Dr. Paras Kharel, Executive Director, SAWTEE, participated in the 65th Conference of Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE) in Bengaluru, India. He was a panelist in a panel on Dynamics of Emerging Labour Markets and Changing Industrial Relations, organized by South Asian Network on Economic Modeling (SANEM) and Institute of Human Development India on 10 Jan 2025. He also chaired a technical session on Service Sector Employment: Structure, Trends and Implications.

Kshitiz Dahal, Senior Research Officer, SAWTEE, participated in the interaction programme between policy think tanks in Kathmandu and the BIMSTEC Secretariat organized by the Policy Research Institute (PRI) on 9 January 2025. He provided his views on strengthening BIMSTEC at the event attended by His Excellency Mr. Indra Mani Pandey, Secretary General of BIMSTEC.

After having successfully organized the 15th South Asia Economic Summit in December 2024, SAWTEE staff and members, along with their families, spent the weekend of 4-5 January 2025 atop Chandragiri hill, some 2,500 metres above sea level on the outskirts of Kathmandu valley, brainstorming on SAWTEE’s strategy until 2030 while enjoying panoramic views of Himalayan ranges and a bird’s-eye view of the valley.

SAWTEE organized an interaction programme between Mr. Chandra Ghimire, Nepal’s ambassador-designate to the UK, and SAWTEE’s board members and staff at SAWTEE office on 3 January 2025. On the occasion, SAWTEE felicitated Mr. Ghimire, also a former Commerce Secretary of the Government of Nepal, wished him a successful tenure as Nepal’s envoy to the UK, an important trade and development partner of Nepal, and provided some inputs based on SAWTEE’s research to advance Nepal-UK economic ties. Mr. Ghimire registered his deep appreciation for SAWTEE’s inputs.

Ms. Neelu Thapa, Treasurer, SAWTEE and Mr. Prajol Joshi, Economist, SAWTEE participated in the Regional Consultation on Innovative Ideas and Knowledge Sharing, held in Kathmandu, Nepal, on 14 December 2024. The event was organized by the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), Bangladesh, in collaboration with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. 

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The Fifteenth South Asia Economic Summit (SAES XV), organized by SAWTEE, concluded in Kathmandu on December 13, 2024, after three days of discussions held from December 11 to 13. The Summit, themed “Unleashing an Equitable Green Transformation in South Asia,” served as a platform to discuss the region’s most pressing challenges and opportunities for sustainable development.

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Dr. Paras Kharel, Executive Director, SAWTEE, presented on non-tariff measures facing select least developed (LDCs) countries in the Asia-Pacific region in the context of LDC graduation at the First Asia-Pacific Biennial Review of the Doha Programme of Action for Least Developed Countries for the Decade 2022–2031, organized by United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) and the Royal Government of Cambodia in Phnom Pehn, Cambodia on 4-5 December 2024. Policymakers and experts from the region gathered at the review meeting.

Mr. Kshitiz Dahal, Senior Research Officer, participated at the 2024 Australasian Aid Conference at Crawford School of Public Policy, Canberra, organized by Australian National University (co-organized by the Asia Foundation). He made a presentation about "The political economy of debt in South Asia" at the panel discussion held on 4 December. Mr. Dahal talked about the political economy of rising public debt in the region, focusing on Nepal. 

Ms Dikshya Singh, Programme Coordinator of SAWTEE, participated in the Eighth South and South-West Asia Forum on Sustainable Development, co-hosted by the NITI Aayog of the Government of India and ESCAP, in collaboration with the UN Resident Coordinator and the Research and Information System for Developing Countries, India from 12—14 November 2024 in New Delhi, India. The forum offered a unique opportunity for multiple stakeholders to exchange information and reflections on SDG implementation efforts in countries and to draw common priorities and issues across the South and South-West Asia subregion. The outcomes and recommendations from the Forum will feed into regional and global processes, including the abovementioned APFSD and HLPF in the following year. Ms Singh also participated as a panellist at the side event ’Addressing the Digital Divide for Women in South and South-West Asia’ that discussed the key barriers women in South and South-West Asia face in accessing digital technologies and the urgent interventions required to bridge this divide. 

Dr. Paras Kharel, Executive Director, SAWTEE, participated in "Expert Group Meeting on the Asia-Pacific Countries with Special Needs Development Report 2025" on 20 November 2024. In particular, he provided comments on the implementation of the Doha Programme of Action for the Least Developed Countries.