional economist, and development specialist with leadership qualities and excellent hands-on experience in development finance, governance and post conflict countries in sub-Saharan Africa.

Ambassador Sanneh brings over 35 years of experience in International Development and diplomacy. He, a native of Gambia, served as a Minister of Foreign Affairs (2004-05) and Ambassador to Senegal Mali and Burkina Faso. (2005-06). He was a Member of the Executive Boards of Director of the African Development Bank and the African Development Fund where he served for a decade before joining the United Nations Development Program’s Regional Bureau for Africa as Senior Advisor for Resource Mobilization. He also served as Community Development Block Grant Coordinator for The City of Madison, Wisconsin and the County of Dane. Ambassador Sanneh was appointed Project Director, UNAMID program at DynCorp International before being one of the founding members and Senior Partner at Frontier Markets Partners.

Ambassador Sanneh holds a BA degree in Economics and Political Science from Wilberforce University, a M.Sc. in Agricultural Economics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a a certificate holder from the MIT Executive Program.

Pankaj Pradhananga comes with an experience in Tourism industry over 2 decades. He holds an MBA from Kathmandu University School of Management (KUSOM) with a specialization in CRM.

He is a charter President of Tourism Toastmasters Club and also a faculty member at ACE Institute of Management in Kathmandu. He has enjoyed training & speaking assignments in Nepal, Europe and the USA. His areas of expertise include delighting the customers, inclusive tourism and motivational storytelling. He was recently featured on the cover page of Toastmasters Int’l magazine’s global issue.

Buhari

Kerin Hilker-Balkisson brings twenty years of experience engaging K-12, post-secondary, non-profit, and workforce sectors through innovative systems collaboration; strategic and collective impact partnerships; blended academic, navigational and career pathways design; and holistic, wrap-around supports to move the needle on K-20 and career outcomes for under-resourced populations. The founding director and operational designer of the award-winning Pathway to the Baccalaureate and Elevating Parents in College initiatives, at George Mason University Hilker-Balkissoon designs and implements targeted and systemic K-20 and career pathways to enhance access, equity and inclusion in STEM.

She brings strong expertise in innovative program/project design, management, and evaluation; student success and advising; enrollment strategy; workforce development; grant-writing and management; integration of high impact practices (internships, research, civic engagement and service-learning); fostering student engagement, leadership and social capital. She is bilingual in Portuguese/English with some proficiency in Spanish..  She holds a Bachelor’s of Science in Psychology from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and a Master’s of Science in Counseling from The Johns Hopkins University, and is pursuing coursework toward a doctorate in Conflict Analysis and Resolution with a concentration in Collaborative Community Action at George Mason University.

Jagjit Singh is a an Executive Director of South Asians for Empowerment (SAFE) in New York assisting community members in identifying and obtaining available benefits and social and community services from the City, State, and Federal governments.  He brings a long experience in leading NGOs to provide social services, educational and cultural activities for community members, including Senior Center, Youth Programs, Educational enhancement programs: training & managing a team of over 100 dedicated volunteers. Scope of responsibility included finance/budgeting, strategic planning, fundraising, program development, grant writing and general administration. He has led many grass root organizations in India and US.

Jagjit earned his Masters in International Studies from Jawaharlal Nehru University (New Delhi, India) and Masters in Public Administration, Non-Profit Management & Policy from New York University (USA). He is also a Certified Risk and Compliance Management Professional (IARCP)

Chandra Upadhyay has been associated with IDI since 2015. He has played a major role in enstablishing women enterpreneurs group in Biratnagar (Nepal) and also initiate youth enterpreneurship program at Poorvanchal University in Nepal. Currently he is also engaged in developing a rogram to address failin schools in eastern Nepal. 

Mr. Upadhyay is currently a doctoral student i Sociology at Guwahati University (India) and is a Lecturer of Sociology at Tribhuwan university (Nepal).

Durga B. Kunwar served over 20 years in law Enforcement, special policing and Disaster Management in Nepal. In 2015, he honorably resigned Nepal's ARmed Police Force as a Deputy Inspector General (DIG). As a very highly decorated officer, Mr. Kunwar also led International Police Trainer(UN) in Kosovo and Sudan, Darfur, UN Company Commander(FPU) in Liberia under UN and FPU Coordinator/MHQ in Darfur, Sudan.

He is a certified Instructor for Use of Force, Non-International Armed Conflict, and Training for Trainers. He is a freelance analyst and has published many articles in wide range on topic on armed conflict, border security and internation security and Peace.

Mr. Kunwar is curently pursuing graduate studies on public policy at George Mason University in Virginia (USA). 

Abina Rotimi has been Program Coordinator of IDI Nigeria since 2013. His areas of expertise include but not limited to the following: Research & Analysis; Organizational Strategy & Strategic Development; Learning & Development; Concept Note Development; CSR Project Initiation & Implementation; Ideas & Innovation; Data Collection; Quantitative & Qualitative Data Analysis Techniques; NGO Management, Project Monitoring and Evaluation; Capacity Building; Training Needs Assessment; Feedback Analysis and Report Writing Skills. Rotimi have also worked on several capacity development programs locally and internationally (Countries experience include; United Arab Emirate, Singapore, Malaysia, India, Gambia, Uganda, Namibia and South Africa) he has worked with a team of research consultants on African Development Bank Projects in Oyo and Taraba States.

Rotimi is trained as an economist and attended University of Ado-Ekiti for his first degree where he graduated with a second-class (upper division) in Economics. He is experienced in the areas of strategic development, research, program/concept note development and training (learning and development) both locally and internationally. Rotimi is also a member of of the Institute Chartered Economists of Nigeria (ICEN), Microfinance Management Institute, Nigeria and also a registered member Chartered Institute of Personnel Management (Intermediate II).

Dr. Rajesh Kumar Shakya is a digital governance specialist, Certified Project Management Professional (PMP®), currently working with the World Bank as an e- Procurement Specialist and also supporting the Asian Development Bank as a Project Team Leader and other capacities on Public Finance Management (lnvestment Management).

He has also worked with USAlD, Eastern African Community, lnter-American Development Bank, Caribbean Development Bank, and other development agencies. He has extensive practical international experience in Africa, the Caribbean, Asia, and Europe guiding more than 30 countries on planning, designing, developing processes and procedures, institutional arrangements and business model development, implementation of e-Procurement systems, framework agreements, developing procurement and e-procurement strategies, e- GP Guidelines, e-GP Readiness Assessment, assessing country procurement systems and e-Procurement Systems using OECD Methodology for Assessing Procurement Systems (MAPS ll). He is a Ph.D. with distinction in Public Administration with dissertation on ‘Good Governance in Public Procurement through e-Procurement' from the Capella University, USA.