Purushottam Ghimire

Mr. Ghimire started his career working for the Government of Nepal from 1983 as an Audit Officer in the ‘Office of the Auditor General’ for 8 years. He then worked for the Parliament of Nepal for a decade as a Committee Secretary for the Foreign Affairs & Human Right. One of the highlights of this period was the implementation of the ‘Women Property Right Bill’ which granted equal right to the women regarding owing property traditionally being gender specific. In 2002 he started working for the Ministry of Science & Technology as an Under Secretary. One of his main contributions was the drafting of ‘Electronic Transaction Act 2007’ and revising of the ICT Policy. In 2007 he got promoted to the Joint Secretary in Ministry of Environment, and Chief of Climate Change & Environment Division. Under his dynamic leadership as a NPD, the National Adaptation Programme of Action (NAPA) was prepared with support of UNFCCC, DFID, UNDP and DANIDA. He initiated various climate change programs and led the Nepalese delegation numerous times at the international level including UNFCCC, UNEP, UNDESA, and UN. From 2011 up to his retirement in 2015, he worked with the National Planning Commission, the only planning advisory body to the Government of Nepal. He was engaged in preparing the 13th 3 Year Plan for the country. The areas that focused were environment, climate change, mountain issues and sustainable development. He was elected as one of the Board Members to the Global Mountain Partnership from the Asia Pacific Group for 3 years. In addition, he was also appointed the Focal Person for ICIMOD and UNDESA for 3 years. He was also involved in SDG process since RIO+20 conference and participated in many high level meetings of the UN from 2012 to 2015. He was the National Coordinator of RIO+20 in Nepal, and the international negotiator of ‘The Future We Want’. He was able to raise issues faced by the least developed countries, which was recognized and incorporated in many international platforms. He also had the opportunity to be the negotiator in climate change for UNFCCC for 4 years from COP meeting in Bali to Cancun. Besides the government service, he was the elected Board Member of the ‘Management Association of Nepal’, and became the HR Coordinator in 1998. In 2000 he was elected its Secretary General. Moreover, he has good experience in socio-economic research. Under the banner of Research and Study Centre (RESTUC), he worked as a researcher, team leader, coordinator in different socio-economic research from national up to regional and international level from 1991 to 2007. At present, he is working as a Consultant Expert on DRR, climate change and SDGs specially working with the ICIMOD, UNESCAP, World Bank and others national and international organizations.