The Asia Foundation Unveils 2025 Development Fellows

After a competitive selection with over 850 applicants, our Asia Foundation Development Fellows: Emerging Leadership for Asia and the Pacific’s Future has a new 2025 cohort of 13 emerging leaders. The fellows are from Afghanistan, Australia, Bhutan, Indonesia, Laos, Mongolia, Nepal, the Pacific Islands, Pakistan, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, and Vietnam.

For the first time in our eleven-year program, we will have an issue-specific cohort of emerging leaders focused on climate resilience – bringing bold, innovative thinking and a deep commitment to addressing climate adaptation, disaster risk reduction, and environmental innovation across Asia and the Pacific. The Fellowship will kick off in February with a two-week Leadership Training Program in Nepal, along with attendance at the Paro Forum in Bhutan, a regional gathering for interdisciplinary discourse aiming to address pressing global challenges.

The Asia Foundation Development Fellows program brings exceptional individuals into a network of emerging leaders working to improve lives across the Asia-Pacific region. Now in its eleventh year, the program includes 132 current and alum fellows across Asia-Pacific, forming an active network of the region’s most promising leaders from diverse cultures, country contexts, and work environments.

This yearlong career advancement program includes two intensive Leadership Dialogue and Exchange programs in the Asia-Pacific region and the United States. The coursework explores the Fellows’ leadership styles, helps them develop their stories, and cultivates innovative thinking.

Meet our 2025 Development Fellows:

Aaliya | Pakistan is a fourth-year Ph.D. candidate working in PlanetLab at Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment. Her research focuses on understanding the planetary-scale changes impacting the health and well-being of rural mountain communities in the Hindu Kush Himalayan (HKH) Region.

Sitthideth Abhay | Laos is the founder & CEO of Sharee. This agri-climate tech company enables farmers to access climate-smart training, financing, and markets for sustainable livelihoods.As a development practitioner, he is also committed to accelerating the co-creation of mission-driven development startups and social enterprises to benefit underserved rural communities in Laos and beyond.

Sagarika Bhatta | Nepal is an environmental preservationist, entrepreneur, researcher, and feminist climate leader, receiving prestigious recognition from UNFCCC, UNDP, and the World Bank Group. She is the chairperson and founder of Power Shift Nepal and Environmental Research Services and Training Center.

Daniel Allan Bourchier | Australia is a First Nations Indigenous Australian. He’s a multi-award winning, multi-platform broadcaster with the ABC and a social advocate, leading the first acknowledgment of First Nations People on the ABC through culturally safe, lengthy discussions and negotiations with the Ngunnawal Elders of Canberra.

Chuluuntsetseg Chuluunbaatar | Mongolia is the co-founder of Nomadic PowerBox LLC, a developer of green energy projects in Mongolia to decarbonize the residential and commercial sectors with an integrated approach using photovoltaic thermal panels, heat batteries, and heat pumps.

Steneth Kaniki | Solomon Islands is an environmental lawyer, currently working as a senior legal policy officer for the Ministry of Justice and Legal Affairs and is instrumental in developing a legal toolkit disseminating environmental laws to rural communities in the Solomon Islands.

Idrees Malyar | Afghanistan is an expert in water resources management, having served as deputy minister at Afghanistan’s National Environmental Protection Agency and head of Environment and Climate Change at UNDP Afghanistan, and currently working as director of the Water Resilience Tracker at Alliance for Global Water Adaptation (AGWA).

Rachelle Anne L. Miranda | Philippines is a climate and disaster resilience professional, currently working with the Department of Science and Technology, where she works to transform Filipino resilience through innovative science and technology solutions, emphasizing collaboration and local approaches.

Nguyen Thi Thanh Man | Vietnam is a sustainable finance banker at Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, where she leverages sustainable finance instruments to promote green energy transition and financial inclusion and has worked on the world’s largest social loan to date that funds affordable housing projects in India, blue loans in Thailand, and a pioneering Social Finance Framework in Vietnam.

Rahman Adi Pradana | Indonesia is an advocate for equitable and sustainable development and is currently the senior policy director at Konservasi Indonesia, the leading partner of Conservation International in Indonesia, where he leads policy engagement on climate, biodiversity, and oceans in Indonesia and the Asia Pacific region.

Nini Purwajati | Indonesia works as the lead for Programs and Knowledge of the Resilient Cities Network (R-Cities) based in Singapore, also leading the R-Cities Climate and Community Resilience program in Malaysia and serving as R-Cities knowledge focal point for the APAC region.

Karma Wangchuk | Bhutan is a conservation biologist, currently serving as Deputy Chief Biodiversity Officer at the National Biodiversity Centre (NBC) within the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock in Bhutan and has played a key role in developing Bhutan’s several rural community-based fisheries management groups.

Dulanga Witharanage | Sri Lanka is an environmental scientist and the country director of the EthicalX: Climate & Innovation Hub in Sri Lanka, a flagship program of SLYCAN Trust. In her role, she works with ethical and climate-conscious entrepreneurs to scale their initiatives and works on research and knowledge management focused on addressing climate change and building resilience in vulnerable communities.

The Asia Foundation is a nonprofit international development organization committed to improving lives and expanding opportunities across Asia and the Pacific. Informed by 70 years of experience and deep local knowledge, our work is focused on governance, climate action, education and leadership, inclusive growth, international cooperation, and women’s empowerment and gender equality.

We work in more than 20 countries through our 17 permanent country offices and programs across Asia and the Pacific, supported by a headquarters in San Francisco and an office in Washington, DC. Our funding comes from a diverse array of bilateral and multilateral development agencies, foundations, corporations, and individuals.

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