The Nepalese Students Association at New Mexico State University (NeSA-NMSU) held its sixth annual international conference entitled ‘National Development: Opportunities and challenges for the Diaspora’ on March 22, 2014 at NMSU, New Mexico, USA.

The conference focused on the opportunities and challenges of the Diasporas community in the development of the native countries of each Diaspora group. The conference aimed to facilitate the discourse to promote the progress of both homeland and host land by identifying the better ways to engage, enable and empower the diaspora community forthe betterment of the nation.

In his welcome address, conference coordinator, Deepak Basyal, said that there was a need of such conference to provide a less intimidating forum for allinternational graduate students to present and promote their research work and to connect their works with the issues of the native lands too. Advisor of NeSA, Dr. Ram Acharya said, such programsplay a catalytic role in the attainment of the success of the international community.

The Interim Dean of the Graduate School of the New Mexico State University, Dr. Loui Reyes talked about his future plan of collaborating with the universities in the foreign countries topromote better education and lifelong learningof the students of both the USA and the partner countries. He emphasized the need and importance of such international conferences to promote awareness of the international community in the US universities..

The presentations made during the conference included investigations of the scholars from six different universities: New Mexico State University, University of Texas at El Paso, University of New Mexico, Texas Tech University, Texas A&M University, and Arizona State University.

Dr Doleshwor Bhandari, a professor from the department of economics of the University of New Mexico presented his interesting research on ‘Why Happiness matters?’ Dr. Megha N Parajuli, a professor from department of Agriculture of the Texas A&M University presented his work: the opportunities and challenges of the agricultural research in Nepal.

The keynote speaker Dr Ambika P Adhikari, senior sustainability scientist and research program manager from the Arizona State University presented on opportunities and challenges of the Diaspora around the globe. Dr. Adhikari is one of the active members advocating for the Open University in Nepal, and a patron of the NRNA (Non-Resident Nepalis Association), representing the global Nepali Diaspora.He provided an overview of major Diaspora activities in the world, and gave a detailed analysis of the Nepali Diaspora efforts to support development in Nepal. He stated that Diaspora resources have been under-utilized by both the native countries and host nations, and that both can benefit greatly by mobilizing the Diaspora’s advantages.

The conference touched on the opportunities and obstacles the Diasporas are facing with academic and professional life in a foreign land and the challenges of collaboration with the stakeholders of the country of origin. In addition to that, the conference discussed on how the outcomes of such endeavors and hard work need to be integrated and fine-tuned so that novel strategies can be implemented for the development of the nation.

The conference was attended by about 60 individuals representing scholars, educators, practitioners and other stakeholders from various parts of the USA represented several youth, professionals and other organizations of Diasporas in America. Moderating the conference, coordinator of the program, Deepak Basyal said, NeSA NMSU will continue organizing such program. NeSA president Rishi Sapkota, summarized the program and extended the vote of thanks to all those who helped.

source: republica,26 march 2014