Project Team

Dr. Marit Haug is a Senior Researcher, and formerly Research Director, at the Norwegian Institute for Urban and Regional Research (NIBR) at OsloMet. She has led several research and evaluation projects in Nepal on social inclusion, decentralisation and conflict, women’s participation in politics, and rights-based approaches to development. Her recent work addresses inclusion in the education sector from a governance and collective action perspective.

Dr Pherali is Associate Professor in Education and International Development at UCL Institute of Education, University College London. His research and teaching focuses on education in contexts of forced displacement, post-conflict educational reforms and the role of education in peacebuilding. He leads the research theme on ‘Education, Conflict and Peacebuilding’ at the Centre for Education and International Development. As a native of Nepal, Dr Pherali has been actively involved in research on education and conflict and published widely on politics of education in Nepal. He is the editor of the peer-reviewed journal Education and Conflict Review.

Dr. Chitra Bahadur Budhathoki is Professor and Dean of Faculty of Education at Tribhuvan University, Nepal. He also served as Associate Dean of the Faculty of Education between 2012 and 2016. He currently directs all academic and research programmes including PhD training in education. His research interests include school health, health behaviour changes, classroom instruction, social inclusion in health and education including inclusive education. He earned his M.Ed. in health education from Tribhuvan University and PhD from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India.

Prof. Basu Dev Kafle is the founding Chair of the Dept. of Special Needs Education at Tribhuvan University and the first Professor of Inclusive Education in Nepal. He was a UNESCO laureate-2008, for his outstanding achievement in the field of teacher education and research in the UNESCO regions. He did his MS, PhD and Post-Doc. in the field of special needs to inclusive education. He is credited with a number of research publications both at home and abroad. He served as Visiting Professor for BRAC University, Bangladesh, 2011, and Ludwig Maximilian University, Germany, 2016. His main area of interest and expertise is inclusion and inclusive education, educational planning and management, and social justice education.

Dr. Pramod Bhatta is an Assistant Professor at the Central Department of Sociology, Tribhuvan University, Nepal. Prior to this, he was a senior researcher of education at Martin Chautari, a research and policy institute in Kathmandu. He has conducted research on various aspects of Nepal’s school and higher education, and conducted various evaluations of Nepal’s education reforms since the 1990s. He has published extensively on education issues in Nepal. He is deeply interested in the functioning of public institutions (especially education) from the perspectives of policy and politics, governance, and privatisation.

Bidhan Acharya is Chairperson and Senior Researcher in Social and Academic Innovations Pte Ltd (SAIPL, Nepal). As an Associate Professor in Tribhuvan University he was involved in various demographic and social development studies. He led research in Kidney Trafficking in Nepal (USAID, the Asia Foundation) and Role of CSO in Human Resource for Health (Solid, Merlin, EU). He is one of the team members of Rural Emergency and Trauma System Strengthening Project (CRC, NRCS), Evaluation of Earthquake Relief (Kansas State Univ. and SAIPL). He has publications including in education, curriculum, gender and demographic issues in Nepal and abroad. He is also a prominent poet and writer in Nepal.

Janu Dhital is Managing Director and Researcher in Social and Academic Innovations Pte Ltd (SAIPL, Nepal). She is also the part of the studies of Kidney Trafficking in Nepal (USAID, the Asia Foundation), Trafficking in Women and Girls in Nepal (FPAN, IPPF), Evaluation of Earthquake Relief (Kansas State Univ. and SAIPL), Evaluation of Atlas Alliance Funded Projects in Nepal (OsloMet, Norway and SAIPL), Barriers of Political Participation of Women in India, Nepal and Bhutan (NIBR, Norway, Myrada, India, SAIPL, Royal University of Bhutan).

Pitambar Acharya has been working in Tribhuvan University (TU) for 20 years. Currently, he is Head of the Health and Population Education Department, Central Department of Education, TU. Besides teaching, he has worked on various research projects. The key areas of his research interest are reproductive health, adolescents, child marriage, education, gender and social exclusion. He is a researcher in this project representing the Faculty of Education, TU.

Laxmi Khadka is a Lecturer at the Central Department of Education, University Campus, Tribhuvan University, Kirtipur, Kathmandu. She has accumulated a rich experience of field research through involvement in a number of research projects. Laxmi is interested in educational leadership and issues around inclusion and exclusion. She is currently pursuing her PhD in educational leadership from Graduate School of Education, Faculty of Education, Tribhuvan University.

Ram Chandra Giri is an Assistant Professor of Special Needs Education in the Central Department of Education, Tribhuvan University. He holds an M.Ed in Special Needs Education and M.Sc in Geology. He is particularly interested in Inclusive Education for students with disabilities with a particular focus on inclusive pedagogy. He hopes to make a significant contribution in the area education for children with disabilities in Nepal.

Arild Schou is Professor at USN School of Business, Department of Business, Strategy and Political Sciences at University of South-Eastern Norway. Professor Schou has been in a variety of positions and completed assignments since 1996 which have resulted in a broad and in-depth practical as well as theoretical knowledge of ethnic conflict-management, governance and organisational management ‒ with particular emphasis on local government and local government reform. He has been in charge of and participated in a series of research and development projects in Africa and Asia (including Nepal) funded by the Norwegian Research Council, the World Bank and OECD (DAC).

Dr. Aasland is Research Professor at the Norwegian Institute for Urban and Regional Research (NIBR) at OsloMet. His research interests include social inclusion and exclusion, social policy and welfare, as well as ethnicity and migration. Aasland has been responsible for the organisation and analysis of several large-scale social surveys in countries in transition, including surveys on social inclusion and exclusion and women’s political participation in Nepal.