Dr. Neera Shrestha Pradhan is a Senior Water and Adaptation Specialist and the Coordinator for ICIMOD’s work on Managing Cryosphere and Water Risks.

Neera has over 20 years of professional experience in the fields of disaster risk resilience, river basin management, environmental management and freshwater conservation. She worked with organizations such as WWF Nepal, IUCN Asia, and IUCN Nepal, before joining ICIMOD in 2010 as Water and Adaptation Specialist and Programme Coordinator for the Strengthening Water Resources Management in Afghanistan (SWaRMA) and the Koshi Basin initiatives.

During her career, Neera has made significant contributions to her field. She has published scientific peer-reviewed papers, journal articles, and book chapters, and was one of the lead authors of a chapter on disaster risk reduction and building resilience in the Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH) Assessment report. Her achievements include securing the UNFCCC’s Momentum for Change 2014 Lighthouse Activity Award for a community-based flood early warning system, supporting the Government of Nepal in declaring high-altitude wetlands as Ramsar sites, and bridging adaptation knowledge gaps in the HKH through the UNFCCC/NWP’s Lima Adaptation Knowledge Initiative (LAKI).

Neera holds a PhD in climate change from the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, China, a master’s degree in environmental management from the Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand, and a bachelor’s in Engineering from the National Institute of Technology, India.