Sewa Lamsal has taken charge of the secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, becoming the first woman to hold this post in the bureaucratic history of Nepal.
A meeting of the Council of Ministers held in Singha Durbar on Thursday promoted Lamsal to the top post.
The senior most joint secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Lamsal had been serving as an acting secretary after outgoing secretary Bharat Raj Paudyal retired on December 5 on the ground of 58-year age limit. The post was lying vacant since then.
Earlier, the PSC had asked the Foreign Ministry to submit the names of three joint secretaries for promotion to the post of secretary following Paudayal's retirement.
Pursuant to Section 19 of the Civil Service Act (2049), the Foreign Ministry submitted the names of three joint secretaries -- Sewa Lamsal, Amrit Bahadur Rai and Krishna Prasad Dhakal -- based on seniority.
Of them, Lamsal is the senior most joint secretary as well as the spokesperson at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. She was serving as an acting secretary following the retirement of Paudyal. Rai is the head of the North East Asia Division while Dhakal looks after South East Asia and the Pacific Division.
She worked as the Chairperson of the important Commission for Social Development (CSocD) of the United Nations for the 52nd and 53rd Sessions.
Similarly, she also served as one of the Vice-Presidents of the 66th Session of the United Nations General Assembly as well as Minister Plenipotentiary at the Permanent Mission of Nepal to the United Nations. Besides, she also served as the Ambassador of Nepal to Pakistan with concurrent accreditation to Iran, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan.
She was working as senior most Joint-Secretary and Head of the United Nations, Other International Organizations and International Laws Division as well as Spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, until recently,
Lamsal holds M.Phil. in Social Change from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology and Master's degree in Public Administration from Tribhuvan University, Nepal.
She joined the Civil Service as a section officer at the Ministry of General Administration in 2055 BS. After having served for around 12 years, she switched over to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as an undersecretary in 2067 BS. In less than one year after becoming undersecretary, she was promoted to the post of joint secretary.
Born as the first child to father Chudamani Lamsal and mother Shanta Lamsal at Keureni in Bhojpur in 2024 BS, Lamsal completed her seventh grade from Saraswati Lower Secondary School and SLC from Balika Secondary School (now higher secondary school), Daran.
She will take charge as secretary until Chaitra, 2082 BS.
