By Preeti Thapa and John Paul Lederach

Often, when the prospect of peace is moving forward at the national level, citizens continue to experience the impacts of conflict, particularly at the local level. This is very much the case in Nepal today – emerging from nearly a decade-long open civil war – as the Constituent Assembly struggles toward a peace process at the national level. These trying and tragic local-level impacts  range from the resettlement of displaced people, disputes over private property, and recovery from trauma, to an increase in the culture of violence and vengeance. And given that even the most successful national efforts to peace can easily be derailed by local outbursts of discontent, chaos, and violence, a holistic and durable approach to peacebuilding must respond to post-conflict crises at the local level in order to consolidate peace at the national level. This requires a simultaneous and multifaceted focus on preventing, resolving, and containing conflict, as well as trauma recovery and a process for reconciliation.

Recognizing this need, the community mediation program in Nepal, pioneered by The Asia Foundation, has provided a platform for local people to respond to local conflicts and address their underlying causes.

Nepali lawmakers recently averted a constitutional crisis by extending the Constituent Assembly’s tenure by one year. But it’s unclear when political parties will resolve their differences and focus on drafting the new constitution. In fragile, post-war climates, community mediation, like this reconciliation between divided neighbors (at right), is critical.

Since its inception, the program has contributed significantly toward ameliorating conflicts in the 118 localities where it has been implemented. One indicator of its success has been the surge in the number of cases referred to mediation, which can be attributed to the fact that this is a community-based program and the ownership has largely been realized by the locals.
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Conflict and fragile governance present enormous challenges for development and security in Asia. In places where violence is widespread and government ceases to function, the pace of development falls dramatically and conditions can deteriorate to extreme levels. Conflicts often include disaffected minorities or marginalized populations at odds with the central government and political establishment. Other elements that can heighten conflicts include limitations on local identity and culture, a lack of accounting for past abuses, and poor access to justice and security.

The Asia Foundation has a long history of working in fragile or conflict-prone areas, including in Afghanistan, Mindanao (Philippines), Nepal, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Aceh (Indonesia), Southern Thailand, and Timor-Leste. Our long-term presence and extensive networks allow us to interact with key actors and support programs in highly challenging and sensitive environments.  Watch the slideshow.

By Bishnu Sapkota

The “peace process” in Nepal should have culminated on May 28, 2010, with a new constitution. Instead, the Constituent Assembly has been extended for another year. Even in the last three months when the negotiations appear to have intensified, nothing has moved ahead, not the constitution writing and not the integration and rehabilitation of the Maoist ex-combatants. Moreover, there is no “process” as such to move the agenda of the peace process forward from here. The big three political parties – Maoists, Nepali Congress, and the Unified Marxist Leninists (the latter two are in the ruling coalition) – meet every now and then to negotiate on the combatants issue and power-sharing agenda. When a certain meeting fails to make progress, the party members simply go back to their corners and keep quiet for a few days until they meet again. This impasse has sadly continued like this for the last several months.
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By George Varughese and Menaka Guruswamy

Around midnight on May 28, 2010, Nepali lawmakers took a stunning last-minute emergency action that served to keep hopes for a democratic constitutional republic and a stable nation alive in Nepal: by an overwhelming majority the Eighth Amendment Bill to the interim constitution to extend the Constituent Assembly’s tenure by one year was passed. Of the 585 lawmakers present in what was to be the final session of the House, 580 voted in favor of the Bill. (Four lawmakers from the Rastriya Prajatantra Party- Nepal (RSP) and one independent member voted against it.)

Nepal's Prime Minister Madav Kumar Nepal (center), and ministers and lawmakers vote on May 28 to extend the Constituent Assembly's tenure. PRAKASH MATHEMA/AFP/Getty Images.

The Birendra International Convention Center in Kathmandu was the perfect setting for a nail-biting finish to a contentious month of political bickering and gamesmanship played by the parties in government and opposition.
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By Sagar Prasai

On May 28, 2010, three major political parties of Nepal, including the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), signed a three-point agreement pushing the deadline for promulgating a new constitution to May 28, 2011. Without that amendment, the Assembly’s constitutional tenure would have ended without having produced even a first draft of the new constitution, leaving Nepal’s peace process in a constitutional vacuum. For now, the crisis has been avoided, but the politics that produced this crisis in the first place remain the same.

In the lead-up to May 28, the Maoists managed to mobilize about 200,000 people from the surrounding districts of Kathmandu to lay siege on the capital, forcing the closure of schools, offices, and shops and instilling fear of violence into citizens.
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By Thomas Parks

There seems to be a growing consensus that aid to conflict-affected and fragile regions needs fixing. The worsening conditions in Afghanistan have had a sobering effect on the international community, particularly development donors and organizations. If we cannot prevent the slide back to conflict and continued poverty for Afghanistan’s war-weary population, despite our huge investments and commitments, then there must be something that isn’t working quite right.

Criticism of foreign aid is nothing new. Since the release of Graham Hancock’s book The Lords of Poverty: The Power, Prestige, and Corruption of the International Aid Business in 1989, there has been a vigorous debate over the effectiveness of international development assistance in the world’s poorest and most fragile regions. What has changed in recent years; however, is the increasing voice from aid recipient countries questioning the effectiveness of the current aid system, and the wisdom of standard aid approaches.
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By Kim McQuay

There is an instant before the start of a large event when, with logistical arrangements set and the agenda fine tuned, attention shifts to participants. One draws a breath and wonders what the chemistry of personalities, perspectives, and experience will yield. So I reflected at the start of last week’s regional conference on the role of leaders of influence in national development efforts in Dhaka. Over 80 participants representing 14 South, Southeast, and Central Asian nations sat in country teams, a human landscape of traditional white and saffron robes, capes, and headscarves, elegant saris and shalwar kameez, colorful batiks, and jackets and ties. Microphones crackled to life from the podium, and the session began.

Convened by The Asia Foundation and USAID, the conference provided a forum where those gathered could share views and experience drawn from different country contexts and working environments.
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Upon their return from the Leaders of Influence (LOI) regional conference in Dhaka March 21-24 that convened over 80 participants from 14 countries, In Asia spoke with Rosita MacDonald, program officer for The Asia Foundation’s Governance, Law, and Civil Society program, and Russell Pepe, chief of party for the LOI program in Bangladesh, on what they heard.

Q: Was there a sense from conference participants that progress has been made since U.S. President Obama’s much-heralded Cairo speech last year in which he declared the U.S.’s commitment to reengage with the Muslim community?

Rosita MacDonald: There was a lot of talk from the U.S. delegation about the shift to enhanced engagement with the Muslim community as well as with other religious communities. This point was acknowledged by several of the delegates, but they also made the point that the U.S. needs to be more effective in its public diplomacy efforts in Asia and to highlight tangible examples of engagement with, and support for, the Muslim world. There is optimism to be sure, but still a lot of uncertainty as to what this “engagement” actually involves and how deep it runs.

Russell Pepe: Participants were encouraged by President Obama’s speech, but several also expressed a need to see more concrete actions. LOI was cited as a very good example of how the U.S. can support a wider engagement with the Muslim community, and can effectively build bridges between different faiths and secular groups.
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When President Obama declared in his Cairo speech last year “Americans are ready to join with citizens and governments, community organizations, religious leaders, and businesses in Muslim communities around the world to help our people pursue a better life,” a new sense of optimism charged those dedicated to building bridges between the two communities.

In direct response to President Obama’s call for greater engagement and his Global Engagement Initiative in which the United States has committed to work with Muslim-majority countries to advance democracy and development, USAID and The Asia Foundation convened a regional conference in Dhaka, Bangladesh, March 21-24 that attracted nearly 70 religious and traditional leaders from 14 countries to candidly exchange views and ideas on the critical role that “leaders of influence” play in promoting positive change in their communities and the power they have to affect national development.
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By Bishnu Sapkota

With just over three and half months left for Nepal’s Constituent Assembly to finalize the new constitution, a new question has emerged in Nepal’s political scene that could further delay the process: Should the ex-Maoist combatants who still remain inside cantonments be integrated into the Nepal Army before or after a new constitution is established?
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