SERVIR Profile of Naina Shakya
Name: Naina Shakya
Affiliation: SERVIR-HKH
Role/Title: User Engagement Lead
Year you joined SERVIR: 2016
Please introduce yourself. What are you passionate about?
For the past 15 years, the focus of my career has been in 'partnerships.' Development, management and maintenance of bilateral and multi-stakeholder partnerships among government agencies, academic/research institutions, development organizations, civil societies and private sectors in Asia and the Pacific and beyond. I have learnt about the deeper meaning of partnerships, why and how some partnerships work while others do not. I have had the opportunity to work with a wide range of partners and in the process, formally built my skills and capacity on partnerships. Thus, I am passionate about impactful, sustainable and successful partnerships.
What initially attracted you to this field of work?
Understanding the human dynamics in partnerships; working together across organizations, sectors and geographical boundaries; trying to make a difference and the challenges it brings forth while putting effort into making the partnerships more effective and efficient are the key reasons that have attracted me to this field of work.
What SERVIR activity are you currently working on?
As the User Engagement Lead, my key task is to ensure that there is effective service level user engagement with the SERVIR-HKH partners and ICIMOD in the region in different phases of service planning and design to ensure that the services and products are co-created, co-designed and co-implemented.
How does your work generate positive change?
Sharing the partnership principles and frameworks as the foundation of strengthening user engagement has proved to generate positive changes among the SERVIR-HKH partners. The concept of 'our partnership' where both risks and benefits are shared, is the core message translated through the partnership approach. SERVIR-HKH's User Engagement Strategy provides a systematic procedure to engage users through close interactions to foster understanding among our national, regional and global partners. This has allowed us to adopt innovative approaches to enhance products and services, while ensuring that user consultations and participation are integrated across SERVIR-HKH activities.