Daksha Shakya is an M.A. candidate in International Development Studies. She was born and raised in Kathmandu, Nepal. Her interest in international development first started in 2005 when she worked as a facilitator for a youth empowerment project in Nepal. She also tutored youth in Nepal while volunteering for the Rugmark Foundation, an organization that works to prevent illegal child labor in the handmade carpet industry. In 2008, she studied abroad in Cape Town, South Africa and while there she volunteered at the Kensington Township teaching children and youth a basic numeracy, literacy, and life skills component. After graduation from Ithaca College in 2009, Daksha worked as a Program Management Assistant for a consulting firm and as a Compliance Administrator for an NGO in the DC metro area. She currently works with the World Bank’s Transitional Demobilization and Reintegration Program. Her major projects have included the design of an economic reintegration project for demobilized soldiers in South Sudan and a qualitative field study in northern Uganda to study the role of women-run economic associations in promoting social cohesion between female ex-combatants and their community counterparts. Daksha is currently assisting the team lead to study the contribution of vocational training programs towards sustainable livelihoods of ex-combatants in Rwanda and DRC. She is fluent in Nepali, English, and Hindi and is learning French.
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