Monica Khanal joins GHD with over four years of experience in project management, specializing in development initiatives and impact-driven business. Her career began at a local NGO in Nepal, where she conducted research on pressing global issues and organized an annual flagship event to engage youth in policy dialogues. She further led three community-level projects in areas of gender equality, inclusive digital spaces, and entrepreneurship, two of which were co-founded during her tenure as a member of the Advisory Council to the U.S. Ambassador to Nepal on youth issues. Through her grassroots work, Monica identified poverty as a common denominator affecting her target audience and recognized that many challenges could be alleviated through increased income and economic security.

Driven by her passion for sustainable youth empowerment through income generation, Monica joined CloudFactory, a global workforce solutions provider. As a project associate, she contributes to the company's mission of creating jobs in lower-income economies such as Nepal and Kenya. Monica brings to GHD her experience of leading demand-driven projects, managing stakeholder relationships at the national and international levels, and her deep interest in development economics, employment generation, and intersectionality.

Monica holds an undergraduate business degree in finance from Kathmandu University School of Management, Nepal. An adventurous and creative spirit, she enjoys exploring a wide range of hobbies and is always eager for new tests and tastes. She is passionate about all forms of art, including dance, painting, singing, and writing. In her free time, she indulges in travel vlogs and food hunts, delighting in the discovery of new flavors and destinations.

Why GHD?

Monica chose GHD because she found its courses to be uniquely structured, integrating a comprehensive development toolkit essential in the real-world scenarios. These courses lay a solid foundation for comprehending global complexities through both policy and local lens. Additionally, her decision to choose GHD was influenced by its small cohort size and the selection of outstanding individuals from a wide array of backgrounds, which she has found to have contributed to rich learning experiences both in and out of class. Over the years, GHD has fostered a warm and welcoming community of development practitioners who are deeply committed to making positive impact.

Summer Internship

National Youth Opportunities Towards Advancement (NYOTA) aims at improving youth employability, expanding employment opportunities and encouraging savings among vulnerable youth beneficiaries, women, refugees and host communities.
During summer 2024, I worked with the World Bank Kenya in the Social Protection and Jobs Unit. I was involved in the effectiveness and implementation of the project NYOTA through field missions and project review with the Government of Kenya (GoK), Project Management Unit (PMU) and the WBG. I designed and executed an intermediate-term Monitoring and Evaluation proposal for the project for quicker evaluation than awaiting for long-term tracer study. I also designed and proposed data visualizations ready to be integrated in the Management Information System (MIS) accessible to all project stakeholders. This easy-to-use data visualizations would serve in project briefs, resource optimizations and progress tracking.

Kenya’s growing youth population shows a potential for high demographic dividend. I conducted a feasibility study of Global Skill Partnership (GSP) in collaboration with the World Bank Migration team in DC and acted as a liaison between WB and GoK to explore integration of the GSP initiative in NYOTA. I was also involved in developing knowledge resources on adaptation of results-based financing (RBF) in NYOTA.