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Dr. Bimala Rai Paudyal is Member of National Assembly of Federal Parliament of Nepal. She holds a PhD in Development Studies from Institute of Social Studies, the Hague, Netherlands; an MA in Economics and Management of Rural Development; a Post Graduate Diploma in Development Administration from Manchester University, UK; and a BSC in Agriculture Economics from Tribhuvan University, Nepal. Prior to this position, Bimala served as a member of the National Planning Commission of the Government of Nepal. She is associated with the Agriculture and Forestry University (AFU) of Nepal as an adjunct Professor of Development Studies. She represents Nepal in Climate Parliament and International Parliamentary Network for Education (IPNEd).

She has worked with government agencies, INGOs, bilateral organisations and NGOs. After the devastating earthquake of April 2015 in Nepal, Bimala Rai Paudyal took lead responsibility of coordinating the Post Disaster Need Assessment (PDNA) thematic teams of Gender Equality and Social Inclusion; Social Protection; and Forestry and Environment Conservation. She also contributed in the formulation of the Post-Earthquake Early Recovery Strategy and Reconstruction Policy with focus on mainstreaming gender equality and empowerment of women, livelihoods recovery, social rehabilitation and resilience building.

Bimala is associated with a number of public institutions. Most notable positions include Board of Directors for the Centre for Peoples and Forest (RECOFTC) for six years (2011-2017) and Alliance for Social Dialogue, Nepal programme on Open Society Foundation for three years (2015-2018). She has also been one of the members of High-Level Task Team in Organic Agriculture and a member of civil society advisory group for UN Women in Nepal (2016-2018). She has undertaken extensive research and has number of publications on mainstreaming gender equality and social inclusion; climate smart agriculture; natural resource governance; disaster risk reduction; and post-earthquake reconstruction. She is an occasional peer reviewer of international journals including European Journal of Development Research (EJDR) and Pakistan Journal of Women’s Studies.