Dr. Ram Kumar Phuyal

Dr. Phuyal is an economist and development planner with more than two decades of professional experience in economic research, academia, public policy, and national development planning. He served as a Member of the National Planning Commission of Nepal from 2018 to 2024, where he provided strategic leadership across key thematic areas and played a central role in formulating Nepal’s Fifteenth and Sixteenth Periodic Plans. His contributions include advancing subnational planning, strengthening the national data system, and promoting evidence-based policy reforms. Dr. Phuyal has represented Nepal in major international platforms, including the UN General Assembly and the High-Level Political Forum. He has collaborated extensively with UN agencies such as UNDP, ILO, UNICEF, UN Women, and UNFPA as well as development partners including the ADB, World Bank, and GIZ, particularly on sustainable development, LDC graduation, employment, migration, and social protection agendas. He is currently an Expert Professor of Economics at the Centre for Economic Development and Administration (CEDA), Tribhuvan University, and has previously served as an Associate Professor at the same institution. Dr. Phuyal holds a PhD in Economics from Chonnam National University (CNU), Korea (2011), completed a post-doctoral fellowship at CNU’s Center for Regional Development (2012), and has authored more than five dozen academic and policy papers.