Technical Support

Key Expertise

Dr. Kishori Mahat is a public health professional with over ten years of experience at sub-national, national and international levels. Her technical expertise extends to numerous areas in public health including maternal, newborn and child health; adolescent and reproductive health; nutrition, gender and women’s health, health systems strengthening,health financing, health program planning, monitoring and evaluation, and clinical research.

She is currently employed with HERD International as Quality Assurance and Regulation Advisor and is seconded to the Ministry of Health as part of the National Health Sector Support Programme III (NHSSP 3).

Qualification

2012- Flagship course on Health System Strengthening and Sustainable Financing, Harvard school of Public Health in partnership with GIZ and USAID, Nepal.

2007- Master of Public health (MPH), Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand

2003- Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS), Z. H. Sikder Womens’ Medical College, Dhaka University, Bangladesh

Work undertaken that best illustrates capability to handle the tasks assigned

Advisor Health and Nutrition, World Concern, Yangon, Myanmar: As Advisor for Health and Nutrition, Dr. Mahat led and conducted the Nutritional Causal Analysis in Kayin State in Myanmar. She worked in partnerships with UN agencies, civil societies and I/NGOs for coordinated action in health and nutrition.

Technical Officer, Program Planning, Partnerships and Coordination, WHO SEARO, New Delhi, India: Her role was to provide technical support to WHO member states of South East Asia Region (SEAR) in implementing and monitoring the public health flagship priorities of the Regional Director. This included; Measles and Rubella elimination, universal health coverage with focus on strengthening human resources for health and essential medicines, combating antimicrobial resistance, and prevention of non-communicable diseases. She was also responsible to provide guidance in WHO program budget planning, monitoring and evaluation with the  effort to achieve organizational goal and contribute in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.

Technical Officer, Regional Director’s Office (RDO), WHO-SEARO, New Delhi, India: As Technical Officer, Dr. Mahat liaised with technical departments and WHO Country Offices in implementing the priority public health programs of the Regional Director, particularly the unfinished MDGs. As planning, monitoring, evaluation, and resource mobilization focal point, one of her roles was to ensure adequate fund was mobilized and allocated to the priority programs.

Health Specialist, Child Health and Survival, UNICEF, Country office, Nepal: As a Health Specialist, Dr. Mahat provided technical assistance to Department of Health Services (DoHS), Government of Nepal in the development and implementation of child health policies, strategies, and programs particularly; immunization, Integrated Management of Childhood Illness and newborn Health programs.

National Professional Officer, Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, Child, Adolescent Heath and Gender and Women’s Health, WHO Country Office, Nepal: Dr. Mahat was responsible for technical support to Family Health Division, Ministry of Health in the areas of reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health, gender and women’s health, and healthy ageing. She also served as the regional resource person for the UN One Health costing Tool.
 

Key Expertise

Dr. Ghanshyam Gautam is a Health Economist by profession and has over ten years of experience in health policy and planning, financing reforms and social health protection. His key areas of expertise are strategy development, health systems reforms, health financing, social health protection, policy research and costing. Throughout his career, he has provided technical assistance to ministries, international organizations, private organizations, and international donors in the areas of health strategy and planning, health financing, health insurance, and resource tracking and costing.

His career highlights include leading the Post-Disaster Need Assessment (PDNA) for Health Sector from the development partners’ side and his work in Afghanistan as a Health Economist in a USAID-funded Health Sector Resiliency Project.

He is currently employed with HERD International as Health Economist and Planning Advisor and is seconded to the Ministry of Health as part of the National Health Sector Support Programme (NHSSP).

Qualification

2007-PhD, Economics, Osaka Sangyo University, Japan

2001- MA, Economics, Tribhuvan University, Nepal

Work undertaken that best illustrates capability to handle the tasks assigned

Health Economist- The Palladium Group, USA: Dr. Gautam provided mentoring and training support Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) in Afghanistan in health financing, policy processes and economic studies. He extended support in high-level advocacies for increased domestic resources for health, facilitated policy processes on health financing reforms, and supported health systems researches.

Costing Expert-Consultant, World Health Organization, Nepal: His responsibilities included analysing budget and expenditure data in the health sector, identifying resource requirements for costing of National Health Sector Strategy; and projecting the overall cost of implementing strategy over five years’ period (2015- 2020) with low, medium and high case scenarios.

Health Financing Expert, German International Cooperation, Nepal: As an independent consultant, Dr. Gautam extended support in the Health Sector Support Programme. His responsibilities included supporting in preparing the regulatory framework, scheme design and implementation procedure for national health insurance; analysing the current pricing and cost of delivering health services in relation to designing provider payment for health insurance; supervising analytical works towards the production of National Health Accounts; among others.

Technical Expert, NHSSP, Options Consultancy, UK: Dr. Gautam supported in formulating the Nepal Health Sector Strategy (2015/16-2019/20) by contributing in defining outcomes, outputs, target indicators and major interventions for the strategy, supporting in producing implementation plan as per the strategy and analysing expenditure pattern and forecasting financing scenario for the implementation period of the strategy.

Senior Programme Officer- German International Cooperation, Nepal: During this tenure, Dr. Gautam provided technical advice to the Ministry of Health and Population on health financing and social health protection; supported in conducting research studies and reviews, and explored reform options to improve health system performance; and engaged in stakeholder dialogue and consultation for the Health Sector Support Program.

Key Expertise

Mr. Ramesh Kumar Sharma is a highly sought after professional with over thirty-five years of experience with the Government of Nepal (GoN). Over the years, he has served in numerous influential positions within the government. He worked as the Secretary to the various agencies of the Government of Nepal from August 2015 to January 2017. Mr. Sharma has three years of experience as Gazetted Special Class Secretary of the GoN with working experiences in National Vigilance Centre, Ministry of Peace and Reconstruction, Financial Comptroller General and Public Procurement Monitoring Office.

Mr. Sharma is currently employed with HERD International as Senior Public Procurement Advisor and is seconded to the Ministry of Health as part of the PPFM work stream of the National Health Sector Support Programme (NHSSP).

Qualification

1994- Diploma in Computer Technology, NCC, Nepal

1985- Master of Business Administration, Tribhuwan University, Nepal

Work undertaken that best illustrates capability to handle the tasks assigned

• Gazetted Ist Class Officer of GoN working in Public Service Commission as a Joint Secretary.
• Gazetted Ist Class Officer of GoN working in Public Service Commission as a Regional Director.
• Gazetted Ist Class Officer of GoN working in Revenue Investigation Department as Deputy Director General
• Gazetted Ist Class Officer of GoN in Ministry of Peace and Reconstruction as Joint Secretary.
• Facilitator of Interim Constitution Draft Committee of Nepal.
• Former Member of the Drafting Committee of Public Procurement Act, 2007 and Public Procurement Regulation, 2007 in 2005/06.
• Initiative Member of the Drafting Committee of the current amendment of the Public Procurement Act, 2007 and Public Procurement Regulation, 2007 in 2016/17.
• Selected as a Best Innovator for "South Asia Procurement Innovation Award 2016/17" for e-GP execution in Nepal in 4th South Asia Region Public Procurement Conference (SARPPC) held from February 20-23 in Sri Lanka.