Dr Lhawang Ugyel

I am currently a Lecturer with the School of Business at UNSW Canberra. I am also the Spring Term 2023 Ragnar Nurkse Visiting Professor at Tallinn University of Technology's School of Business and Governance (Estonia). Previously, I held various positions at the Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University (ANU): as a Lecturer at the Development Policy Centre (a joint position as a Visiting Lecturer in Public Policy at the University of Papua New Guinea) and as a Research Fellow with the Policy and Governance Program. I also worked for the Royal Government of Bhutan for close to ten years as a Senior Human Resource Officer and Policy Analyst. I completed my PhD in Public Policy from ANU and my Master of International Development Studies from Cornell University. I also have a Bachelor of Economics (First Class) from the Madras Christian College. 

My area of research primarily focuses on public administration/management and public policy, and my PhD thesis (also published as a book with Palgrave Macmillan) focused on the implementation of a major public sector reform in Bhutan. In addition, I have also conducted research in Papua New Guinea (PNG) on various governance-related issues. Based on my research on governance networks on the Bougainville Health Communities Program in PNG, I was contracted by the World Health Organization to work on the Village Health Volunteers policy in PNG and the Village Health Workers policy in Vanuatu. Presently, I am working on two major research projects focusing on the implementation of the Gross National Happiness Policy Screening Tool in Bhutan (using the Economic Development Policy of 2016 as a case study) and the international migration of Bhutanese to Australia (which will be extended to also cover the USA). The funding for these studies is from a research grant ($46,500) secured through the UNSW Rector's Grant.