Central Department of Economics
Kritipur
Kritipur
Addressing Risks and Vulnerabilities in South Asia and Path to Economic Resilience
20th South Asian Economics Students Meet (SAESM)
November 15-20, 2025
Kathmandu | Nepal
CALL FOR APPLICATIONS
The Central Department of Economics, Tribhuvan University invites applications from undergraduate students currently enrolled in universities across Nepal to participate in the 20th South Asian Economics Students’ Meet (SAESM), scheduled to be held from November 15 to 20, 2025, in Kathmandu, Nepal, subject to the following eligibility criteria.
This call invites the submission of a concept note on the following theme.
Environmental Risks, Vulnerability, and Macroeconomic Stability in South Asia
Impact of temperature and precipitation variability on GDP, natural disasters such as floods, droughts, landslides and their effects on growth volatility, long-term macroeconomic projections under environmental stress, sectoral exposure to environmental risks, role of macroeconomic buffers in managing shocks.
Covariate and Idiosyncratic Shocks: Implications for Poverty and Welfare:
Poverty dynamics under covariate (disasters) and idiosyncratic (health, income) shocks, multidimensional deprivation and welfare loss, vulnerability to poverty and risk of downward mobility, role of remittances and household coping strategies.
Economic Shocks, Trade Disruption, and Investment Risks:
Exposure of trade flows to global and regional shocks, impacts on foreign direct investment inflows, domestic investment patterns under uncertainty, global value chain vulnerabilities and economic resilience, role of trade diversification and policy buffers.
Energy Transition for Green and Resilient Economies
Barriers to renewable energy adoption by households and industries, greening household energy, manufacturing, and transportation sectors, role of energy efficiency technologies, institutional and policy incentives for clean energy transition, energy security and affordability during transition.
Environmental Degradation and Natural Resource Governance:
Economic costs of air, water, and soil pollution, management challenges of common property resources under stress, institutional governance of natural resources, resource depletion and implications for livelihoods, interlinkages between ecosystem degradation and economic losses.
Urbanization and Infrastructure Resilience
Impact of flooding, heatwaves, and waste management crises on urban areas, vulnerabilities of housing, transport, and utilities infrastructure, risk-sensitive urban planning and design, financing and governance of resilient infrastructure, vulnerabilities of informal settlements to disasters.
Health Risks and Vulnerabilities under Environmental Stress
Health outcomes linked to rising temperatures and pollution, disease patterns following floods, droughts, and poor sanitation, health system resilience and adaptive capacity, public health policies addressing environmental risks, access and affordability of healthcare during shocks.
Education Disruption and Behavioral Adaptation to Risk
Education loss caused by disasters and displacement, school dropout risks linked to shocks, integration of risk education and environmental literacy into curricula, role of digital tools in maintaining educational continuity, fostering adaptive behaviors through education.
Financing Mechanism and Building Economic Resilience:
Availability and access to green finance, effectiveness of international and domestic funding channels, barriers to climate finance in South Asia, role of private sector and blended finance models, institutional readiness and policy frameworks for effective fund utilization.
Fiscal and Monetary Policies for Resilient and Green Economies
Green fiscal tools including carbon taxes and green subsidies, role of central banks in green finance and regulation, integrating environmental risks into fiscal frameworks, foreign aid and concessional finance for green growth, budgetary strategies to enhance shock preparedness.
Application
The student shall submit the following documents along with their application.
Cover letter stating your contact details, institution, program including your aspiration to apply for this event
Concept note
[A student must submit one concept note on the theme of his/her interest. Submission to multiple themes by a single student is not allowed. Co-authorships are also not allowed.]
Concept note
The concept note should include the following components:
Brief Background and Problem Statement (not exceeding half a page)
Research Questions
Brief Methodology, highlighting the proposed approach and data sources
The concept note should be a maximum of two pages
Eligibility Criteria:
Applicants must meet the following conditions:
Be currently enrolled in a Bachelor’s (undergraduate) program at a university within Nepal at the time of application
Be below 25 years of age
Be pursuing a program with a strong emphasis on Economics.
Students enrolled in colleges affiliated with universities located outside Nepal are not eligible to apply.
Deadline
The students shall submit their concept note by July 27, 2025 (17.00 Hrs. NST). All the applications should be submitted to info@cdec.tu.edu.np with cc to naveen.adhikari@cdec.tu.edu.np and saesm.nepal@gmail.com.
Selection
One student per theme will be selected based on the merit of their concept note. In total, 10 students will be chosen to represent Team Nepal at the SAESM. Selected students will be required to submit a full paper in accordance with the guidelines provided in the attached call. In addition, they will be expected to participate in other events of the Meet—such as the quiz competition, policy discussions, and the Budding Economist contest—details of which will be shared after the selection process is completed.