Kathmandu Nepal - Day 3 - Plenary Sessions

Had to getup at 7:30 for another early start. Registered for the event, had breakfast and then the workshop programme started with initial remarks and some rather bland country presentations from Nepal, China and India. The Indian presentation was exceedingly boring and unprofessional, quite shocking for most of the participants. A very informative and appealing presentation full of numbers by SNVs Felix livened up the proceedings. Had a scrumptious lunch with the company of the appealingly pretty Sweta Pokharel , an investment officer of Nepali origin in Thailand, Marco Linden, Carbon Finance Advisor in Nepal and the PhD candidate, Shaunna Barnhart from Penn State University. Great to see people from across the globe sharing their experiences in the biogas sector.

Also met several other people including Rajendra Shakya, Regional Head of Admin and a Nepali supporting the Energy initiative in Afghanistan. Attended a rather slow session on realizing biogas benefits including presentations and group work. A couple of the presentations were really good in the sense that we got an understanding of the biogas experience in Ethiopia, gender mainstreaming measures in India and ways of integrating biogas into rural policies and plans. This was the first of two plenary sessions for the workshop and they helped in identifying how the programmes varied from country to country focusing on different issues based on their local needs.

Faisal from Bangladesh

Afterwards we got together at poolside for some chilling with all the attendees of the conference and some nice chit chat while having some very appetizing snacks. Met a Ministry of Environment member from India who gave an insightful account of his experiences. Chilled out with a few colleagues over discussions over the days proceedings and implication on our programme. Came to the room, wrote the blog for the past 3 days and went to sleep relatively early.