Concept Paper on

Nepal Civil Society Forum on NDF- 2004

Introduction:

‘Foreign aid’ has always been a significant part of national development budget. It has been an integral part to the economic growth of Nepal. However, lack of ownership by poor and often targeted population of the development projects and programs funded by donors; and lack of political will from recipients have been the major causes for ‘failure’ of development projects and programs in Nepal. Similarly, there have been a poor and often unrealistic, top-down planning and budgeting process with little or no involvement of other stakeholders such as local level bodies, community groups and targeted population. Another significant aspect is that the ongoing conflicts and the need for addressing root causes of problems have not been addressed properly by development initiatives.

The Nepal Development Forum held so far has proved to be a place where the development partners listened to the changes, programs, and plans of the leaders of Nepal. It has been a Forum where people were able to engage frankly, openly and spontaneously in a substantive dialogue. However, it has been felt that both of the previous meetings were primarily confined in discussions between the government and donors. Participation of civil society organizations and other stakeholders who are the key development actors, especially in the context of conflict, at the local level was minimal.

His Majesty’s Government of Nepal and its development partners again have scheduled Nepal Development Forum 2004 from May 5-6, 2004. Key objectives of the NDF 2004 include – taking stock of HMG’s agenda of priority reform actions; reviewing the implementation of the tenth plan/PRSP and the foreign aid policy as a means to increase aid effectiveness; redefining development partnerships and enhancing the support for good governance and decentralization.

Context:

At present Nepal is facing the Maoist insurgency or “People’s War” as they call it, which was launched in February 1996 by the Communist Party of Nepal –Maoist (CPN-Maoist) and has led to serious political crisis in Nepal. As the conflict intensified, the government’s presence has been limited within the district headquarters and the remote villages are virtually ruled by the Maoist rebels.

Then again, the Maoist insurgency became one of the major causes to the dissolution of the parliament and local level (district, village, and municipality) government bodies. The absence of locally elected bodies and governance in the hands of civil servants has led to a significant gap in the policy feed back loop. The present government ruled through the enactment of Article 127 of the Nepal’s Constitution shows no sign of gaining confidence of all the political forces, human rights activists, civil societies and common people.

In such scenario it is questionable whether the NDF 2004 is organized by the Government, would be able to present the real picture of development in Nepal in their issue papers. Another burning issue is whether the political parties, already in opposition of “regression”, would actually agree to attend and contribute in the NDF and preparation sessions being held by the government. It is also doubtful that there might be real participation from any civil societies and related stakeholders.

During such political havoc in the nation, it is the civil society which could play important role in bringing closer the three opposing forces- the government, the agitating political parties and the rebel Maoists forces. Civil society, the true representative of people, has been raising people’s voices and has been involved in social development for many years. The need has been felt that the civil society should organize a forum parallel to NDF that creates a space where various section of CSOs could come together and express their opinions on how the foreign aid of development budget could and should help conflict affected areas and exploited people. If not the actual NDF, a civil society forum to NDF called the ‘Nepal Civil Society Forum on NDF 2004’ is going to be organized by the civil society to ensure inclusion of true concerns of the Nepalese people in front of the development partners. This would present a common forum for the conflicting parties; civil society; ethnic community; human, women, dalit, disadvantaged, child, caste and minority right groups; and other development stakeholders to voice their comments, experiences and learning. The resulting conclusions surmising all their concerns would be tabled at the NDF, which would further strengthen the development efforts with the donors. It is thus an attempt to secure effective output to the partnership among the government, its people and well-wishers of Nepal.

Objectives:

In general, the objective of this Nepal Civil Society Forum on NDF 2004 is to provide a common forum for all stakeholders including civil society, political parties, dalit, ethnic groups, human and women rights activists, intellectuals and media representatives at the National Development Forum. More specifically, the objectives of this effort are as follows:

• Contribute to NDF by providing civil society input to enable involvement of various civil society organizations and other stakeholders in Nepal;
• To advocate and work as a pressure group in order to make available pro-poor Foreign Aid;
• To involve all the stakeholders including, political parties, governments, donors and civil society organizations in NDF to enable to get their valuable inputs in the use of development funds;
• To create mass awareness on the National Development Forum;
• To sensitize people and civil society on the importance of NDF; and,
• To create civil society involvement in NDF to influence the negotiations.

Major Activities:

National Level Activities:

Series of workshops and thematic discussion will be organized on the major national development issues and conflict transformation. Thematic discussion session to be organized at the forum are as follows:

I: Role of International Development Assistance for Dalits, Women, Children, Disabled and Indigenous People.

II: Role of International Development Assistance for Corruption Control and Good Governance.

III. Role of International Development Assistance for Peace Building, Human rights and conflict transformation.

IV. Role of International Development Assistance for Justice, Equity and Democratization in Nepal.

V. Role of International development Assistance for Poverty Eradication and Social Mobilization.

Regional Level:

Five regional level seminars (one in each development region) on Nepal Civil Society Forum on NDF 2004 will be organized to sensitize people and civil society organizations to get their inputs in the use of development funds.

Program Approach:

The Nepal Civil Society Forum on NDF will be organized by mobilizing various forums of civil society organizations. To this regard, a National Level organizing committee will be formed comprising: alliances of human rights organizations, peace campaign groups, development NGOs and caste, cultural and ethnic societies. Occupational organizations including, Trade Unions, Bar Associations, Doctor’s Associations, Nurse Associations, etc. will be involved in the organizing committee. NGOs Federation of Nepal will facilitate to apply this program.

Estimated Budget:

A total of NRs. 2,690,000 is estimated to be spent for the Nepal Civil Society Forum for International Development Assistance. NRs 2,670,000 is received out of the estimated budget from CCO NRs 1,235,000, SDC 1,235,000 and Action Aid Nepal 200,000.