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Chandni Joshi ( born on 30th October) has over 50 years of professional experience. Joshi's name is synonymous with gender, rights and macro policies in Nepal and other South Asian countries alike. Envisioning all her life of a gender just world with pro-poor agenda, she had consistently strived for a world of equal opportunities, equal choices and equal recognition of work of both women and men. From a Lecturer at Padma Kanya College to the Regional Director of UNIFEM (United Nations Development Fund for Women) for South Asia, Joshi's professional journey has given her innumerous challenges at national, regional and global level which have enhanced her capabilities and evolved her into a powerhouse of knowledge in diverse issues. She is an inspiration to her peers and younger generation, and an asset to her nation, Nepal.

Early life and education

Joshi's twenty-six years of national civil service, eighteen years of international civil service and eleven years of freelancing has enabled her to possess a remarkable blend of multi-faceted and multi-dimensional development experience, spanning at all levels-micro, meso and macro. She set up the UNIFEM South Asia Regional Office in 1990 and devoted 18 years to build it as a knowledge-based organization until October 2008. She was formerly Joint Secretary as well as Chief of Women Development Programmes in Ministry of Local Development in the Government of Nepal. She had initiated a pioneering programme called Production Credit for Rural Women (PCRW) which was replicated in other parts of the world as well.

Expertise

• Institution building
• Building alliances and networks
• Bringing together synergized teams of professionals
• Fund raising, fund management & resource mobilization
• Linking macro issues with micro and vice verse
• Gender mainstreaming
• Micro-Credit

Career

Joshi has represented the Government of Nepal and UNIFEM at national, regional seminars and workshops and several world conferences, including the UN General Assembly in New York (1989), the Third World Conference on Women in Nairobi (1985), the NAAM Conference (1985), Earth Summit on Environment and Sustainable Development in Rio (1992), Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing (1995), World Water Summit (2006) and several SAARC Technical Committees and Regional Meetings. She has travelled far and wide – 65 districts in Nepal and 54 countries to be exact.

She has been closely involved in effectively mainstreaming gender in National Development Plans of Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Maldives and India. She had been involved in bringing in women's voices and perspective in the planning processes of these countries. Creating a space for women in the development dialogue, Joshi has, since 1981, worked to give a voice to the disadvantaged and marginalized groups like tribal women, peasant women, migrant women workers, survivors of trafficking and violence, women home-based workers, positive women and women in conflict and disaster situations. Responding to increased feminized poverty and women's amplified vulnerabilities to violence, trafficking, unsafe migration and HIV/AIDS, Ms. Joshi promotes convergence and a gender equality perspective in programming.

Always alert to emerging threats and opportunities, Joshi was also involved in providing a gendered response to disaster management efforts, such as Tsunami in Sri Lanka and Earthquake in India, Pakistan and Nepal. In particular, she is instrumental in keeping the Beijing Platform for Action central to the development dialogue in South Asia. Joshi has been closely involved in putting the issues of women's unaccounted work, invisibility in statistics; violence against women, including trafficking; and playing a catalytic role for gender responsive budgets in South Asia. Joshi has been decorated and honored several times by the Government of Nepal, various NGOs of South Asia and the UN.

Credibility

Institution building

Founder of production credit for rural women (PCRW) in Nepal - a successful micro credit module which has been widely replicated and marketed in the Third World countries. Within a span of 10 years, successfully metamorphosed Women Development Section of Ministry of Local Development from a tiny group three and a budget of US$1000 to a full fledged division with staff of hundreds, a strong field presence and a programme (PCRW) of over US$20 million in 50 out of 75 districts of Nepal. This institution now acts as a prime mover for organizing rural women and mainstreaming their concerns at both the local and national level and has expanded to 69 districts of Nepal.

Building alliances and networks

With a gift for fostering synergy and partnerships, she works with several partners including Governments, the SAARC Secretariat, NGOS, civil society, multilateral and bilateral agencies and private section Participating actively in inter-agency activities, she chairs the UN Inter-Agency Working Group on Gender is a Task Force Member of the UNDAF and convenes the WID donor group in India.

Fund raising, fund management & resource mobilization

Joshi has efficiently mobilized fund's and resources as Joint Secretary of His Majesty's Government of Nepal, as well as in UNIFEM. She raised US$20 million for the PCRW programme from various donor agencies likE CIDA, H,O, IFAD, Royal Netherlands Embassy, UISAID, UNICEF and UNFPA. During the lost 1l years, she raised $11 million for UNIFEM from donors like CIDA, Ford Foundation, NORAD, Royal Netherlands Embassy, SIDA, UNICEF UNFPA and USAID.

Mainstreaming Gender

Using a rights-based approach, she has successfully created linkages between the micro and the macro, bridging micro voices to macro policies at national, regional and global levels, bringing gender to the fore.

Other Accomplishments

In 1983, Joshi became the first democratically elected woman National President of Nepal Jaycees - a mass youth development organization mainly represented by men. She was also the only National President to walk to all 42 chapters of the organization (which included many remote districts of Nepal) to enhance leadership skills of its thousands of members.

MAJOR CONTRIBUTIONS

Built alliances and networks and Lobbied on behalf of the Poor to put their agenda in National and Global Forums such as

• World Water Forum in the Hague (2000),
• ILO Convention on Home Based Workers (1996);
• Fourth World Conference in Beijing (1995);
• Earth Summit in Rio (1992);
• 6 National Development Plans of Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Maldives (1988-2000 )
• 4 Census Exercises in India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka (1990-2001)

Built Partnerships with

• Economically Disadvantaged Groups
• Peasant Women
• Migrant Women
• Home Based Workers in the Informal Sector
• National Governments
• Civil Society & Private Sector

Launched successful campaigns on Women's Role in Agriculture & Environment How to combat Violence Against Women - "Anti-Trafficking" Promoted and successfully organized Regional Learning and Cross Fertilization on t Micro-Credit Catalyzed several Best Practices in Gender Mainstreaming CEDAW Good Governance Economic Empowerment Community Based Interventions to combat Violence Against Women

Awards and Felicitations

Joshi has been decorated and honored several times by the Government of Nepal, various NGOs of South Asia and the UN.

After her retirement from UN in 2008, Joshi has been involved in the following organizations:

1. Chair of Think Tank in Ministry of Women, Children and Elderly
2. Chair of Women Friendly Disaster Management Group who collectively formulated the ‘Women’s Charter of Demand’ after the earthquake - since 2015
3. Vice Chair of Forum of foreign International Professionals of Multilateral Organization(FIPMO) since 2014
4. Member of the Civil Society Advisory Group of UN Women Nepal – since 2012
5. Board Member of the Governing Council of Institute for Integrated Development Studies (IIDS), a leading research institution in Nepal - since 2011
6. Trustee in the Board of Nepal Jaycees – since 2010
7. Enforcer of HomeNet South Asia (HNSA) which advocates the rights of the marginalized women home based workers in the informal sector in South Asia – since 2008
8. Charter Member of Rotary of Jawalakhel Manjushree since 2008
9. Senator of Jaycees International (JCI) since 1982
10. Patron of SABAH Nepal