Chandni Joshi

HNSA's Enforcer, Ms. Chandni Joshi is a Gender, Rights and Policy Specialist with over 56 years of experience. In her initial years, she served as the Joint Secretary as well as the Chief of Women Development Program for the Government of Nepal. During her tenure, she initiated the pioneering Production Credit for Rural Women (PCRW) Programme that was the first economic empowerment program in Nepal. She has contributed immensely to gender-responsive budgets in South Asia. In 1990, she set up the UNIFEM South Asia Regional Office and devoted 18 years into moulding it into a knowledge-based organisation. As the Regional Director, she took UNIFEM's development agenda forward by supporting innovative and experimental programmes benefiting excluded women.

In 2017, the Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare, Government of Nepal appointed Ms. Joshi as the Coordinator of the Think Tank of the Ministry. Presently, she is the Senior National Advisor for UN Women Nepal. She has received several awards and was honoured with a Lifetime Achievement Award by the President of Nepal in 2009.