School of Law
Visiting faculty: Bishnu Adhikari
Bishnu Adhikari is a Democracy and Governance expert with over 22 years of experience in the fields of civil society, political and electoral systems, and local governance, both as an adviser and university lecturer. He is a visiting expert in economic governance, dedicating 12 hours per academic year to lectures, seminars, or workshops for law students at Kathmandu University School of Law. Currently, he serves as the Governance Director for The Asia Foundation in Nepal.
Adhikari completed his M.A. in Political Science from Tribhuvan University, Nepal, in 1996, achieving the highest score in his batch. He also pursued further studies at Stanford University in the USA as a fellow specializing in Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law in 2009.
Since January 2017, Bishnu has held the position of Deputy Team Leader for the Economic Policy Incubator, a research and consultancy project under DFID Nepal.
Previously, Bishnu served as a Governance Adviser to DFID in Nepal for four years. In this capacity, he provided expert advice on governance and political economy to DFID Nepal and supervised the implementation of a multimillion-dollar framework for local governance and community development with the Ministry of Federal Affairs and Local Development, as well as a joint donor civil society program with a budget of $35 million.
From January 2011 to July 2013, Bishnu worked as the Strategy and Governance Adviser for the Enabling State Programme (ESP), a DFID/Nepal civil society program with a budget of £17 million. In this role, he supported ESP and DFID/Nepal in identifying priority areas for civil society support and fostering productive partnerships between civil society organizations and key national and local government institutions.
Between 2000 and 2010, Bishnu provided advisory services to USAID/Nepal on Democracy and Governance (DG) issues and served as the Deputy Team Leader of the Democracy and Governance/Conflict Mitigation Office. He often represented USAID as the Acting Division Chief/Team Leader, and his responsibilities included developing DG programs related to civil society, political and electoral processes, rule of law, and anti-corruption. He also led technical teams in program evaluations and assessments, ensuring the delivery of results.
Over a decade, Bishnu was directly responsible for designing and implementing numerous high-profile, large, and complex USAID-funded DG programs. From 1996 to 2000, Bishnu led prominent research projects on political developments, refugees, and decentralization in Nepal while working as a lecturer of political science at the Centre for Nepal and Asian Studies at Tribhuvan University.