About HERD International

HERD International is a national research and development organisation in Nepal. Its vision is to promote health and well-being by generating quality evidence, and informing policy, strategies and practice.

 

HERD International brings diverse research expertise including national level household and health facility surveys, randomized controlled trials, operations research, implementation research, participatory approaches and ethnography. The team has contributed to policies, strategies and operational guidelines, that are reflected in the Ministry of Health and Population’s policies and strategies. At present, HERD International is a consortium partner providing FCDO-funded technical assistance to the Ministry for the effective implementation of the 2015-20 Nepal Health Sector Strategy, focusing on policy and planning, service delivery, evidence and accountability, public financial management, quality of care, health infrastructure and gender equality, and social inclusion in health sector.

 

More on HERD International on its website. [opens new tab]

HERD International and ReBUILD for Resilience

HERD International is a ReBUILD for Resilience partner. The team brings a range of expertise on health policy and systems strengthening, health financing and economics, evaluation of health systems interventions, including participatory research approaches. Through this partnership, HERD hopes to enhance its ongoing strategic engagement with policy practitioners and to help generate contextually appropriate evidence for resilient, equitable health systems.

HERD International projects

Follow the links for project details and outputs:

Dr Sushil Baral

Managing director

 

Sushil is a principle investigator for HERD’s ReBUILD for Resilience team. He is public health researcher with nearly three decades of experience in health systems health policy and planning, embedded implementation research, and scale-up of evidence-based best practice with a long-term involvement in health sectors in developing countries. As former DFID/FCDO health adviser, he has contributed to the design and execution of DFID’s support of the Nepal Health Sector Programme 1 and 2, and managed the DFID support portfolio (around £55 million) to Nepal’s Ministry of Health and Population. His areas of expertise include designing and managing large-scale surveys, and conducting monitoring and evaluation-based studies and programme-based operational research.

 

Sushil holds a PhD from the University of Leeds, UK.

 

Contact Sushil on sushil@herdint.com

Shophika Regmi

Senior manager – Health systems research, evaluation and learning

Shophika is a senior researcher at HERD International, where she leads health systems-related research. Within ReBUILD, Shophika primarily leads implementation research (in Learning Site 1) that aims to strengthen the resilient capacity of the local health system through improved governance and evidence-based planning, serving as a Co-Investigator. She also coordinates wider research activities and manages responsive fund research projects implemented by HERD within the consortium. With more than a decade of experience in health research, she has led several projects aimed at strengthening health systems for improved health outcomes in marginalised and vulnerable groups in areas such as maternal health, nutrition, non-communicable diseases, health workforce, health information system, gender and intersectionality, etc. Shophika has hands-on experience of leading implementation research, evaluation research, surveillance study, national-level surveys, and other mixed method studies, including policy analysis.

 

Shophika holds a Master’s in Public Health from the University of Sheffield, UK.

 

Contact Shophika on shophika.regmi@herdint.com

Abriti Arjyal

Research manager – qualitative and multidisciplinary science

Abriti is leading on HERD’s qualitative and participatory approaches during ReBUILD for Resilience, with a focus on gender and intersectionality. She has experience in public health, health systems, service delivery research, social science and gender, and equity. She has led formative and operational field studies, evaluation studies, and literature reviews, developing expertise in design, implementation and analysis of qualitative research, rapid ethnography and various community and participatory based approaches. Abriti is also experienced in the analysis of qualitative data using data management software and frameworks.

 

Most of Abriti’s work has focused on gender and resilience, including maternal and child health, antibiotic resistance, disaster risk reduction and resilience, nutrition, diabetes, and violence against women.

The ReBUILD for Resilience partners are:

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The team is supported by research associates

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"Evidence matters a lot and we need more evidence that is contextually tailored and can be used by the policy makers in our context"

Sushil Baral, HERD International