Peace, Development and Aid: Civil Society Concerns
14-15 February 2008
 
Background

In early 2006, when the conflict reached the peak primarily due to the confrontational approaches of the King-led government and the violent Maoist rebels, Nepalese civil society demonstrated their desire for peace and democracy, denouncing both the Maoist violence and the King’s autocratic rule. At that time when the democratic political parties (which ruled in the post 1990 democracy period) were struggling to regain the lost credibility, an unprecedented mass of people came to streets under the leadership of a loose network of civil society activists to resist autocratic governance. Nepalese civil society had the opinion that the cause of violence was rooted in political exclusion sustained by feudal monarchy. So the civil society soon supported the newly formed alliance between the Maoists and the eight party alliance against feudal monarchy. The alliance came to power when the movement succeeded to force the King to stay back from the active politics. The alliance then made public commitment to lead the country through an agreed road map to peace and democracy through constituent assembly election. But after 21 months of transition now (since April 2006), the processes of peace and democratization are becoming increasingly 'fragile', much less successful. The proposed constituent assembly election, a road to sustainable peace in Nepal, has been postponed three times after the government declared the date of election in 2007.  Such a confused transitional politics in Nepal is taking a huge toll in terms of frequent violence, impunity and overall loss of socio-economic stability and political direction.

The main reason behind this situation is the loss of deliberative connections between diverse groups of civil society and the political institutions.  Although the ruling alliance derived power from the April 2006 movement, political parties fast became opaque to civil society voice soon after assuming the state power. When civil society role thus reduced, the peace negotiations turned into narrow calculative games of a handful of top brass political leaders. Even the rank and file of the ruling political alliance are excluded in the deliberative processes. The intermediary actors - such as donors, international agencies and intelligentsia - have also failed to help restore processes of democratic deliberation. In the mean time, a wide range of disadvantaged groups have started coming to streets demanding effective conflict transformation & peace building and democratization processes. Continued state ignorance of disadvantaged voice is being capitalized by new forms of insurgencies. The possibility of negotiated settlement of conflicts and restructuring of the state is meager given the weakened deliberative interactions between the political institutions and the civil society.

Amidst the ups and down of the peace process in Nepal with the withdrawal of Maoist from the government, the Seven Political Parties again in 23 December 2007 reached into a consensus that they will conduct the election of constituent assembly election and implement the commitment they made in relation to the peace process. Nevertheless, their behaviors are yet to be examined in practice. 

In the mean time, the government of Nepal has planned to table its agenda by organizing Nepal Development Forum 2008 (20-22 February). Nepal Development Forum (NDF) is a process of interface between donors and government where the country puts its major policy actions as an agenda for discussion. It is a forum for discussion and interaction among various stakeholders to achieve the development goals (economic and social). Government has identified tentative agenda for discussion as follows:

• Economic reform and aid harmonization and effectiveness action plan
• Peace process, governance and constituent assembly election
• Reconstruction, rehabilitation, reintegration and infrastructure development
• Social sector development (education, health, gender, inclusion etc

In this context, civil society organizations (CSOs) can play an important and distinctive contribution in facilitating the peace process of Nepal in relation to bringing people's perspectives from the grassroots. The perceptions of people at grassroots on the peace dividends are important for sustainable peace process in Nepal. Likewise, the role of civil society organizations in facilitating to create conducive environment for constituent assembly election is vital in a sense that they could play bridging role between the government and the groups and parties they do not appear to be positive the constituent assembly election.  Similarly, civil society could put pressure to seven political parties and the government to implement the 23 points they recently reached into consensus. The commitments to 23 points agreement appear to be the major basis that ensures the constituent assembly election in April 2008.

NGO Federation of Nepal (NFN) had organized Civil Society Forum (CSF) on International Development Assistance (IDA) in 2004 just before the official Nepal Development Forum and provided feedbacks coming from the grassroots. NFN in collaboration with other federations, networks, alliances and organizations will organize civil society forum on 14-15 February 2008 in Kathmandu along with three regional consultations at grassroots that will put the government and seven parties in pressure to fulfill their commitments to peace process and constituent assembly election as these issues appear to be necessary conditions for the long term development plan of Nepal.

Objectives

The main objective of the proposed Civil Society Forum is to provide a common platform for all stakeholders to find out the ways for the current political impasses that ensures the upcoming election of constituent assembly. Largely voices from the disadvantaged people- dalit, ethnic groups, women, geographically disadvantaged, disabled, poor, peasants, workers and other marginalized groups will be brought to national level that provide an opportunity to understand the people perspectives in the peace process in particular and development priority in general. Similarly, voices from youth, intellectuals, media, rights activists, professionals will be raised.

Major Activities

Regional consultations

NGO Federation of Nepal will organize local consultations in three locations at the regional level ( 1- Eastern and central region focusing on Tarai, 1 Western and mid western region, 1 Far Western region In regional level forum, the poor, women, indigenous people, dalit, disabled, madeshi, people of Karnali region will participate and bring their perspective in relation to their development priority. 75-100 participants from different sectors will participate in each region. These forums will be organized from the first week to second week of February 2008.
 
National Level Forum

A two day workshop will be organized on 14th and 15th February 2008 in Kathmandu. The inaugural session on 14th will be attended by the representatives of government, ministries, National Planning Commission, member of interim parliaments, civil society organizations, NGOs and donors including UN agencies. The outcomes from the regional consultation will be shared in inaugural session followed by key note speech by government, donors and civil society representatives.

In second day, a number of thematic discussion forums will be organized in parallel in which ethnic groups, youths, dalits, disabled, women, intellectuals, peasant organizations, trade unions, human rights organizations and other civil society organizations will attend the workshop. Tentatively 150 participants will attend the thematic discussions.  Themes to be discussed are as follows:

• Role and importance of civil society organisations in the peace process of Nepal
• How the different interests can be negotiated through constituent assembly election?  Reflection of different perspectives- women, janajati, madhesh, disability poorest of the poor, people living in isolated and disadvantaged geographic area
• Equity and justice through restructuring of the state: how development partners can be of help in Nepal.
• Facilitating peace process from below: reconstruction, rehabilitation, reconciliation and reintegration

Linking the outcomes to official development forum

The outcomes of the civil society consultation will be presented to official Nepal Donors Coordination Meeting going to be held on 21 and 22 February 2008.

Venue for Inauguration: BICC, Baneshwor,  Kathmandu                              

Date: 14 February 2008

Venue: Direction Exhibition and Convention Centre (DECC) 4th Floor, United World Trade Centre Building, Tripureswore