By June Ghimire

June Ghimire is a Program Officer for The Asia Foundation in Nepal. She can be reached at jghimire@asiafound.org.

Recently, a Nepalese radio production team from Antenna Foundation Nepal, a radio production and training house based in Kathmandu, traveled to eight American states to gather stories from over 300 members of the Nepali diaspora in the United States. The team, including Madhu Acharya and Rajan Parajuli, conducted countless interviews, over 60 of which are featured in a 12-episode series called Postcards from America.  The stories range from student experiences to business opportunities, state services to civic responsibility, discrimination to rule of law, and reflections from once famous Nepali celebrities on their dreams and sacrifices.
Read more »

By Preeti Thapa

Preeti Thapa is The Asia Foundation’s Program Manager for Community Mediation, Conflict Transformation and Peace Building in Nepal.

In the area of Devpura Village Development Community in Dhanusha District, Nepal, Kaladhar Jha had a property dispute with his brother, Devendra, which went on for almost 20 years. Even during festive occasions, like marriage ceremonies and social events, the two brothers refused to visit each other’s homes. Since the two brothers faced a lot of tension for a long time, Devendra Jha, who had heard about something called community mediation, decided to apply for mediation services. Eventually – somewhat miraculously – the two brothers were persuaded to attend mediation.  After a few hours their decades-long dispute had been resolved. Now the brothers are on very good terms and have started living in a joint household again.

The Asia Foundation promotes community-based mediation in Nepal, where trying cases in regular court can be very expensive and time consuming.  Mediation can improve access to justice and help establish a culture of peace building within communities.
Read more »

By Nick Langton

Nick Langton is The Asia Foundation’s Country Representative in Nepal. Among many projects in Nepal, the Foundation is supporting the Constituent Assembly process.

On Wednesday, May 28, I was at the Constituent Assembly (CA) until just before midnight when Nepal was declared a federal republic and the king was given 15 days to vacate the palace. The CA was initially supposed to convene at 10:30am, then 3:15 pm. It wasn’t until after 9:00 p.m. that proceedings finally got underway. Throughout the day, party leaders were at the Prime Minister’s residence debating the leadership structure of the new government and the composition of the 26 nominated seats. The motion that passed last night provides for a president to be elected by the house, a vice president, and an executive prime minister. We assume that Girija Koirala will be the president and Prachanda the executive prime minister. What remains unclear is whether the army will report to the president instead of the PM, and which party will fill the post of vice president. There was no resolution on the nominated members. That should be decided before the CA reconvenes next week.
Read more »

By Sagar Prasai

Sagar Prasai is The Asia Foundation’s Deputy Country Representative in Nepal. He can be reached at sagar@taf.org.np.

When the first set of results started pouring in after the April 10 polls, it looked as if the Maoists were heading for a landslide victory. But when the counting came to an end, the Maoists ended up with 240 seats, or 39.9 percent of the Constituent Assembly, followed by the Nepali Congress (NC) at 120 seats, the Communist Party of Nepal (United Marxist-Leninist) at 113 seats, Madhesi Janadhikar Forum (MJF) at 52 seats, and smaller parties taking the rest. In the 601-member Assembly, according to the Interim Constitution, a two-thirds majority is required to form a government. Now that reality is sinking in, it’s clear no single party, or even two parties combined, can produce a governing majority. As a result, Nepal’s post-election government is likely to look and feel more or less similar to its pre-election government, except on one account: the Maoists will be heading this government.
Read more »

By Nick Langton

Nick Langton is The Asia Foundation’s Country Representative in Nepal. He can be reached at nick@taf.org.np.

Nepalis go to the polls on April 10th for the most important election in their nation’s history, one that will choose a 601 member Constituent Assembly to rewrite Nepal’s constitution. The election has been a long time coming, and its success is crucial to Nepal’s immediate peace and democratic future.

Beginning as an unfulfilled promise by King Tribhuvan in the 1950s, the call for a Constituent Assembly reemerged in the 1990s as one of 40 demands by the Maoist insurgents. After a decade of armed conflict, in 2006 the Maoists and the government signed a comprehensive peace agreement that included as a key feature elections to a Constituent Assembly. The government scheduled polls in June 2007, and then again in November 2007, but both times the elections were postponed due to political maneuvers and unrest. Now, on the third attempt, the election is finally going forward.

Read more »

By John Karr

John Karr is The Asia Foundation’s Director for Digital Media. He is currently in Kathmandu filming the events unfolding around the April 10 elections, as well as acting as an elections observer. To contact him, please send an email to aovalle@asiafound.org.

In the last several days here in Kathmandu, despite real and threatened violence, a flurry of campaign activity has taken place in advance of Nepal’s critical Constituent Assembly election. Parties from across the political spectrum engage in planned and spontaneous rallies that snake through Kathmandu’s narrow lanes in a seemingly endless procession of colorful flags, banners, and percussive chants. Motorcycle caravans numbering in the hundreds, often with two or more riders astride each bike, chaotically rumble up and down the city’s wider thoroughfares, waving party flags and calling out to passersby for their support. In Kirtipur on Sunday, Prachanda, the leader of the decade-long Maoist insurgency and himself now a candidate, laid out his agenda for change: a passionate desire to bring education, fresh water, and new roads to Nepal’s most remote regions. Prachanda (a nom de guerre meaning “the fierce one”) appeared to have settled comfortably into his new role as “the candidate.” Speaking before a crowd of several thousand of his fellow countrymen, he respectfully requested their support.

Read more »

Each year, thousands of young women are trafficked within and outside of Nepal and forced into exploitative labor situations, including prostitution. Extreme poverty, illiteracy, and internal conflict are all factors contributing to this illegal practice. The Foundation has provided more than 2,300 trafficking survivors and those at risk of being trafficked with vocational training and education, enabling them to become economically self-reliant. Many of these young women have been trained and employed in vocations normally reserved for men, such as drivers and mechanics. With support from Give2Asia, the Foundation helps program graduates establish “one-stop shops” where customers come for motorcycle and electronic repairs. The program challenges stereotypical gender roles, and provides the young women with gainful employment that reduces their risk of being trafficked.

By Sagar Prasai

Sagar Prasai is The Asia Foundation’s Deputy Country Representative in Nepal.

After canceling elections in June, and again in November 2007, the ruling coalition in Nepal is trying to assure the Nepali people that there will be a Constituent Assembly (CA) election on April 10, 2008. According to a recent poll, only 22 percent of Nepalis believe them. Although this election date is surrounded by as much uncertainty as the earlier ones, this third attempt may actually succeed because, this time, the stakes on all sides are much higher.
Read more »

By Thomas Parks

Thomas Parks is The Asia Foundation’s Regional Director for Conflict and Governance.

Violent conflict presents enormous challenges for development and security in Asia. Many of Asia’s worst cases of instability and political violence are a direct result of sub-national conflicts involving areas in remote or border regions. In these peripheral areas, the state tends to have very limited capacity and its authority is challenged by armed non-state actors. Conflict-affected peripheral regions are usually home to disaffected minorities or marginalized populations that hold significant grievances with the central government and political establishment. These center-periphery conflicts raise an important set of questions that largely fall outside current policy discourse on fragile states.
Read more »

By Brenda Norris

Brenda Norris is a Program Manager for The Asia Foundation in Nepal.

The Maoists were polite, but firm: no civic or voter education activities could be conducted until their national political demands were met. Hours of negotiation succeeded only in convincing the young men not to burn the voter education materials that our local partners intended to distribute. For the previous two hours we had watched our partners complete a two-day voter education training of facilitators and a mock election in the small classroom in Nepal’s Rasuwa District. The trainers were dedicated and professional, and were visibly excited to educate their fellow villagers about the upcoming Constituent Assembly election. With the memory of violence from Nepal’s ten-year-long Maoist insurgency still fresh in their minds, they watched as the Maoists ripped posters from the walls and carted all the voter education materials away. As we learned later, this heartbreaking scene in Rasuwa was being played out in districts all across Nepal, with voter and civic education activities being disrupted in scores of localities.
Read more »