Dr Phuntsho Choden with over 20 years of experience working in various sectors in Bhutan including public sector, academia and private sector. Evaluation is her latest passion and coming from research and Social-Economics background, she is passionate about promoting evaluation culture in Bhutan.

She started her career as a civil servant and worked over a decade, honing her skills through practical implementation of public finance and fiscal policies, and gained exposure to a range of public policies. She has worked in the academia and has teaching and research experience at the Queensland University of Technology in Australia, as a visiting resource in Royal Institute of Management, and Gaeddu College of Business Studies under Royal University of Bhutan (RUB). She also served as an external examiner for BA Economics program at Sherubtse college, RUB.

Phuntsho is an independent consultant, researcher and an evaluator. Her sector expertise is diverse, in Development Economics, Business, Social Capital, Human Capital, Gender and Equity issues. In addition to her current position as the Chairperson to the Board of EAB, she is a Board member of the Bank of Bhutan Ltd. and the country representative of IOCOM.

Her recent research area has delved into culturally responsive evaluation, and this experience nurtured a deep interest and sense of responsibility to improve Bhutan’s evaluation system. She looks forward to contributing towards developing local knowledge base literature and work towards demystifying evaluation in the country.

Dr. Sonam Tshering began his career as a System Administrator withMinistry of Labour and Human Resources (MoLHR) in 2002. Upon serving in the Ministry for more than half a decade, he left for Japan to pursue his master’s degree in Information Engineering in 2007. He received his PhD in Interdisciplinary Intelligent System Engineering with a major in Statistical Analysis and Modeling in 2012 under the same Japanese Government Scholarship.

On returning home in 2013, he founded a research consulting company by the name of Bhutan Interdisciplinary Research & Development (BIRD). BIRD specializes in the areas of Program Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E); Needs Assessments and Feasibility Studies; Mobile Data Collection Solutions; Statistical Consulting Services; and Survey Data Collection, Management, Analysis and Modeling, among others.

Mr. Tashi Dorji served as Research Officer with Research & Evaluation Division, GrossNational Happiness Commission. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Commerce from Sherubtse College, P.G Certificate in Financial Management from Royal Institute of Management and Masters in Business Administration from Deakin University, Australia.

He also worked as Asst. Program Coordinator with Development Cooperation Division, Gross National Happiness Commission and as Trainee Officer with the NFS & Shungchop Division, Secretariat, Ministry of Finance.

Mr. Dhan Kumar Bhujel works as Monitoring and Evaluation Expert (National Consultant) with Health Sector Development Program Ministry of Health, funded by ADB. He holds the Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration from lASE-Deemed University, Rajasthan, and MA and PGD in Human Rights from Pondicherry University, India. His interest lies in Data Science, Social Research and Monitoring &Evaluation. He is also a certified Analyst with training on Big Data Analytics from Center for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), New Delhi, India.

His 12 years of past experiences include working as a Business Analyst with Construction Development Corporation Ltd, Marketing Officer with Regional Agricultural Marketing and Cooperative Office, MoAF, Mongar, as Asst. Program Officer with the Gross National Happiness Commission and Asst. Project/Liaison Officer with National Housing Development Corporation Thimphu.

Ms. Karma Choden is a professional with a strong NGO and media experience with foundations in communication, media and program management. As the Program Coordinator at QED Group, she has worked in managing several programs including their brand management for 4 years. At QED, she was the first Program Coordinator to single-handedly design, coordinate and organize several local and international conferences involving more than 15 countries and participants collectively exceeding 1500 individuals.

She has also single handedly nurtured relations with local as well as international partner foundations in more than 7 countries during this time. She is also a trainer and a facilitator having conducted several training modules on Entrepreneurship, Project Cycle Management, Leadership, Communication, Monitoring & Evaluation & Design Thinking. Additionally, over 8 years, she has provided consulting services in media, enterprise development, monitoring & evaluation and program design.

Jigmi manages M/s JIGMI Audit & Financials Pvt. Ltd. (JAF), an Audit Firm empanelled by the Royal Audit Authority (Supreme Audit Institution of Bhutan) to conduct statutory auditing besides carrying out other forms of auditing and accounting functions in the country. Since its establishment in October 2018, JAF has remained engaged in providing manifold consulting services such as:

• Auditing, Accounting, and Taxation;
• Liquidation and Valuation of companies;
• Preparation of net worth valuations of individuals and families;
• Preparation of Project and Investment Proposals;
• Impact Assessment Evaluations and Consultancies;
• Development of proposals to establish Insurance, Re-insurance, Banking and Fund Management companies; 
• Financial Training and Professional Development on Accounting Standards (BAS/BRFS), Accounting, Taxation, all forms and types of Auditing, and allied disciplines; and
• Development of Manuals and Service Rules.

From January 2019 to July 2020, Jigmi worked for Ernst & Young LLP, India, as an Audit Expert for the World Bank-administered MDF-PFM Project ‘Strengthening the Effectiveness and Capacity of Internal Audit in the Royal Government of Bhutan’ with the Ministry of Finance, Royal Government of Bhutan.

Prior to 2018, Jigmi was a Member of Parliament in National Council of Bhutan for ten years from 2008 to 2018. Earlier to 2008, he was a civil servant from 1995 till 2007. He was a Chief Investigation Officer with Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) in 2006-2007 and a Chief Auditor in Royal Audit Authority (RAA), heading the Corporations and Financial Institutions Division (CFID) from 2004 to 2006. In between for two years (2002-2003), he worked for Kuensel Corporation Ltd. as a General Manager on deputation form the Government.

As an Evaluation enthusiast, he was involved in formation of the Evaluation Association of Bhutan (EAB) in 2013. He is a Core-member of the Parliamentarians’ Forum for Development Evaluation (PFDE) in South Asia and also represents Global Parliamentarians’ Forum on Evaluation (GPFE) in the M&E community. As a representative of PFDE and GPFE, he had participated, both as resource person and participant, in various national and international conferences on Evaluation for Parliamentarians, Practitioners and professional evaluators in Bhutan, Brazil, Kyrgyzstan, The Philippines, Sri Lanka, and Thailand.

Jigmi keeps himself abreast of emerging developments on academic and professional front. He had served in Royal University of Bhutan (RUB)’s Course Validation Team for developing BBA (Bachelors of Business Administration) program since 2005 and later in 2010 for BBA and B.Com (Bachelor of Commerce) programs for Gedu College of Business Studies. He was a visiting lecturer for Accounting & Auditing in Royal Institute of Management (RIM) and for providing CPD programmes for auditors of RAA.

Jigmi has an Honours degree in Bachelors of Commerce from Sherubtse Collge (then under the University of Delhi, India) and is a Fellow Chartered Certified Accountant from the UK.