Written evidence submitted by Saferworld

 

Nepal: Context and implications for DFID programming

 

December 2009

 

Saferworld is an independent NGO working to prevent violent conflict and promote cooperative approaches to security. We have been working in Nepal for three years and currently have three members of staff based in Kathmandu running projects looking at security and justice sector reform.

 

This submission is based on the experience of those staff working at both the grassroots level and with high-level political and security actors[1]; discussions/consultations with Nepali and international partners; and Saferworld's ongoing work to build an evidence base around security, justice and public safety issues in Nepal, including:

 

- District assessments undertaken in Banke, Jumla, Kailali, Nawalparasai, Siraha and Sunsari (April and May 2009)

- An annual public perceptions survey looking at changing attitudes to security and access to justice across Nepal (January 2008, April 2009 and forthcoming January 2010)

 

The current security and political context in Nepal

 

Members of the Constituent Assembly do not often leave Kathmandu to visit their constituencies but, outside Kathmandu Valley, life is difficult. There are few jobs, the police are often feared or inaccessible and armed groups conduct frequent extortion. The Terai in particular has seen the emergence of a large number of these armed groups in the past and our most recent survey shows that it is the most insecure place in Nepal.

 

Pistols can be bought for around NRs 1000 (£8) in the Terai. Young, unemployed men are keen to arm themselves so they can acquire the '3-Ms' - mobile phones, money and motorcycles. The porous and open border with India makes it difficult for the police to control arms trafficking. Although the recent government 'Special Security Plan' has helped reduce crime in the Terai, new trends have emerged such as extortion and threats from phones using Indian registered sim cards. Maoists are increasingly engaged in land grabbing and forest clearing in the Terai to provide settlements for their supporters from the mid-hills region.

 

One consequence of the Maoist struggle was to make women more politically active and there are currently 197 women out of a total 601 Constituent Assembly members. However, violence against women is prevalent in Nepal. For instance, research undertaken by the United Nations Population Fund in 2009 found that, in Surkhet and Dang districts, 9% of women interviewed felt they had experienced sexual abuse and 75% felt they had experienced verbal sexual abuse. In addition, 31% of women reporting experiences of domestic violence (both physical and emotional) identified the threat of weapon use in association with this. NGO activities have begun to help both men and women become more aware of gender equality and women's rights.

 

The Maoists plan to unilaterally declare 13 ethnic and region based autonomous states and protests of support have been planned from December 11th to 18th. Similarly, Terai Mukti Morcha has announced a series of protest programmes from December 3rd to January 9th and the National People's Front Nepal will protest against federalism from December 18th to 29th. The proliferation of these political strikes, or 'Bandhs' - which close businesses, roads and schools for days at a time - was noted as a concern in almost all of the districts Saferworld assessed this year.

 

The Maoists' demands to cancel the President's reinstatement of the then army chief - and subsequent protest programmes - have deepened an ongoing political crisis. The most inclusive Assembly ever elected in Nepal has been blocked for five months - there is a logjam of legislation waiting for ratification, important national issues are not being debated and progress is slow on the constitution-writing. There is a desperate need to work out a high-level power sharing mechanism, but grassroots politics is full of both apathy and antipathy towards the governing coalition.

 

Progress on the integration and rehabilitation of former Maoist combatants will only be taken forward when there is some shared understanding among the political leadership. Privately, the Communist Party Nepal (United Marxist Leninist) and Nepali Congress would like to limit integration of Maoist combatants into the Nepal Army to around 5,000 people, whereas the Maoist's position is to integrate as many as possible and also to secure them senior positions. This is proving an extremely divisive issue. The Maoists have missed several meetings of the 'Special Committee for Supervision, Integration and Rehabilitation of Maoist Army Combatants' and this has delayed finalisation of the code of conduct prepared by the Technical Committee for 'cantoned' Maoist combatants. There are currently believed to be 19,602 former combatants living in 28 cantonments - in addition, there are 4,008 individuals that have been disqualified by a verification process undertaken by UNMIN, and the process of discharging them is not yet complete.

 

Why it is vital for DFID to promote security and justice as basic services in this context

 

DFID's 2009 White Paper on International Development made a welcome commitment to promoting the provision of security and access to justice as basic services 'on a par with health and education'. Saferworld believes that, unfortunately, Nepal provides an excellent example of why 'security and justice' deserves a place within the development mainstream.

 

Poor people, like any others, want to feel safe - and Saferworld strongly believes that insecurity is a form of poverty in and of itself. However, in Nepal, insecurity and a lack of access to justice also undermine development efforts which seek to address wider poverty and exclusion.

 

A lack of democracy and poor public responsiveness and accountability from the government have been key causes of conflict in Nepal in the past decade, with poor accountability and transparency of security and justice services a key part of this. Although people do feel much safer than they did before the Comprehensive Peace Agreement was signed, unrest and tensions related to poor governance persist and could result in renewed violence if reforms are perceived to be ineffective by ordinary people throughout Nepal.

 

The conflict destroyed much local infrastructure and has led to a security vacuum in many rural areas. Our 2009 perceptions survey found that nearly 60% of those interviewed said there is no Nepal police in their locality and that the percentage of people who feel government is able to maintain law and order 'somewhat well' has fallen from 32% in 2007 to 18% in 2009. The percentage of people who feel it is 'very safe' for a female member of their family to go out after dark has also fallen by 2% since 2007, whilst the number of people reporting incidences of physical assault/beating in their community rose 7%, with reports of political violence rising 4% and extortion 3%. The number of people who feel that the level of law and order 'will improve in future months' dropped from 41% to 28%. Only 10% of those interviewed feel that the Nepal Police are 'very reliable' in bringing those who have committed a crime to justice. Lastly, 82% of people felt that the police did not treat poor people fairly and 71% felt that courts did not treat poor people fairly.

 

As noted above, Bandh strikes often result in school closures and affect the ability of communities to access markets to buy and sell goods or find employment. A rise in extortion and threats to teachers, and the abduction and recruitment of children into criminal groups whilst at school in the Terai (most recently documented by UNICEF in early 2009), has also meant that parents have kept children home from school. Armed groups are increasingly using children to traffic small arms from Bihar and smuggle goods across the border including tobacco, wood and sugar. Children are also used as the messengers by armed groups during extortion activities.

 

Cutting across these issues is the reality that poor, uneducated and politically unconnected groups - especially those from certain caste and ethnic backgrounds - are more likely to experience the consequences of insecurity. Without reforms, continued heavy handedness and impunity among security agencies risks entrenching divisions and sparking further conflict. And so there is an urgent need for the Nepal government to help overcome this marginalisation and disenfranchisement through more responsive security and justice service delivery before tensions erupt into further violence. Security and justice sector reform needs to include improvements to police effectiveness, civilian oversight of the security sector and the legal framework of the security sector as a whole (including steps to reduce its politicisation) - all of which are integrally linked to the wider Rule of Law framework.

 

Implications for DFID

 

DFID Nepal actively encourages and supports dialogue between stakeholders such as political party leaders, security and justice providers, government officials and civil society on security and justice issues. In the past year, this approach has become increasingly flexible and adapted to the context - for example, extending support to a Kathmandu-based think tank, Nepal Institute for Policy Studies (NIPS), to support the work of the Technical Committee after its mandate was reinstated in August.

 

DFID continues to promote a 'systems-wide' approach to security and justice reform, which includes, for example, community-based policing, informal justice mechanisms and promoting the role of civil society in the security and justice sector.

 

DFID also promotes gender equality and women's rights, encouraging security and justice sector actors to adopt more gender responsive approaches. Diversity and inclusiveness are key issues and DFID strongly encourages initiatives such as security and justice sector reform to be Nepali-led and owned.

 

Donors, including DFID, are relatively well coordinated - although perhaps more on integration and rehabilitation issues, and coordination could be improved around public security work.

 

DFID is to be congratulated for supporting research and articles by Nepali security experts designed to increase understanding and awareness of security and justice issues in the Nepali context.

 

Saferworld's experience is that there is a lot of information sharing between DFID, FCO and MOD - especially in-country. The three ministries seem to be well connected and in regular contact on security and justice issues. This is important in a context where the political environment is constantly changing, national security and the future of the security sector is a key political issue, and there are high levels of poverty. Nevertheless, although this integrated approach appears to be currently functioning well, it does not take away the need for well designed policy and institutional frameworks to ensure that such a constructive approach endures over time. In turn, Saferworld believes this underscores the importance of joint country strategies between at least these three ministries.  

 

 

There are also three areas in which Saferworld believes DFID's approach could be further strengthened.

 

Taking a 'twin-track' approach

 

The currently stalled political context provides challenges for promoting reforms, especially in such politically sensitive areas as security and justice. Subsequently, there is a need for DFID to ensure it takes a connected 'twin-track approach' which supports both grass roots and high-level work.

 

'Bottom-up' support to civil society is a long term investment. There will not be many tangible results in the short term, but it is a necessary and effective way of influencing attitudes and behaviours and challenging cultural norms. It also allows for an inclusive approach - engaging with marginalised and vulnerable groups including women, youth and disadvantaged caste and ethnic groups.

 

For instance, Saferworld is working with the Nepali NGO Antenna Foundation to produce the 'Nepal Chautari' radio talk show that discusses security and justice issues such as the future of the Nepal Army, policing and the inclusion of minorities in the security sector. The show is broadcast throughout Nepal every Sunday morning over a network of 59 FM radio stations and listeners can join in the discussion through a toll-free telephone line. Speakers on the programme include political and civil society leaders, prominent lawyers and security experts and the show has not only helped inform the public but also strengthened relationships between communities, local police and local government authorities.

 

However, such 'bottom-up' activities must be complemented by 'top-down', high level work engaging with policy experts and decision makers in Kathmandu (and districts). For instance, Saferworld is working with the Nepal Institute for Policy Studies to hold roundtable meetings with government officials, academics and military figures as well as commissioning Nepali security experts to author articles exploring different options for security sector reform in Nepal.

 

Crucially, both bottom up and top down strands must be connected so that they do not exist in parallel isolation but instead work towards the same objectives and benefit from information sharing and lesson learning up and down the chain. This will be especially important for challenging, for instance, engrained attitudes to domestic violence and violence against women - which will not happen overnight, nor from introducing centralised government policy alone.

 

The need for baseline data, tracker information and monitoring and evaluation

 

Even though the context may be changing in Nepal, people's perceptions are not necessarily changing at the same pace. Subsequently, DFID should ensure it is always aware of what ordinary people are feeling and thinking as well as what is happening on the policy / high-level political scale.

 

And so there is a need for accurate baseline data and tracker information that represents attitudes across different Nepali communities, and not just those of Kathmandu Valley. DFID programmes should support such public perceptions surveys as a means of gathering baseline data and identifying monitoring and evaluation indicators for its programmes. DFID could then monitor and evaluate these indicators against the tracker information provided on an annual basis or other timeframe. This would help identify ongoing adjustments that might be needed to ensure programmes have an impact over the long term and so prove truly effective.

 

At the same time, there are a number of other serious challenges around the monitoring and evaluation of security and justice reform. These include (but are not limited to) the inherent complexity of the security and justice sectors, limited access to sensitive or 'national security' information, the need to measure change over the long term not just at the project or programme level, ensuring the participation of marginalised groups, and ensuring that the process of conducting evaluations does not itself inadvertently trigger or inflame conflict. For DFID to be able to best monitor and evaluate its security and justice work in Nepal - and in turn ensure that this work is most effective and having real impact - it will need to develop solutions to these challenges.

 

Investing in politics

 

The political context highlights the reality that, in Nepal, development is 'political'. Supporting the space for transformative and mature political processes to develop will be critical. These politics may be messy, complicated and take a long time to mature but supporting them will be critical for both ensuring long-term peace and helping to create an environment wherein broader poverty reduction efforts have most chance of success.

 

DFID's recent White Paper suggested that it would put politics at the heart of the action and increase its use of political economy analysis. This is welcome but only half the story - the UK must certainly understand the contexts it works in so as to most successfully navigate their complex political realities and identify agents of progressive change, but it should also put effort and resources into supporting local and national level political processes.

 

This may mean supporting political parties directly through the Westminster Foundation for Democracy, but it will also mean supporting wider initiatives that help create and maintain the space for political processes to take place - such as supporting a plurality of media outlets, citizen-based journalists and new media reporting, or civil society groups who organise and promote public debate and discussion on a range of issues.

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[1] See Saferworld (2007), Policing in Nepal available at http://www.saferworld.org.uk/publications.php/286/policing_in_nepal and NIPS & Saferworld (2009); and

Changing Security Dynamics in Nepal available at http://www.saferworld.org.uk/publications.php/402/changing_security_dynamics_in_nepal