HIMAP Author Writeshop Held Hindu Kush Himalayas Monitoring and Assessment Program’s (HIMAP) Coordinating Lead Authors’ Writeshop was organised by the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) 11 to 13 June, 2016 at Gokarna Forest Resort in Kathmandu, Nepal. The purpose of writeshop was to advance the work-in-progress on ‘Comprehensive Assessment of the Hindu Kush Himalayas: Action to Sustain the Global Asset’ being conducted by HIMAP. The three-day writeshop brought together the various authors to share their respective chapter drafts and continue refining their work. The publication is being produced through regional coordination and is scheduled to be published internationally in 2019.

The writeshop was attended by more than 80 participants – 18 coordinating-lead, 39 lead and 6 contributing authors and 15 ICIMOD chapter coordinators. David Molden, Director General, ICIMOD, spoke on the state of knowledge in the Hindu Kush Himalayas — the importance of mountains in the global context and in the Hindu Kush Himalayan (HKH) region; the major issues in the HKH region; the status and trends in research; and the challenges and opportunities for research. Eklabya Sharma, Director of Programme Operations, discussed the vision for the project, the process, and the assessment status to-date. Philippus Wester, HIMAP Coordinator, delivered a presentation on the goals of the assessment and defined the building blocks of an influential assessment.

The three days were comprised several sessions along with group work focused on developing chapter outlines and drafts by the chapter teams. Discussions focused on generating key chapter policy messages, drafting outlines, assigning writing tasks and setting deadlines.

Rough chapter drafts were uploaded to a collaborative platform on the HIMAP website. More lead authors and contributing authors were identified and submitted to the HIMAP coordination team for vetting. A tentative list of review editors was created by the chapter teams. Concrete next steps and an overall timeline were established to further progress on the assessment.

For further information contact:

Philippus Wester
Coordinator HIMAP (hi-map.org)
International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development
Philippus.Wester@icimod.org

Ritu Meher Shrestha
Executive Research Associate
International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development
Ritu.Shrestha@icimod.org