Rachana Shrestha joined SDTC-GOV on 16 Sep 2020 as Public Management Specialist and is responsible for multi-level governance pillar under Operational Priority (OP) 6, which constitutes decentralization, public service delivery, public financial management, localizing SDGs, and policy and institutional reforms at subnational and local government levels. She provides technical and knowledge support to operations departments in these areas.  

 Prior to joining SDTC, she served in Nepal Resident Mission/SARD for 11 years as senior national officer (governance and public management), where she processed (as co-mission leader and member) and administered (as mission leader) several loans and technical assistance projects mostly in Nepal but also in India and Bhutan. She led policy and institutional reforms in local governance in Nepal through two PBLs and three TAs (2008-2016). She also worked on projects in Lao PDR and Tajikistan during her development assignment in ADB HQ (Feb-Jun 2016). She also has long experience in conducting governance risk assessments under GACAP II guideline. She published ‘Governance and Institutional Risks and Challenges in Nepal’ report in Dec 2019. She also co-authored a global award-winning case study on local governance reforms in Nepal. 

 Prior to joining ADB, she worked for Netherlands Development Organization (SNV) for a year as consultant, and Voluntary Service Overseas, an international development organization in Nepal for 5 years.  

 She has a master’s degree in International Development Policy from Duke University, USA (a Fulbright scholar), with majors in public policy and applied economics. She also has a master’s degree in Sociology from Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu, Nepal. She completed a distance learning course on Development Management from Open University, UK.