Where we work: Nepal
Introduction
- Deputy Director of Asia, UN Millennium Campaign, Minar Pimple, addresses Constituent Assembly members in Kathmandu/ Photo credit: Seema Rajouria/UN Millennium Campaign
Land-locked and least developed, Nepal remains one of the poorest countries in the world. Despite almost 50 years of development efforts, the country also faces environmental problems due to increasing population, poverty, and dependence on subsistence agriculture. Roots of poverty in Nepal lie in an inequitable development process, lack of infrastructure, and exclusion of the disadvantaged population. This has been exacerbated by the absence of people’s representation and the government administrative structure in rural areas.
Nevertheless, Nepal’s Constituent Assembly (CA) election was a landmark for its socio-political transition after a ten-year long process of internal struggle and conflicts. The new Nepal has emerged as the Federal Democratic Republic with the first elected government and Prime Minister. The key focus of the country is to promote equal citizenship of marginalized and disadvantaged population, which will help eliminate social discrimination and create a more inclusive Nepal.
With strong connections with both civil society organizations (CSOs), local bodies and the UN system, the UN Millennium Campaign focuses on policy advocacy work and campaign efforts, combining the perspectives from grassroots community-based organizations and the UN, to create stronger policy and practice change for the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in Nepal.
The UN Millennium Campaign in partnership with a range of non-state actors including the Global Call to Action against Poverty (GCAP) has worked to increase public awareness of the MDGs. The Campaign and policy advocacy work strive to strengthen people’s influence on elected officials and political leaders to enhance political will to accelerate progress to achieving the MDGs.
The civil society organizations, Citizen's Campaign for Democracy and Social Transformation, are facilitating a process to capitalize opportunities provided by the new political contexts for addressing the issues of poverty.
The Campaign is focusing on key policy objectives, for the new and inclusive democratic constitution being written, as follows:
• Ensure the economic social cultural rights as a central chapter of fundamental rights in the Constitution of Nepal;
• Promote the bottom up approach to strengthen governance and accountability mechanisms mandated in the Constitution;
• Continue progress in decentralization of functions, functionaries, and resources to protect the interest of the excluded regions of Nepal.
To be able to achieve these objectives, the UN Millennium Campaign in Nepal is broadening its partnership base to work in close collaboration with local bodies like the National Alliance of VDCs in Nepal and Municipal Authorities of Nepal. Collaboration with the media will also be strengthened to achieve increased UN Millennium Campaign visibility and to highlight best practices and lessons learnt.
SUTA 2009
In Nepal 2,056,117 people were mobilized and 35 events were organized during Stand Up Take Action 2009. The campaign was supported by the President who read a Stand Up Pledge with members of the Constituent assembly at an event broadcast live on national television. This was followed by a concert in a large open-air theatre in the heart of Kathmandu.
