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Peace, Development and Foreign Aid in Nepal:
Civil Society Concerns
Kathmandu
Declaration>>
21 February 2008
Nepal is one of the poorest Least Developed
Countries (LDCs) in the world. Long-standing authoritarian
regime coupled with lack of proper opportunities to fight
against extreme poverty and socio-economic exclusion have
fuelled a series of political conflicts, violence, and armed
insurgencies in the Nepali society, time and again. The recent
conflict spearheaded by the Communist Party of Nepal -Maoist
(CPN-M) that lasted for more than a decade is the most blatant
example in the series. This conflict partly succeeded to mobilize
as well as capitalize on the general grievances and frustrations
of the Nepalese people aspiring for a dignified living. Following
the unconstitutional royal coup d'etat in February 2005; the
peaceful people's movement of April 2006 - strongly bolstered
by the active participation of civil society actors and the
unique alliance of the Maoists with the democratic forces
- reinstated the then dissolved House of Representatives,
ousting the royal regime and bringing together the seven-party
alliance (SPA) and the Maoists into power. This new alliance
has been mandated by the April movement to hold the long overdue
Constituent Assembly election and thus prepare a new Constitution
of Nepal ensuring Social, Economic, Cultural, Civil and Political
Rights for all Nepalese irrespective of class, caste, gender,
ethnicity and region in the country. The ruling alliance assumed
power with a publicly committed roadmap of holding the Constituent
Assembly election on time so as to strengthen democracy and
realize a lasting democratic peace in the country. However,
twenty-two months have already elapsed and the peace and democratization
process has instead turned increasingly fragile, if not less
successful. Continued marginalization of the traditionally
excluded groups and the inability to democratize institutions
by the present interim Government has been marked as the root
causes of the current hapless situation. And, this prolonged
transition to democracy and peace is taking a huge toll in
the lives of the ordinary Nepali people in terms of violence,
human insecurity, impunity, socio-economic instability and
total loss of political direction.
The current post-conflict situation is marked
by fragility in all respects demanding urgent and utmost attention
of all stakeholders. The common Nepalese are facing day-to-day
problems of securing basic needs; the Maoist ex-combatants
are still languishing in cantonments; the under-aged ex-combatants
are being released for socio-economic reintegration; the internally
displaced people and forced migrants are returning to their
villages; the rural infrastructures necessary for supporting
livelihoods of the returnees are in a devastated state; socio-cultural
attitude towards returning women migrants has been of stereotype
stigmatization making their reintegration into the society
difficult and the list goes on - of despair, dispossession,
disappointment and disillusionment. All in all, the brunt
of the conflict is being borne by the already disadvantaged
- women, children, youths and senior citizens including widows,
single women, orphans and the handicapped made by the conflict.
The country situation spells out a climate of fear, distrust,
anarchy and volatility. The very issues of poverty, exclusion,
denial, exploitation and lack of opportunities that partly
fuelled the decade-long violent conflict have ironically been
further aggravated than mitigated.
The share of the long awaited peace dividend
has been confined to the top-brass of the political parties,
ruling elites and public servants within Kathmandu and other
urban centers, outrightly denying to the common people in
general and to remote-rural-Nepal, in particular. At the grassroots;
fear of insecurity, poverty, violence against women and blatant
violation of human rights continue, thus, the poor and the
marginalized have failed to receive any peace dividend that
they are rightfully entitled to. For the majority of the Nepali
citizens who have been deprived of their basic rights, peace
dividend translates into reclaiming and securing the right
to food, shelter, livelihoods, employment, education, health
and every other socio-political , economical and cultural
rights without any fear of discrimination, marginalization
and humiliation, thus, in the manner of true spirit and concept
of substantive equality. Unfortunately, the priceless peace
dividend has remained Kathmandu-centric in the corridors of
power leaving no room for peace-building from below!
True, the Government of Nepal is responsible
for materializing the lasting, democratic peace and development
in the country, nonetheless, our development partners and
foreign aid has profound implications on the goal too. Despite
receiving billions of Rupees over the five decades in aid,
neither poverty has decreased nor has human security increased;
only deteriorating in the contrary. The conditionalities tied
to aid and the entire aid architecture has done more harm
than good to the majority of the citizens of Nepal, hence,
aid needs to be restructured and revised thoroughly if it
is to serve its purpose.
Too often, foreign aid has undermined rather
than supported local ownership. It is quite usual that the
development partners bypass local ownership, undermine sovereignty
by setting up their own projects and structures of interests;
subsidizing their own institutions with aid money and disbursing
or withholding funds according to their own terms and preferences.
Unless, the government and more importantly, its people are
able to decide and direct on their development efforts, the
development efforts will fail to be inclusive, sustainable
or effective. Country ownership of development programmes
should be understood not as simply government ownership but
deeper, as local ownership. Involvement of the entire gamut
of civil society stakeholders representing the common people,
including women, youths, dalits, janajatis, the differently-abled
and other minority groups, in the formulation and delivery
of policies and programmes must be part of assuring meaningful
local ownership.
In this background, a civil society forum
on peace, development and foreign aid was organized in Kathmandu
on 14-15 February 2008 by a consortium of leading civil society
organizations, associations, and federations which was coordinated
by the NGO Federation of Nepal. The forum was a conglomeration
of diverse groups of civil society representatives from more
than 55 districts to discuss the issues and concerns vis-a-vis
peace, development and foreign aid. Largely, voices of the
poor and marginalized groups - dalits, janajatis, women, madhesis,
youths, differently-abled persons, including people from remote
Nepal, peasants, the working class and the like- were heard
and given the platform to raise their concerns. More than
2,000 people participated in the two-day deliberations, calling
upon the Government and the development partners to pay heed
to their concerns and thus set national priorities based on
their needs and priorities.
At a time when Nepal is passing through
a delicate transition phase - with the ongoing peace process
and the election to the Constituent Assembly at hand - it
is evident that its civil society, by adequately representing
the voices of the people, has a significant role to play towards
realizing an inclusive new Nepal. The annexed Kathmandu Declaration
carries the major concerns and calls of the Nepali civil society.
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Kathmandu
Declaration 2008
Respect and Uphold the Right
to Participatory Development
We, the representatives of civil society,
including seventeen leading federations, alliances and
networks from more than 55 districts of Nepal convened
on 14-15 February 2008 in the National Civil Society
Forum on "Peace, Development and Foreign Aid: Civil
Society Concerns" in Kathmandu and with joint endorsement,
issued this Kathmandu Declaration:
- We express our firm commitment
towards pursuing the peace process and hence, ensuring
its logical end. We are committed towards the successful
realization of the Constituent Assembly election through
full participation of the Nepali people. We assure
our full participation by way of faith in democracy,
human rights, sustainable peace and good governance;
- We urgently demand for the immediate
negotiated settlement of the current Tarai-Madhes
crisis, including, of the eastern hills and other
regions to create the necessary conducive environment
for the Constituent Assembly election;
- We pledge ourselves to the noble
campaign of building a prosperous, just and equitable
new Nepal by restructuring the feudal-patriarchal
exclusionary policies and practices which we have
identified as the root cause of poverty, marginalization
and violence; thereby committing ourselves to the
principles of substantive equality;
- We strongly urge the Government
and development partners to provide peace dividend
to the poor and marginalized as a part of the ongoing
peace process.
- We call for the proper recognition
of the root causes of conflict that are embedded in
the social, political, economic and cultural fabric
of the Nepali society and hence, urge for the formulation
and implementation of long- and short-term periodic
plans that address these root causes in order to help
achieve a lasting democratic peace in the country;
- We urge the Government to formulate
and implement development plans that specially focus
on communities that are denied of their rights for
long, hence, making them fully enjoy their civil,
political, socio-economic and cultural rights. We
demand that the Government and Donor communities acknowledge
development as a fundamental human right;
- We demand full compliance of the
2005 Paris Declaration of Aid Effectiveness by all
developments partners involved. We urge all to ensure
that aid is result-oriented, Gender-sensitive, transparent,
participatory, accountable and locally owned so that
foreign aid leads to the optimal benefit of the Nepali
people as envisaged;
- We call upon the Government to
urgently prioritize development interventions that
reconstruct, reintegrate and rehabilitate the lives
and properties of the conflict-affected and traumatized
women, children, youth and senior citizens in order
to facilitate proper reconciliation in the long run
and hence, promote peace-building from below;
- We urge the Government to formulate
policies and practices that ensure equal access in
all respects to citizens; particularly, women, dalits,
janajatis and other minority groups who have been
historically denied of their civil, political, socio-economic
and cultural rights equally;
- We urge the Government to restructure
the present education, health, security and governance
systems making them accessible to people and capable
of ensuring their basic rights;
- We urge the Government to eliminate
the culture of impunity and call upon all relevant
stakeholders to contribute towards the building of
a new, developed and prosperous Nepal as a democratic
republic that is corruption-free, transparent, accountable
and people-centric;
- We call upon the Government to
restructure all policies and practices which are discriminatory
to women and are responsible for violence against
women thus creating mechanisms to ensure women's right
to life without any form of discrimination and violence
directed at them;
- We demand for proper structures
and policies to support women who are forced to live
in insecure situation and to survivors of domestic
and other forms of violence;
- We demand for equal opportunities
throughout the state structures for all the Nepali
people and that such opportunities prioritize women,
dalits, janajatis, differently-abled persons and other
traditionally excluded groups who have been historically
denied of their Human Rights:
- We demand for a legal mechanism
to implement the proclamation of the Parliament that
ensures at least one-third women representation in
all state apparatus, including, political parties;
- We call for special polices and
provisions that eliminate all forms of discrimination
and violence against differently-abled women and children,
in particular, and further urge the Government to
create sustainable livelihoods opportunities for differently-abled
persons ensuring their rights to life with dignity
and self reliance;
- We call upon the Government and
all development partners to fulfill their repeated
commitments made at different international forums,
including, at the United Nations towards development,
human rights, peace and human security. We remind
the development partners to meet their full commitment
of implementing the Brussels Programme of Action (BPoA)
by allocating at least 0.15-0.20% of their GNP towards
the development of LDCs;
- We call for the scaling up and
adaptive expansion of the successful modes of Natural
Resource Management; support civil society to augment
their voice in forest policy processes (restructuring
process, revising of Master Plan for the Forest Sector
or other similar policies); building local stakeholders'
capacity to assert claims over benefits/compensations
from the impacts of Climate Change processes and international
mechanisms; and support in institutionalizing the
Payment of Environmental Services;
- We urge the Government to devise
policies and programmes for transformative land reform
ensuring the right to livelihoods of the poor and
the marginalized groups;
- We urge the government to ensure
Housing Rights of all citizens of Nepal prioritizing
the rights of women and children.
Signatories:
- Campaign
for Human Rights and Social Transformation-Nepal (CAHURAST)
- Citizens' Campaign for Democracy
and Social Transformation (CCDST)
- Dalit NGO Federation (DNF)
- Federation of Community Forest
Users' Nepal (FECOFUN)
- Federation of Drinking Water and
Sanitation Users' Nepal (FEDWASUN)
- Himalayan Grassroots Women's Natural
Resource Management Association (Himawanti) Nepal
- National Human Rights Alliance
(HR Alliance)
- Inter Federation Women Network
(IFWON)
- Joint Forum for Human Rights
- National Alliance of Women Human
Rights Defenders (NAWHRD)
- National Federation of Disabled
- Nepal (NFDN)
- Nepal Federation of Indigenous
Nationalities (NEFIN)
- National Federation of Irrigation
Water Users' Association - Nepal (NFIWUAN)
- National Land Rights Concern Group
- National Network of Indigenous
Women (NNIW)
- NGO Federation of Nepal (NFN)
- Rastriya Dalit Network - Nepal
(RDN)
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