Implementing partners:   Tharu Women Upliftment Center, Bardia and Social Awareness Center Nepal, Surkhet

Program Duration  :  1 January 2010 to 31 June 2013

 Goal:  To establish peaceful and harmonious society in 21 action villages of Program Districts – Banke, Bardiya, Surkhet

Major Actions:

• Women Group Formation and Institutionalization
• Peace Education
• Livestock Based Income Generation Program
• Piloting of Conflict Reconciliation

Major Quantitative results

Beneficiaries

Total number of  beneficiaries : 164,396 (Female 126452 i.e. 77% and Male 37944 i.e. 23%)

Secondary beneficiaries double of the direct beneficiaries i.e. 328,892.

Few major qualitative results :

Livestock Distribution:

Improved family income sources from livestock raising

Used animal waste as farm yard manure for vegetable cultivation

Enhanced participation of women in program activities due to tangible economic benefit from livestock program

Increased visibility of the program

Key results of the interventions are:

Increased practices of consuming fresh vegetables produced in the farm of women groups members and maintained balanced diet to improve the health of family member

Increased source of income to women group members of program areas by sailing vegetable in nearby markets

Fodder Supplies

Started practice of planting fodder in community forestry by women group members of Bake

Increased awareness and knowledge among beneficiary women on fodder management for proper livestock management

Increased quantity of fodder production in the farm land of women group members to feed their livestock

Peace Building Seminar workshop, Campaign and Interaction :

 Some of the major results of the interventions are:

Sensitized community people on negative aspects of conflict in the community

Updated and forwarded the list of conflict victims with recommendation to provide relief package to Local Peace Committee of Government

Made commitment by VLPCs of program VDCs to provide relief package  to conflict victims

Enhanced knowledge transformation about peace education to parents through their school going children

Increased collaborative efforts to conduct peace building events through school and youth clubs

Some Effects/Impact level results

Initiated collective farming by some group members thereby promoting social harmony

Initiated collective peace building campaigns by women group members in collaboration with other local organizations

Increased access of group members to resources and services of local government and non-governmental organizations

Increased group fund through collective daily wage work in plantation and harvest season

Increased level of income of women group members through livestock based income generation activities

Increased cooperation and support of government line-agencies to the women groups, Program Management Committee and Village Level Peace Committee

Increased participation of women, dalit and other disadvantaged communities in the program activities

Increased practice of participatory decision making process in groups contributing to increased confidence of marginalized sections

Resource Provider: European Union

Major Actions:

• Advocacy
• Media Mobilization and Networking with special focus to constitutional making process
• Consultation meetings for developing strategies for lobbying with organizations working on the issues of Madhesi
• Interaction with CA members and Issues compilation and publication

·         Resource Provider: Canadian Cooperation Office, Nepal

Major Actions:

• Promotion and strengthening MDOs/MDGs
• Self help community development programs
• Community investment scheme
• Program orientation, review and monitoring

Resource Provider: World Accord, Canada

Major Actions:

• Agro-based enterprise promotion
• Micro Finance
• Local Institution Development
• Health and Education

Resource Provider: CLO, Canada

Partner Organization : SAP-Nepal

Project Duration : 1 september 2014 – 31 December 2014

Project Area : 11 Ilakas of Dailekh District

South Asia Partnership (SAP) Nepal in partnership with SNV, Federation of Water and Sanitation Users Groups in Nepal (FEDWASUN) and Sector Efficiency Improvement Unit (SEIU) was assigned to develop Social Accountability tools, pilot the process and make recommendations for up-scaling that would contribute to sustained functionality of rural water supply systems in Nepal. Capacity enhancement of the concerned stakeholders on different dimensions and tools of Social Accountability (SA) was a key aspect for enabling these stakeholders to adopt the SA tools namely Community Score Card (CSC), Public Hearing and Social Audit. Thus, specific objectives of the assignment were focused on designing and piloting Social Accountability tools that contribute to sustained functionality of rural water supply systems with provisions of capacity enhancement on the selected SA tools coupled with evaluation measures to develop recommendations for application of these tools at broader scale and sharing the experiences with diverse stakeholders. The assignment was implemented at full-fledged scale in Dailekh and only with district events in Jumla.

Piloting of these proven social accountability tools focusing more on functionality of drinking water supply services would guide other stakeholders in adopting the similar approaches for ensuring sustainability of their services. In this regard, knowledge sharing event planned at central level would bring other experiences of other stakeholders in using different social accountability tools in WASH sector for further refinement of these learning and approaches.

Broader partnership with diverse stakeholders created solidified efforts for increasing social accountability that contributed in increased functionality of the selected 11 schemes spread out in 11 illakas. Thus, major achievements of the interventions were:

Increased clarity on issues of functionality that helped in preparation of contextualized SA tools ready for scaling up
Increased social accountability of WASH stakeholders including users, user committees, service providers and government stakeholders
Increased number of water schemes registered with FEDWASUN and District Water Resource Committee
It was realized that these SA tools should focus more on consensus building than confrontation. Continuous technical support and monitoring was highly beneficial in bringing transformation changes in the area of rural water supply functionality.

The Civil Society : Mutual Accountability Project (CS:MAP) is a five- year project supported by the USAID and implemented by FHI360. CS:MAP’s goal is to foster a more legitimate, accountable, and resilient Nepali Civil Society that is capable of advancing the public interest. This grant to the South Asia Partnership- Nepal is issued under the ‘Strengthening Enabling Environment’ grants fund to contribute to the project’s Objective 1: Strengthened enabling environment for civil society and media.

Project Description 

 Aim and Objectives

The aim of this grant is to strengthen enabling environment for civil society organizations in Nepal.

Objectives are :

• Improved legal and policy framework, based on international standards to create an enabling environment for civil society
• Improved public understanding and confidence in the role of civil society organizations
• Improved self- regulation of the sector and internal governance of CSOs

Project Duration : December 16,2016 to March 15, 2019

Project Justification

In an oscillating debate on “states vs. market”, over the last three decades, NGOs have effectively made their presence as an alternative mechanism to development. Instead of dealing with a cumbersome bureaucratic machinery of the state and pecuniary motives of the private sector, even donors have found NGOs to be a convenient vehicle. In the case of Nepal, one can find a mushrooming growth of NGOs particularly after the reinstitution of multiparty democracy in 1990. There are 39,763 NGOs and 254 INGOs registered with the Social Welfare Council  (Source: Kantipur Daily August 28, 2016). Presently, all social organizations or NGOs in Nepal operate under one or more of the following Acts or their Regulations: i) Social Registration Act 2034 and Regulations ii) Social Welfare Act 2044 and Regulations iii) Company Act and Regulations 2022. All aforementioned laws and regulation are more focused on controlling NGOs than creating enabling environment for NGOs to play significant role with space in democratic institutions.

Constitution has stated that NGOs and INGOs will be focused only in the areas of national needs and priority adopting a one-door policy for the establishment, endorsement, engagement, regulation and management of such organizations. It has also emphasized to make  investment and role of such organizations accountable and transparent. Again, right to freedom clause (d) has stated freedom to form union and associations. It clearly indicates that there should be proper interpretation of these terminologies to ensure more liberating environment for Civil Society Organizations to play dynamic role in sustainable development of the country.

There is large number of CSOs dedicated for empowerment of poor and marginalized communities. However, there are also challenges of syndicated membership, weak internal accountability, nepotism and family hegemony, taking partisan views, vulnerable to politicization in NGO sector. In this context, Civil Society Mutual Accountability Promotion project aims to strengthen enabling environment for civil society.  Through this  grant, SAP-Nepal will implement activities to prepare draft recommendations for creating favorable legal environment for CSOs while adopting new constitution considering aspects like federalism and “reasonable restrictions”, interpretation of “working only in the areas of national need and priority” and interpretation of Social Development Bill and Right to Information. Series of consultations focused on GESI target groups mainly women, person with disabilities, chepang, elderly, etc will be organized for collating citizens’ concerns while reforming these legal provisions. Training tailored for champion political leaders and parliament members will be delivered and these leaders will be engaged in lobbying for CSO friendly legal provisions. Selected 30 CSOs in Makwanpur will be trained on series of social accountability tools mainly Citizen Report Card and Social Audit for improving internal accountability that will later contribute in developing internal accountability frameworks for the CSOs in Nepal.