Selected 8 recent graduates of KOICA’s Master’s Degree Scholarship Program have shared the outcome of their thesis, experiences and knowledge gained during their stay in Korea which can be implemented in the context of Nepal.

They highlighted Korea’s student oriented learning and research environment, master’s thesis preparations, daily life, cultural exchanges, global networks which is solely supported by Korean Government.

Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) and KOICA Alumni Association of Nepal (KAAN) have organized an Online KOICA Scholarship Experience Sharing Program on March 05, 2021.

In the year 2019 a total 15 government official were selected in KOICA's Masters Degree Scholarship program (CIAT (Capacity Improvement & Advancement for Tomorrow) and graduated from various renowned Korean Universities. This year as well there are 18 Scholarship Programs offering various courses on Rural Development, Governance, Environment Energy and Technology. The main objective of the webinar was to share the experience and knowledge of the Scholarship program.

In the program, Country Director of KOICA Sunghoon Ko, congratulated the 2020 Master’s Fellows for their success in the program. He highlighted the key aspects of CIAT program and cited the Korea's economic development and the role of skilled human resource in nation-building.

For encouraging the webinar Nabaraj Gautam, General Secretary of KOICA Alumni Association of Nepal (KAAN), gave an informative presentation on KAAN network and partnership with KOICA. He shared that every year KAAN provides a Knowledge Dissemination Platform to all the graduates from KOICA’s Fellowship Program.

This year as well plan has been made to disseminate thesis of Samikshya Niraula who is graduated from Ehwa University. Her thesis title is “Female Labor Migration and Empowerment; A case study of Nepalese Female Migrants working in South Korea”.

Simultaneously, Knowledge sharing of country specific fellowship program will be also conducted among the related stakeholders which is a short term multiyear program that is designed specifically as per the requirement of an individual partner country.

In the closing remarks, Jinhwa Kim, Deputy Country Director of KOICA mentioned that it’s a great honor to have 426 KOICA alumni in Nepal who succeeded Master’s Program under KOICA and hoped KOICA’s Master’s Scholarship Program will facilitate capacity building for its fellows and strengthen bilateral ties between Nepal and Republic of Korea. She appreciated all the participants’ effort in KOICA Scholarship Program under COVID 19 pandemic situation and requested to actively participate in knowledge sharing programs of 2021.

KOICA launched the fellowship program, CIAT, in 1991 to help developing countries to build administrative and technical capacity in various sectors with the target of capacity building and sharing Korea's experience and technology for development. About 150 government officers have received Masters Scholarship as of 2020. They are currently utilizing their experiences as they work and contribute in various government sectors of Nepal.