Dharam Raj Uprety, Nepal

Curriculum Vitae

Currently, Dharam Raj Uprety is working as Programme Manager for Climate Change and Disaster Risk Management at the Helvetas Nepal in the Climate Change and Disaster Risk Management Programme based in Lalitpur, Kathmandu City. With this exciting, and challenging assignment, he has been leading a multi-disciplinary team of professionals who deputed in disaster projects that are involved in the construction of disaster resilient school, housing, irrigation schemes, water schemes, agriculture livelihood activities for poor and climate and disaster vulnerable people in different parts of Nepal. Along with this job, he has also been working as International Council Member for IUFROO in Nepal since 2014. This is a volunteer position mainly to link the in-country forestry research to the international community via IUFRO. IUFRO is a non-profit, non-governmental international network of forest scientists, which promotes global cooperation in forest-related research and enhances the understanding of the ecological, economic and social aspects of forests and trees. IUFRO is "the" global network for forest science cooperation. It unites more than 15,000 scientists in almost 700 Member Organizations in over 110 countries, and is a member of ICSU. Scientists cooperate in IUFRO on a voluntary basis. The headquarter of IUFRO is located in Vienna, Austria. After returning back from Austria, Dharam Raj Uprety has been working in different organisations mainly in the forestry and climate change sector and has been supporting the Government of Nepal in the implementation of its development policies and strategies related to climate change and forestry. From 2009-2011, he worked as a Community Forestry and Livelihood specialist, based in ForestAction Nepal a non-government organisation) jointly with a DFID, and IDRC funded project. In between 2011-2015, he worked as Climate Change and Forestry Outcome Manager in a Multi-Stakeholder Forestry Programme hosted by the Embassy of Switzerland in Nepal. Since 2016 he has been working as Programme Manager for the Climate change and Disaster risk management Programme at the Helvetas Nepal. Soon after his Ph.D., he did a Post-Doc study at the Czech University of Life Sciences in Prague, Czech Republic.

Reflection

My selection for being a Ph.D. student at the University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences (BOKU), Vienna, Austria with financial support from the OeAD was the turning point of my life that led to develop my leadership and research competency, and to link with the international community. The successful accomplishment of my Ph.D. in 2006 not only opened the door for my career path, but also broadened my horizon of thinking and innovation. The country Austria is the foundation stone for my career path. All those success stories of my professional life where I stand now, and that I passed after completing of my Ph.D. are the outcomes of my higher education in Austria. I learned to live a dignified life, learned to link with the international community, scholars, academics, and institutions and thereby develop my leadership to compete with this competing world.