Karma Choden
Short vita
Ms. Karma Choden is a socio-economic consultant, trainer and writer in Bhutan with experiences in communication, media, program cycle management and monitoring & evaluation.
She has worked at His Majesty’s Secretariat as part of The People’s Project of The King of Bhutan on intervention programs focused on education, health and welfare for children and the destitute. She has travelled the country extensively, mostly on foot to reach isolated communities, as part of her field investigations. As an independent consultant, she continues to work in impact evaluation studies in the field of education, media and enterprise. She writes in her free time with several of her commentaries and articles featured in The Bhutanese newspaper, The Drukpa and The Raven magazines in the past.
She is currently serving on the board of the Evaluation Association of Bhutan (EAB), where research initiatives towards promotion of a culturally responsive evaluation are being initiated. She lends her expertise in program design and fundraising besides being a core team of trainers at EAB who conduct regular trainings on evaluation methodologies.
Contributions
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Bhutan’s Digital Transformation Journey: Benefits, Issues and Challenges
Today, Bhutanese citizens can access services that are delivered end-to-end at the click of a button on their PCs or smartphones, and keep physical visits to service agencies at a minimum.
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Bhutan’s Fiscal and Monetary Measures coming out of COVID-19 years
Similar to other south-east countries such as India, Sri Lanka and Nepal, Bhutan is experiencing record fiscal deficit and declining reserves in the post COIVD-19 years.
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An Overview of Bhutan’s Recovery Efforts
Bhutan managed to avoid large-scale domestic COVID-19 outbreak in the country through a series of proactive and well thought of actions, such as, stringent containment measures which included two nationwide lockdowns since 2020.
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Lessons from Bhutan: The Bhutanese Economy and the Private Sector
The Bhutanese economy commercialized only after 1961 when the first development plan began. Prior to that, it was a small and scattered population relying heavily on subsistence agriculture. The little trade that existed was bartering and exchange of surpluses within communities. Records show that external trade with Tibet in the north and the Indian state of West Bengal existed.
