Biography / Professional Profile
Anusha Khanal is a research and communications professional working at the intersection of academia, civic engagement, public policy, and documentary storytelling. Her work draws on fieldwork and stakeholder engagement with communities and policymakers across Nepal, India, Bhutan, Europe, and the United States. She is the Production Manager at Herne Katha, a social documentary series from Nepal, where she leads research, communications, and project management. She previously worked as a Research Associate at the International Center for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), analyzing climate change and migration discourse in Nepali media.
Her research portfolio spans labor migration and governance, youth mobilization, comparative political party analysis, and urban studies, including prior work with Policy Entrepreneurs Inc. (PEI) and the Democracy Resource Center Nepal (DRCN), as well as her graduate studies in Vienna, Copenhagen, Madrid, and Brussels. Her civic engagement work includes digital campaigns and voter awareness initiatives. She facilitated the participatory process that institutionalized Nepal's September Gen Z movement through its landmark 10-point agreement with the Government of Nepal.
For this fellowship, she is focusing on labor diplomacy and migrant workers, examining how Nepal's capacity to negotiate, conclude, and operationalize Bilateral Labour Migration Agreements (BLMAs) can be strengthened to improve better outcomes for migrant workers across a wider set of destination countries.
Anusha holds an MSc in Urban Studies from the 4Cities Erasmus Mundus Programme and a BA in International Political Economy from Colorado College. She received her International Baccalaureate Diploma from United World College of Changshu China.
Their Work with IFA
Her research examines how Nepal can overcome institutional gaps in its bilateral labor agreements to better protect migrant workers across 111 destination countries. Drawing on official interviews and global best practices, the study proposes end-to-end reforms for labor diplomacy—from early MoFA involvement in negotiations and regular Joint Working Committee meetings to building institutional memory and making agreements publicly accessible.