|
Nepal
1998
Nepal, Working Upward
From The Grassroots
How to build capacities
in rural communities to generate incomes and protect livelihoods, and
how to create national policy that encourages local initiative. These
are the twin challenges being tackled in Nepal.
The Capacity 21 programme
in Nepal got off to a slow start. More than a year went by between the
original starting date of September 1996 and the actual beginning of field
activities in October 1997. Changes in the national government made it
difficult to launch the programme at the local level during the first
year, so the official three-year programme period was moved up to begin
in 1997. What the programme has accomplished since then has more than
made up for any early delay.
In Nepal, as in many
parts of the world, problems of poverty and social marginalization are
closely linked to environmental degradation, lack of infrastructure and
centuries-old disenfranchisement among large, isolated, rural populations.
But in Nepal, such problems have an impact that extends beyond national
borders. Although it is a watershed area that feeds major rivers in India
and Bangladesh, high levels of deforestation and soil erosion in Nepal
have reduced the availability of fuelwood and leached fertility from the
soil. Soil erosion in Nepal has resulted in the silting and flooding of
rivers in the downstream countries as well. The increasingly severe floods
in Bangladesh in recent years are a tragic symptom of a regional environmental
crisis.
The three districts
chosen for the implementation of Nepal's Capacity 21 programme are areas
of diverse micro-watersheds located in the mid- and far-west regions.
These regions are among the poorest in the country. Surkhet and Dang are
in the foothills of the Himalayas. Kailali reaches into the plain bordering
India. The districts include the watersheds of three important rivers,
and host some of the last surviving populations of a number of aquatic
species, such as the near-extinct Gangetic River Dolphin. Some of Nepal's
most important biological and cultural wetlands are also in these areas,
including the habitat of the endangered monitor lizard, the marsh mugger
crocodile and some 140 species of birds. In each district the environment
is badly degraded by extensive deforestation. According to Manoj Basnyat,
Sustainable Development Adviser at UNDP in Nepal and Team Leader of the
Capacity 21 programme, levels of poverty and social oppression in these
areas have had grave human consequences over the years as well. People
in the district of Surkhet, for example, belong to the very lowest caste
in Nepal's social hierarchy and are extremely oppressed. In the past some
families in Surkhet have seen no alternative but to sell their daughters
into prostitution in order to survive.
Starting
At the Village Level
The objective of Capacity
21's Sustainable Community Development Programme for Nepal is to support
the government in formulating and implementing policies "which will enable
a broad cross-section of Nepali society to engage pragmatically in sustainable
development at the community level." This is to be achieved, says a project
document, "through helping build the capacities of a wide range of organizations
at the community, regional and national levels." So even though the government
is the principal focus of the programme, it was decided that the best
way to fulfil these objectives was to begin "from the bottom up," by launching
pilot programmes directly among the communities themselves. Broad experience
in Nepal has taught UNDP that the best way to influence the government
is through the people. "At UNDP we have recognized over time that for
the government to be responsive -- both at the central and local levels
-- what we first have to do is empower the communities," says Mr. Basnyat.
"That was the main concept that drove us: let progress at the community
level be an inspiration for the government."
It was decided to
begin by mobilizing 15 Village Development Committees (VDCs) in each district.
Each committee has more than 30 sub-committees, or community-based organizations,
in small hamlets of about 200 people each. By mid-1998 10 VDCs had been
mobilized in each district, with the remaining five expected to be operational
by the end of the year.
A
Synergy of Themes
People in the districts
chose one of three thematic areas -- environmental, social or economic
-- under which to begin activities. Surkhet chose environmental management
as its entry-point. Dang, where the programme started in early 1998, chose
economic development. Kailali chose social development, such as education
and public health facilities, including construction of latrines and toilets.
The intention was that each district would progressively move on to cover
all three areas, and as of July 1998 each district has covered two of
the three. But Mr. Basnyat points out that in the early stages of the
programme the lines of demarcation between the thematic areas began to
blur. The symbiotic, mutually supportive relationship between these three
areas became apparent in concrete ways, and it was clear that environmental,
economic and social development must, in fact, go hand in hand.
"We found that after
two or three months of implementation, even if we are doing social development,
spontaneously the people are also linking it to environmental activities
which have an economic component," says Mr. Basnyat. Thus in the district
of Kailali, for example, the social programme involved a school project
in which the children were taught about environmental issues. As part
of the learning process the children were encouraged to plant fruit trees
around their school, including bananas which bear fruit during their first
year. Before long the trees will become an income-generating asset for
the school. Similarly, the social initiative of installing latrines and
toilets in Kailali will become part of a biogas programme that Capacity
21 is planning. This will provide an alternative source of fuel and thus
reduce fuelwood consumption.
Another crossover
between the three thematic areas involves linking agriculture with watershed
management. For example, fruit trees and root crop trees such as bamboo
are being planted over large areas. Recently a tissue-cultured hybrid
variety of bananas that yields four or five times more fruit than common
varieties has been introduced in Surkhet. In addition to improving nutrition
in local families, "the bananas bring in a lot of income," says Mr. Basnyat.
"They also contribute to soil stability" thus helping to reduce run-off
in the watershed area, he notes.
Indeed, the bananas
serve another, strategic purpose as well. Because they bare fruit during
the first year, they serve as an incentive for farmers to plant and tend
other fruit trees that take longer to mature. "The trick is like this,"
says Mr. Basnyat with obvious delight. "If you go to poor people with
tree crops like oranges or mangoes, they will enthusiastically plant them.
But it takes three or four years for these trees to yield fruit. Poor
villagers can't wait that long, so they don't realize the benefits of
being part of the programme. But since bananas yield fruit within a year,
the farmers see that they are getting benefits quickly, and then they
are willing to wait for the other trees to mature. They see the benefit
both in the short term and in the long term."
Promoting
Financial Sustainability
Indeed, planning for
the long term has prompted the programme to display considerable flexibility
and foresight in adjusting to local needs during its first year of operations.
One crucial issue that came up early was the question of financial sustainability
for local activities after the programme's three-year funding cycle ends
in September 2000. The work of the programme at the village level is being
sub-contracted to Nepali NGOs who are trained in social mobilization,
institution-building, and technical support in the three areas of focus.
At first, the NGOs were to be paid out of programme funds of US$833,850
with an additional $100,000 provided from the UNDP national budget. For
work in one district, for example, $180,000 was allocated for this purpose.
"But the question
came up: if we are going to use NGOs, and the NGOs are going to work with
only $180,000, when Capacity 21 funding ends, what happens?" says Mr.
Basnyat. Even high levels of success during the three-year programme period
would have little lasting effect if there were no resources with which
to carry on activities in the future.
It was decided that
15 percent of the $180,000 district allocation, or $27,000, would be used
as operational costs for the NGOs, while the remaining $153,000 would
be used to create a revolving fund called the Sustainable Development
Facility. Also, a contribution is made to this Facility by the central
government through the locally-elected official who is invited to serve
on each village development committee. The communities have access to
this fund for loans for economic, social and environmental projects.
The NGOs organize
the village sub-committees into self-governing institutions, and these
community institutions make their own plans for social, economic and environmental
interventions. Based on these plans they have access to the Sustainable
Development Facility revolving fund for community-level projects and activities
-- on a loan basis. Mr. Basnyat explains that there are two types of loans
available to the village groups. The first is for activities that are
deemed to be in the public interest, such as sending children to school,
installing latrines or toilets or providing small-scale irrigation which
will benefit the whole community. These loans are interest-free. Loans
for income-generating activities carry an interest rate determined by
the villagers on a consensual basis.
But that's not all.
Since it is the communities who stand to benefit most from these investments,
the Capacity 21 team decided that the villagers themselves should also
contribute funds. Since the very beginning of the programme every man
and woman who has joined a village committee has contributed one to five
Rupees (there are roughly 68.5 Nepali Rupees to US$1) per week toward
their own community fund. The individual communities decide the amount
of the contribution.
"The people own these
community funds," says Mr. Basnyat, "and they make the rules on how they
are going to use the money. The challenge is that 100 percent of this
money must be invested either in development activities or for social
needs, such as food, buying books to send children to school or building
toilets or latrines. Each person contributes weekly and the group decides
who will get loans and for what. This money is being circulated right
now in each of the villages for credit purposes."
For emergency needs
such as food in a crisis situation, members have access to this money
interest-free. For loans for income-generating activities they pay 16
to 18 percent interest a year, comparable to the rate charged by in local
banks. In addition to cottage industries such as dressmaking, many of
these income-generating activities are "green enterprises" such as tree
nurseries, bee-keeping, selling forest products on a sustainable basis
or using forest products to make herbal medicines. So far bee-keeping
has been the most successful of these enterprises. One entire village
is focusing on the production of high-quality honey. Villagers receive
technical support from NGOs in processing and storing the honey, and they
will link up with Nepal's honey industry for marketing. Bee keeping has
the added benefit of promoting biodiversity and is highly beneficial to
the environment.
Meeting
Across Caste Lines
The village sub-committees
meet once a week in order to ensure maximum group cohesion. Such cohesion
is remarkable in a society deeply divided along caste lines, and indeed
there was resistance at first to the radical idea of different castes
meeting on an equal footing to discuss common problems.
"All castes come together,"
says Mr. Basnyat, "no one can be excluded. In the beginning some members
objected to this, but as they began to see the benefit they really came
together."
He says that at first
lower-caste members were afraid to speak up at meetings, but soon, "they
began to find that they are equal members there." Initially higher caste
people refused to show respect to those from lower castes, but that too
has changed, according to Mr. Basnyat.
"You begin to see
the effect only after the second or third month," he says, "but then,
yes, there is respect. They work together well. This is why in development
we establish the social basis first."
Indeed, Capacity 21
team members found social issues to be so crucial that they devised a
sort of "constitution" which committee members promise to uphold. One
of the main points is the understanding that each family will send all
their children to school.
"If they have the
option," Mr. Basnyat explains, "then the children may not be going to
school. So one of the requirements when the people come together is that
they all agree to send both boys and girls to school."
The villagers are
asked to agree that conflicts will be resolved through consensus decision-making
and that every couple will try to adopt family planning techniques. A
number of NGOs working in these communities offer family planning services,
and if they are not available the programme provides them. Each household
is also asked take at least one initiative per month that will contribute
to their economic and environmental well being, such as planting a tree.
Serving
as a Model
Even during its first
year, the programme has attracted a lot of attention from the NGO community
in Nepal, and a ripple effect is already taking place.
"The NGOs who are
participating in our programme are interacting with other NGOs," says
Mr. Basnyat. "So other NGOs are being influenced by the way we do things.
I'm getting a lot of telephone calls from other NGOs saying that they
are going to do the same type of thing."
In order to reduce
their dependence on international donors, for example, some NGOs have
begun to replicate the programme's Sustainable Development Facility, so
that eventually communities themselves can pay for the services of NGOs.
Furthermore, they find Capacity 21's institution-building methodology
especially intriguing.
"The NGOs are very
interested in how the communities get mobilized, and how they undertake
different activities on their own," says Mr. Basnyat. "We advocate the
concept of self-government. All decisions are made by the communities,
not the NGOs nor the project team. When the communities identify a priority,
they make the decisions, and only then is the support given."
He says that because
Capacity 21 does not impose ideas on the people, the people are more receptive
to the programme. "The amount of money we are actually making available
to the communities is not very high. But because we have given the people
the ownership to manage this whole process themselves, we are getting
a better response from the communities than any other programme. And many
NGOs are replicating it," he says.
The community receptivity
is reflected in the fact that committee membership is well above the requirement
that at least 80 percent of households must participate. In Surkhet it
is 90 to 95 percent. "It's a very, very high turnout," says Mr. Basnyat.
"Based on international experiences this is the maximum one can expect."
He explains that the 80 percent minimum was a deliberate strategy designed
to ensure the greatest possible impact in the communities. "We told the
villagers that if we were going to enter into partnership with them, this
was one of the criteria," he says.
But the strategy produced
another benefit as well. It has lifted the development activities of the
communities out of the realm of party politics. Since the establishment
of multi-party democracy in Nepal in 1990, says Mr. Basnyat, "there's
a lot of politicization that is taking place. If we did not have a minimum
of 80 percent of the households participating, we felt that one of the
political parties might be able to influence what the villagers are doing.
But if you have 80 percent of the households, you have pluralism in the
organization." Mr. Basnyat has observed that once the people begin discussing
development issues and economic, social and environmental needs, politics
fades from the picture. "When people begin to be busy with development,
politics becomes, not neutralized, but people are more together, so there's
more social cohesion. It's called social capital formation."
Promoting
Women's Empowerment
Villagers form themselves
into groups of men and groups of women, or into mixed groups, whichever
they prefer. But it was soon discovered that in higher caste communities
women in mixed groups remained in the background and were dominated by
the men.
"The amount of capacity-building
that would take place among the women is sometimes overshadowed by the
men," says Mr. Basnyat. Mixed groups account for about 55 percent of the
total. But since the simple act of meeting in a group of women to discuss
problems can be a highly effective means of women's empowerment, the programme
is encouraging women in the mixed groups to meet together in single-gender
groups as well.
"Now we have a deliberate
policy to encourage all social mobilizers on our team to influence both
men and women to organize separately for a certain period of time," he
says. "If the people insist that they want to have men and women together
we don't override their decision, but we suggest that the women also meet
separately."
This sensitivity to
the dynamics of women's empowerment is already paying off. Mr. Basnyat
visited the villages in July 1998, and was impressed with what he found.
"Despite the short
period of time," he notes, "some of the women said: 'we never used to
speak openly in public. Now we discuss our problems very openly and we
let the villagers know what our feelings are'."
In another village,
as is typical, the vast majority of women were illiterate. According to
UNDP's figures for 1994, only 12.8 percent of Nepali women could read,
compared to 39.7 percent of men. "Being part of a group, they found among
themselves an educated woman who began to teach the rest," says Mr. Basnyat,
"at least to understand figures and letters. One woman told me: "It's
like opening my eyes."
In these impoverished
and oppressed communities, women's newfound solidarity is already having
important social repercussions. "Due to poverty there are women who get
beaten up by their husbands in their houses," says Mr. Basnyat. "But with
women all coming together in a group, I have seen two cases where they
reported that if the husband does anything harmful to the wife, all the
women of that group go to their house, and they reprimand him."
Even the women's sense
of financial autonomy has increased. Although women generally do not have
access to household funds, the fact that both men and women must contribute
to the community fund once a week means that the husband must give money
to the wife for this investment. The woman has equal access to this fund
for income-generating activities, and she then deposits money she earns
directly into the fund.
"Because of that the
women are beginning to feel they are building a sort of a security system,"
says Mr. Basnyat.
Reducing
Fuelwood Consumption
In fact, it was women
speaking up about their problems that lead to one of the most impressive
examples of the programme's impact on the environment. Because women in
Surkhet complained that they have to walk farther and farther every day
to collect increasingly scarce fuelwood, village committees in the district
decided to make the reduction of fuelwood consumption a priority. NGOs
were trained in the technology of making and maintaining improved, fuel-efficient,
smokeless stoves, as well as developing alternate sources of energy such
as biogas and micro-hydro power. Then each community chose one local person
who also received training in these skills. These "trainees" have gone
back to their villages and have set up businesses making and repairing
fuel-efficient stoves.
"From each household
they earn 50 to 100 Rupees for building and repairing cooking stoves,"
says Mr. Basnyat. "It becomes a service."
The development of
biogas from human waste collected from the latrines that are being installed
in the villages and from cow dung is still in its early stages, as is
micro-hydro power which can also be used for cooking. In addition, many
tree nurseries and forestry projects have been started for timber, fodder,
fast-growing fuel trees and fruit trees in areas that were badly deforested
and neglected in the past.
In some cases villagers
plan to become self-sufficient in fuel by using their own wood lots on
a sustainable basis. In other areas, the committees are discussing the
installation of micro-hydro power projects, to be funded by Capacity 21
and by UNDP's Rural Energy Programme. Micro-hydro power can be used for
cooking by heating stones and gravel during the day, and as a source of
light at night. But Mr. Basnyat says that the use of biogas is a far more
efficient way to reduce fuelwood consumption, and he expects that with
help from UNDP's rural energy experts this technology will be used more
and more widely. In any case, based on the current proliferation of fuel-efficient
stoves, he is confident that by the end of 1998, fuelwood consumption
in Surkhet will have been reduced by 20 to 25 percent.
Micro-Macro
Linkage
Although all this
activity has been going on in remote districts at the local level, part
of the strategy behind its design was to support the process of decentralization
being implemented by the national government.
"While we are implementing
our projects we are constantly taking the policy-makers from the National
Planning Commission out to the field, where they are seeing for themselves
the changes that are taking place," says Mr. Basnyat.
As a result, the environmental
management section of Nepal's ninth Five Year Plan, recently approved
by Parliament, has incorporated the methodology of Capacity 21 into its
national agenda for action.
"Everything we are
doing in Surkhet and Kailali and Dang has been incorporated as part of
government policy," says Mr. Basnyat. "It's going to be done on a national
scale."
Another example of
micro-macro linkage is that Capacity 21 has invited district-level officials
from around the country to visit its programme areas and talk with villagers.
"Even though the process
has just started, people can feel that something new is happening," says
Mr. Basnyat. "So the good response has prompted the local operatives to
go back and encourage this approach in their own districts."
In fact, the whole
programme has the effect of enhancing political participation on the part
of the villagers, once so disenfranchised. "If you have 80 to 90 percent
of the households in each village organized and if you have 25 villages
represented on a village development committee," says Mr. Basnyat, "it's
highly probable that the local elected official will listen to these organizations.
And this is happening."
Similarly, he says,
the leaders of the village sub-committees have joined to become a powerful
political force for their communities. There are ten such lobbies in each
of the three districts.
"These leaders come
together once a month to discuss issues and share experiences," says Mr.
Basnyat. "That's a powerful forum for expressing the needs of the villagers.
We have found this is something that both local authorities and government
officials do not wish to neglect. This is grassroots democracy."
There has even been
an unexpected outcome of the programme which was not envisioned in the
project documents. It turns out that the "wasted" first year before activities
began was not wasted at all, since the time was used to establish the
institutional basis on which the programme would be implemented.
"In Surkhet and Kailali
we started networking with international and local NGOs working in those
areas, trying to learn how things were being done," says Mr. Basnyat.
It was also a time
for gathering information about natural resource management at the district
level and determining the best possible areas for project implementation.
"As a result of our
presence in the districts," says Mr. Basnyat, "our programme team is working
with the local authorities and the responsible government agencies to
determine the levels of funding that may be required -- from the central
government and other donors -- to actually support natural resource management
at the district level."
He hopes that this
interaction may eventually have an impact on national policies of natural
resource management, but at the very least it is building the capacities
of people at the district level to manage natural resources more sustainably.
|
