# Arzu Rana Deuba

Arzu Rana Deuba (born 26 January 1962) is a Nepali social worker, psychologist and politician, currently serving as the Minister of Foreign Affairs. She won by 22,000 votes in the proportional list. This is her third tenure in the Parliament. She served as the Chairperson of the Parliamentary Committee on Agriculture, Cooperatives and Natural Resources from August 2023 to July 2024.
Dr. Deuba had joined the Nepali Congress in 1996 and was elected Central Committee member of the party since December 2021. In the 2022 Nepalese general election she was elected as a proportional representative from the Khas people category. She is the wife of former Prime Minister Of Nepal Rt. Hon. Sher Bahadur Deuba.
Deuba is a member of Nepali Congress Party convention and Central Leadership Voting Committee since 2010. She was a member of Constituent Assembly and Parliament of Nepal for ten years (2010-2020). She pursued issues such as women's rights, especially reproductive rights, equal citizenship rights, equal property rights, violence against women, and women's equitable and equal political representation at all levels while writing the constitution of Nepal.
She was a member of the Constitution Drafting Committee and served as Chair of the Women Parliamentarians Coordination Committee. Deuba is gender activist and social worker and has established a number of women and children related NGOs in Nepal, including RUWDUC, Saathi, SMNF and established SAMANTA, a research-based institute for social and gender equality. She served as an elected regional councilor for South and East Asia for IUCN and currently serves as the board of Ipas and the Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Education for Peace and Self Development based in New Delhi. MGIEP is UNESCO’s Category 1 Research Institute focused on Transforming Education towards SDG 4.7 through programs that promote social and emotional learning, innovate digital pedagogies and empower youth. https:mgiep.unesco.org
Deuba served as Chair of the Gender and Biodiversity Task Force (GBTF) of the IUCN Council as well as a member of the steering committee of the Commission on Environmental, Economic and Social Policy (CEESP) and co-chair of the Theme on Environment, Conflict, and Security (TECS). She also served on the Bureau of IUCN Council. She represented IUCN as the keynote speaker at the IUCN-PATA Asia Pacific Conference in 2009 and also as Keynote Speaker on the Himalayas at a Mountain Conference organized in Munich, Germany by ICIMOD and its partners in 2010. Deuba was re-elected as the IUCN Regional Councillor from South and East Asia in the IUCN World Conservation Congress (WCC). She was invited as Speaker in diverse international forums including at the Human Rights Council in Geneva, March 2017.

## Education

Deuba graduated from Padmakanya College, Bagmati Province. She obtained her master's degree from Punjab University. She also obtained her PhD in organizational Psychology in 1990 from Punjab University India.

## Political career

Deuba has been a member of the Nepali Congress Party of Nepal since 1996. Since 2000, she has been a member of the Nepali Congress Party convention and Central Leadership Voting Committee. She was a member of the Constituent Assembly and Parliament of Nepal for ten years (2008-2017). She pursued issues such as women's rights, especially reproductive rights, equal citizenship rights, equal property rights, violence against women, women's equitable and equal political representation at all levels while writing the constitution of Nepal.

## Social work

Deuba has established a number of women and children issues related non-government organizations (NGOs) in Nepal, which include- Saathi (1992) which works on elimination of violence against women; The Rural Women's Development and Unity Centre (1995) which works in areas with the lowest human development indicators; The Safe Motherhood Network Federation (1996) which works in the area of reproductive health and rights; and Samanata – Institute for Social & Gender Equality (1997) which is a research-based organization.
Deuba was elected as regional councilor of the World Conservation Union (IUCN) during its fourth world congress held in Barcelona, Spain in October 2008. Deuba is the first candidate to be elected from Nepal in IUCN's highest decision-making body. She served for two terms as an elected regional councilor for South & East Asia for IUCN (2008 – 2016). She currently serves on the board of IPAS, USA (2014 ongoing) and the Mahatma Gandhi Institute for Education for Peace and Sustainable Development, which is a UNESCO Type I institution based in New Delhi, India (2014 ongoing). She is also associated with the White Ribbon Alliance for safe motherhood. Deuba was a panelist on discussion on preventable maternal mortality and morbidity and human rights at the 34th session of the Human Rights Council (Geneva 2017).

## Family life

She is married to the former Prime Minister of the Nepal and current president of Nepali Congress Party, Sher Bahadur Deuba.