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Atul Pokharel, a postdoctoral fellow at the Watson Institute for International Studies at Brown, has focused much of his research on development in Nepal.  A citizen of Nepal, he has devoted attention since the recent devastating earthquakes to organizing a broad effort to help coordinate the response  (nepalquake.org). In addition to sharing information about the events and activities taking place in and around Kathmandu, this session will consider the following: 

• Do we rebuild or resettle people who lived in exceptionally remote places (such as the epicenter)?
• How can government agencies, donors and voluntary organizations, which all now have substantial amounts of money and attention, continue to work together as they appeared to do during the initial emergency response?
• How can a country that has a large diasporic community effectively harness global contributions and goodwill?
• What implications will the emergency response have for the process of writing the constitution?
• Does this sudden destruction of settlements and infrastructure provide an opportunity to plan afresh? For example, does this provide an impetus and opportunity to further the land reform agenda?