Brief programme summary, Nepal MS ActionAid Denmark

Section 2: Brief Programme Summaries

Country / Nepal
Thematic Areas / Building Local Democracy (BLD), Conflict Management & Peace Building (CM&PB) and Land Rights (LR)
Programme Period / January 2008 to December 2011
Target Group / Poor and marginalised people especially Dalit (casteless), Janajati (ethnic minorities), women and youth
Expenditure / 2011: Total:
Background Information
During 2011, the political situation in Nepal remained fluid. Nepal’s peace process began in April 2006 and reached the first milestone with the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Accord (CPA) in November 2006. The next steps involved the promulgation of the Interim Constitution in January 2007, including the Maoist party in government, and the holding of the Constituent Assembly election in April 2008. However, the Constitution writing process has been slow among others due to frequent changes in government.
In august 2011 the vice chairman of the Maoist party Dr Baburam Bhattarai was elected prime minister. Subsequently there were some progress, among others an agreement on the integration of 6500 Maoist combatants under a Directorate in the Nepal Army. Yet the work towards preparing the Constitution remained slow. This is due to the inability of the top leaders from main political parties to agree on contested issues particularly how to draw up a federal structure of the country. In short, 2011 has been dominated by a political stalemate blocking the political, social and administrative reforms, which are crucial for moving the country forwards and holding local and national government to account.
Achievements: Key Outputs and Indicators
Building Local Democracy (BLD)
Immediate objective 1:
Local government bodies, user groups and user committees in selected areas are inclusive in representation of marginalized people
Gender objective: At least 33% representation of women
Immediate objective 2:
Local government and user committees in selected areas are responsive to needs of marginalized people by increasing equity in service delivery
Gender objective: Local government is responsive to the needs of women and is increasing service delivery for women.
Immediate objective 3:
Citizens and civil society organisations have increased their democratic practices and are actively using conflict analysis and mediation tools
Gender objective: Women occupy at least 50% of positions on CSOs’ governing committees and among employed staff / ·  Local elections has not taken place since 2002, so the elected members of Village Development Committees (VDC) have not changed, thus there is no increase in inclusion of Dalits, Janajatis, women and youth in this important structure.
·  On average, representation of women increased from 27% to 38% in local structures such as user groups and committees on VDC level.
·  Representation of Janajatis increased from 3% to 17% in local structures.
·  Dalit representation in these structures has been stagnant.
·  Civic Education has upskilled community groups in identifying appropriate projects in the Settlement Level Planning process thus enabling the submittal of community proposals to VDCs and other agencies. As a result the number of proposals has increased. The average approval rate was 60%.
·  Institutionalization and proper use of tools mandated by the Local Self Governance Act (Social Audit, Public Hearing and Public Audits) has led to discussions of the concerns of community members on 138 occasions in 2011 and has thus increased the accountability of VDCs.
·  11 partner NGOs have made an action plan on inclusion resulting in increased numbers of marginalised people in the Boards of the NGOs.
·  Female staff of partner NGOs increased from 10-20% to 20-30%.
·  Partner NGOs have been capacitated to carry out conflict analysis of their ongoing programmes and are using these tools regularly.
·  Village Mediation Groups (Banke) and Local peace committees (Kapilvastu) have been formed and works to settle local level disputes.
Land Rights
Immediate objective 1:
18,500 ex-Kamaiya households of Bardiya, Banke and Dang districts have improved their living conditions through access and control over land and other resources.
Gender objective: Land ownership registered in name of husband and wife.
Immediate objective 2:
Ukhada, tenant, block land and landless farmers in Kapilvastu, Rupandehi and Nawalparasi Districts have obtained ownership to land.
Gender objective: Land ownership registered in name of husband and wife.
Immediate objective 3:
The government has tabled new pro-poor land acts as a consequence of advocacy work by Ex-Kamaiya, Ukhada and national land rights organizations.
Gender objective:
New land policies provide equal rights and opportunities to men and women.
Immediate objective 4:
Women’s access, ownership and control over land strengthened. / ·  6.632 ex-Kamaiya households (app. 30.000 people) in Bardiya, Banke and Dang districts have received land certificates and are permanently settled in the allocated area.
·  781 Ex-Kamaiya households from Bardiya, Banke and Dang districts are in the process of being recognized as landowners.
·  237 Ex-Kamaiyas in Bardiya have got land ownership certificate in joint names (husband and wife).
·  445 Ukhada, tenant, block land and landless households (app. 2000 people) have got land certificates.
·  1163 Ukhada and block land farmers have applied for land registration
·  364 tenant and landless households have been protected from eviction.
·  81 women have got land certificates in their name plus 20 in joint names
·  90 women have applied for land registration
·  The government publicized the report of the High Level Land Reform Commission as a result of series of campaigns organized to pressurize government for the development / implementation of a pro-poor land policy.
·  To implement the common points of the High Level Commission, government formed a steering committee under the chairmanship of Land Reform and Management Ministry.
·  The steering committee includes representatives from the partner organisation CSRC.
·  Generally, small numbers of women have obtained land ownership ranging from 5-30% of new land certificate holders.
Risks and deviations
Building Local Democracy:
·  Ensuring meaningful participation of marginalized groups is a big challenge in the present political context of unaccountability. In all layers of society, power is held by a small elite that tends to pay regard to own interests only and be meshed up in power struggles as exemplified by the inability of the national party top leaders to ensure progress of the constitutional process. This tradition also prevails at community level as well as within NGOs. Changing of mind-sets / political culture is an ongoing struggle that needs to be continued.
·  The inclusion of women to occupy at least 50% of positions on civil society Boards and among employed staff has not been realized even though action plans have been developed. The status of partner NGOs on this has not even been properly measured. In the future numbers / percentages on inclusion of women should be formulated clearly as outputs and should be measured throughout the implementation period.
Land Rights
·  It was assumed that a new policy on land would be adopted before the end of 2011 but the government has been very slow in formulating policies and programmes on land reform and in implementing them. Thus objective 3 in the Land Rights Programme has not been fulfilled, even though Ex-Kamaiya, Ukhada and land rights organizations have implemented a national Land Rights Campaign.
External Evaluations
The evaluation of MS Country Programme Strategies and programme support within the “Democracy Focus” for Nepal among others concluded:
·  BLD, LR and CMPB themes are highly relevant in the Nepal context but the CMPB integration into the BLD strategy is not convincing
·  Gender is addressed in design and implementation but most partners’ knowledge and skills to use gender analysis is limited
·  Local Government and District Line Agencies’ accountability has clearly improved based on instruments and approaches such as Social Audits, Public Hearings, Citizen’s Charters, Score Cards etc.
·  CSO democratic structures, systems and performance has been enhanced but progress is below expectations in many cases

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