Annual Report Submitted to USAID So the Details of Those Activities Are Not Reported Here

From Combatants to Peacemakers Program Project Final Report October, 2015 to March 31, 2017

Award No: AID-367-F-15-00002 Under USAID/DCHA/CMM APS-OAA-14-000003

Submitted to:

United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Democracy and Governance Office Maharajgunj, Kathmandu, Nepal

Tel: +977-01-42340000

Submitted by:

Forum for Protection of Public Interest (Pro Public) Gautambuddha Marg, Anamnagar P.O.Box: 14307 Telephone: +977-01-4268681, 4265023 Fax: +977-01-4268022

Disclaimer: All these activities were made possible by the generous support of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The contents are the responsibility of Pro Public and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the United States Government.

Abbreviations

BC Brahmin Chhetri CBO Community Based Organization CDO Chief District Officer CPN Communist Party of Nepal CSO Civil Society Organization DDC District Development Committee DF Dialogue facilitation ECs Ex-Combatants FGD Focus Group Discussion GESI Gender and Social Inclusion GIZ Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH KII Key Informant Interview LPC Local Peace Committee NC Nepali Congress NPTF Nepal Peace Trust Fund OCA Organizational Capacity Assessment OPI Organizational Performance Index PLA People Liberation Army Pro Public Forum for the Protection of Public Interest SDG Social Dialogue Group STPP Strengthening the Peace Process UCPN United Communist Party of Nepal UML United Marxist Leninist UNDP United Nations Development Program USAID United States Agency for International Development VDC Village Development Committee WCF Ward Citizen Forum

Acknowledgement

This project completion report covers the overall implementation of the USAID-funded Combatants to Peacemakers (C2P) project (October 2015 to March 2017). Activities conducted from October 2015 to September 2016 were reported in the annual report submitted to USAID so the details of those activities are not reported here. To accomplish all these activities, the project team has received support and cooperation from a wide range of institutions and individuals at the international, national, district and local level. For this support, Pro Public would like to express its sincere gratitude to Democracy & Governance Specialists Ms. Amanda Cats-Baril and Ms. Sumitra Manandhar from USAID’s Democracy and Governance Office for their unwavering support throughout the period. Pro Public also extends its sincere thanks to the individuals from the 16 project communities for their active participation and cooperation in the project for its effective implementation. Pro Public would like to specially thank all the Dialogue Facilitators (DFs) and Mediators from the 16 project communities for their hard work for preparing and organizing the events throughout this period.

Pro Public appreciates the support of all the Executive Officers of Municipalities and secretaries of Village Development Committees (VDCs) and Conveners of Local Peace Committees (LPCs) for their great support as well as excellent coordination for events. Pro Public would like to express its special thanks to all the hospital/medical colleges (BP Koirala Institute for Health Sciences in Dharan/Sunsari, National Medical College, Chitwan Medical Colleges, Bharatpur, Bhairahawa Medical College, Bhairahawa and Nepalgunj Medical College, Kohalpur Birgunj, Nepal Medical College) who provided the medical team during the organization of the health camps in the project communities, and academic institutions to organize the school level cultural program and speech competition. These events would not have been possible without their support.

Last but not least, Pro Public thanks Mr. Babu Ram Poudel, Program Manager; Mr. Chiranjibi Bhandari, Training & Monitoring and Evaluation Coordinator; Mr. Prem Bahadur B.K., Program Officer Ms. Jagat Sharma, Finance Officer and Ms. Mamata Shah, Program Associate for their rigorous support in the successful implementation of the project activities.

Table of Contents

Content Page Abbreviations Acknowledgement Table of contents Executive summary 1. Introduction 11 2. Context Update 15 3. Coordination with USAID/CMM Projects 18 3.1. Second CMM Quarterly Meeting 18 4. Accomplishment 19 4.1. Refresher Training on Dialogue Facilitation and Mediation 21 4.2. Psychosocial Refresher Training 22 4.3. Radio Jingles and Pamphlet produced 23 4.4. Radio Jingles and Pamphlet disseminated 25 4.5. Community Envisioning 25 4.6. Peace Events 28 4.6.1. Feedback of the participants 32 4.7. Second Round of Interaction 34 4.8. National Level Sharing Meeting 37 5. Ongoing Project activities 37 5.1. Formation and Conducting Meetings of Social Dialogue Groups 37 5.2. Advisory Committee Meetings 40 5.3. Psychosocial Care 41 5.4. Mediation Cases 43 5.5. KII and Survey 46 5.6. Number of Visitors in Peace Libraries 49 6. Challenges, Lesson Learn and Successes 49 6.1. Challenges 51 6.2. Lesson Learnt 51 6.3. Success 41 7. Sustainability Plan 52 9. Monitoring and Evaluation Performance 54 9.1. Joint Monitoring Visit of USAID and Pro Public 54 10. OCA/OPI 55 11. Training and Workshops Participation 56 Annexes i) Monitoring and Evaluation Performance Data ii) Details of Library Visitors iii) MoU signed between Pro Public and TPO Nepal iv) Cash Deposit Slip of Amount Transferred to the Social Dialogue Groups Revolving Funds v) List of Milestone Reports and Dates Delivered to USAID in Past Six Months vi) Update list of OCA/OPI

Executive Summary

This report summarizes the accomplishments of C2P in the period of October 2015 to June 30, 2017. In this period, activities associated with milestones, rapid community assessments (milestone A1), were completed first and other activities were completed based on the set results .

The other project activities completed during the project period aimed to achieve the following

results are presented as following.

 Dialogue facilitators are capacitated to deliver dialogue, mediation, and para-psychosocial services are deepened;

 SDGs, peace libraries, dialogue/mediation centers and advisory committees are operational and linked with local government bodies and key institutions. The communities are aware and making use of, the services;

 The government and other stakeholders are aware of the work of dialogue facilitators in the country and the status of ex-combatant integration

 Organizational Capacity (OPI and OCA score) of Pro Public is discussed/prepared a details timeline for implementation and implemented and policies strengthened.

Result – 1:

Under result - I (capacity development of dialogue facilitators), To build the capacity of the DFs, updating of training manuals (A2), basic training on dialogue facilitation and mediation to 48 individuals (A3), advanced training on dialogue facilitation and mediation to 56 individuals (A4), basic training on psychosocial support to 20 individuals (A5), advanced training on dialogue facilitation and mediation for 48 individuals from six new communities (A6), refresher training on dialogue facilitation and mediation to 56 pre-existing facilitators (A7), refresher training on dialogue facilitation, mediation, and reconciliation to 48 candidates from new communities (A8), refresher training on psychosocial support in cooperation with TPO for 35 people (A9) were successfully completed.

Out of 104 DFs, 56 individuals completed advanced and refresher training on dialogue facilitation and mediation and other 48 DFs completed basic, advanced and refresher training. 56 DFs those who completed advanced and refresher training more than 80% individuals expressed above than 60% confidence to deliver the dialogue and mediation services in their respective communities. Similarly, 48 DFs those who completed advanced and refresher training more than 90% and 73% individuals expressed above than 80% confidence to deliver the dialogue and mediation services respectively in their respective communities.

Regarding the confidence of the participants to deliver the psychosocial support in their communities, responses of participants are as follows. Out of the 35 individuals that attended the training, 29% of the individuals expressed their level of confidence to deliver psychosocial support and care services in their communities are above 80%.

Similarly, 40%, 23% and 8 % individuals stated their level of confidence in the range of 60-80%, 40-60 % and 0-20% respectively. By receiving skill and knowledge from the training, Social Dialogue Group (SDGs) were formed operationalized by the DFs from which ex-combatants and community people got a safe and common space for sharing their various kinds of stories in small circle. Also, dialogue facilitators and mediators provided mediation and psychosocial care and support related services in their respective communities.

The project has brought positive changes in terms of participation of women and marginalized communities in a substantive role or position in peace building in their communities. During the period, altogether 126 groups, including 94 social dialogue groups, 16 advisory committees and 16 DF resources pools also completed all rounds of trainings to deliver the services in dialogue facilitation, mediation and consensus building techniques.

Result – II ,

Under the establishment and operationalize peace dialogue/mediation centers, establishment of peace libraries and dialogue/mediation centers (B1), first round of interaction meeting, formation of advisory committees and orientation to advisory committee members (B2), production of radio jingles and pamphlets/posters (B3), community envisioning meetings, hosted in new and STPP communities (B4), 44 peace events (B5), dissemination of radio jingles and pamphlets/posters disseminated (B6), 16 second round of interaction meetings out of 16 (B7) also successfully completed. Similarly, organization of national level experience-sharing meeting (C1), production of documentary and publication of project (C2) completed within the stipulated time. Monitoring and evaluation framework (D1) and preparation of the bio-annual and annual report (D2) completed. In the same way external evaluation (D3) of the project also has been completed successfully.

All 16 project communities are equipped with dialogue/mediation centers and peace libraries and providing services to the communities so that they can better access resources related to peace, conflict transformation and other relevant areas. Similarly, 16 advisory committees were formed. The role of the committees were to provide advice and suggestions to the DFs continually for the smooth operation of project activities; get feedback in periodical meeting of the past activities; to motivate and encourage community members to participate and avail the services provided by the project; to suggest to the DFs to organize the peace events in a way from which more people can benefit and social harmony can be enhanced; to motivate other stakeholders to participate and support project activities; to take the ownership of the project activities after the completion of the project and so forth. Out of 16 communities, three rounds of advisory committee meetings were completed in all the 16 communities and one round of

meeting is hold that will be held before finally shifting the peace libraries to the respective VDC/municipalities building as per the agreement signed.

By the end of the March 2017 total 43 peace events were completed in which 18,396 community people participated. Out of these, 4,996 individuals directly received health care services under the categories of general, gynecology, psychosocial and orthopedic and 13400 individuals directly participated in other peace activities including, peace rallies, cultural programs and speech competitions; interactions; sports, establishment of revolving fund and so forth. It has become an outstanding achievement to ensure the collaboration between ex-combatants and community members/institutions as well as ensured the larger participation of community people for the cause of peace and social harmony.

Similarly, three radio jingles on mediation, dialogue and psychosocial counseling and two poster on mediation and psychosocial counseling were published in three languages i.e., Nepali, Maithili and Tharu. The radio jingles (B6) were broadcasted through 28 local FM stations and the posters were distributed to different institutions, groups, members of SDGs and advisory committee and posters were also stuck in different public places.

As one of the major activities under the project, 10 communities envisioning completed in 10 old communities from which the development plans for the next five years have been formulated through intensive discussions with the key stakeholders. In order to ensure the sustainability of the peace libraries, total 15 interaction and handover of peace library program were organized from which the overall progress of the project was shared and handover, to the respective VDCs/municipalities, agreement regarding handover of peace library also signed between, respective VDCs/municipalities, Pro Public, LPC, advisory committee and DFs that has ensured its continuity and sustainability.

During the project period, DFs conducted 658 dialogue facilitation sessions in all 16 communities and engaged 750 individuals as member of the social dialogue groups to bridge the gaps between ex-combatants and community members and improve trust and empathy between them. Furthermore, DFs successfully mediated 93 interpersonal disputes in project communities, contributing to the promotion of peace at the local level. The cases were mainly reported as domestic violence, defamation between each other, accident, tender, land disputes, transaction related issues, disputes between family members, physical assaults, blaming and insulting, house rent, domestic violence, boundary issue and so forth. The majority of the cases were related to women, youth or people from other marginalized groups.

In order to contribute to the internal peace and personal well-being of both members of ex- combatants and people from communities, DFs along with TPO counselors provided the para- psychosocial services in the project communities. During the period, total 433 sessions were conducted to deliver para-psychosocial services, i.e. in person counseling services to people with psychosocial problems in communities in accordance to their needs, where TPO counselor along

with trained DFs ensured a safe and stimulating environment for people to share their pain and suffering and provide referral services as needed.

In spite of the best efforts of the project team three events, one peace event, community envisioning and interaction/handover program were left out due to unfortunate incidence happen in Saptari during the first week of March 2017 in that area. Unfortunately, on Mar 6, 2017 three persons were killed when police opened fire to contain the situation after a violent clash with Madhesi Morcha cadres who were trying to foil CPN-UML’s programme in Rajbiraj of Saptari. The CPN-UML had organized this program as awareness campaign focusing to the local elections. These incidents created a tension in the district and it was impossible to organize any event in such a violent environment. The timeframe of these events was modified until the end of the June 2017 as no cost extension of the project due to the incidents.

Result - III

After completing the activities mentioned above, a national level sharing meeting was held in which Hon'ble Mr. Kripa Sindhu Prasad, member of National Planning Commission, was the chief guest where around 100 people were from communities, government agencies, donor partners, civil society organizations and so forth. The guests and participants were briefed about the overall results and impact of C2P interventions through presentations, live stories and the sharing of the project documentary. The documentary was appreciated by all the guests and participants as well.

Result - IV

During the project period, the organizational capacity of Pro Public had significantly increased. USAID-specific indicators (OPI and OCA score) were used to assess this. Based on the preliminary assessment of OCA and OPI score assessed on March 10, 2016, Pro Public rated itself at a 53 percent in OPI and 2.73 in OCA score and developed an action plan. Pro Public improved its existing policies and endorsed new policies: grievances handling policy, information and technology policy, safety and security policy, sexual harassment policy, volunteer and intern policy and so forth. Under this, project staffs were provided opportunities of trainings on areas that covered project activity planning, monitoring and evaluation training, crisis communication, monitoring and evaluation workshop. The trainings were organized by USAID. When Pro Public was reassessed after these programs, the result was 69 percent in OPI and 3.25 in OCA score. Pro Public has used this learning as a tool to improve and strengthen the organizational functions. Such assessment can be carried out regularly, annually or biannually basis.

To know the overall impact of the project Key Informant Interviews (KIIs) and a survey were done with the SDG member and participants of interaction program. The project document had envisaged to decrease conflict and increase social harmony by 60% after intervention of the project the KIIs and surveys were done to measure the same. In this context, out of set 320 KIIs total 284 interviews were taken in the 16 communities to know the perception of the key stakeholders about the impact of the project. Out of them total 94.71%

people said that conflict has been decreased in the community and 94.36% people said that the social harmony has been increased in the project communities due to the project activities.

Similarly, total 712 SDG members and 556 individuals from second round of interaction meeting were surveyed. Out of them 89.03% people expressed that dialogue facilitators have contributed in the reconciliation processes in their communities. The results of the both KIIs and the surveys has clearly presented that the target has been achieved in a very good way.

1. Introduction

C2P was awarded to Pro Public by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). This project is an expansion of Pro Public's previous success using dialogue facilitation to support the integration of ex-combatants in host communities in 10 districts in collaboration with Support of Measures to Strengthen the Peace Process Program (STPP/GIZ) and the Nepal Peace Trust Fund (NPTF).

The project aimed to increase social harmony and peace in 16 communities absorbing Maoist ex- combatants around Nepal. All the communities have been mapped according to USAID’s GIS requirements.

Project District Project Communities S. N. Districts Municipalities/VDCs 1 Kailali Masuriya VDC Ghodaghodi Municipality Lamki-Chuha Municipality 2 Banke Kohalpur Municipality Binauna VDC 3 Surkhet Birendranagar Municipality 4 Bardiya Gulariya Municipality 5 Dang Bijauri VDC Purandhara VDC 6 Rupandehi Sainamaina Municipality 7 Nawalparasi Rankachuli/Nayabelhani VDC 8 Chitwan Kalika Municipality 9 Mahottari Bardibas VDC 10 Saptari PiparaPaschim VDC 11 Udaypur Triyuga Municipality 12 Sunsari Dharan Sub-Metropolitan City

By using the people-to-people approach, the project activities brought together ex-combatants and host communities, conflict victims, LPC members, women, community members, as well as marginalized groups including Dalit, Muslims, and Janajatis. As a peace actor, DFs worked in terms of trust building and fostering understanding between the ex-combatants and community members by involving and encouraging them for sharing of personal narratives, compassionate listening, and the creation of a common vision for the development of their community. Also, DFs provided mediation services in different kinds of conflicts upon request and provided para-psychosocial care and support to the needy people. Furthermore, project activities were in direction to prevent and reduce violence at the community level, promote reconciliation between ECs and community members, and expedite the social re-integration of ECs in host communities.

The project activities contributed to four major results:

1. Dialogue facilitators are capacitated to deliver dialogue, mediation, and para-psychosocial services are deepened;

2. SDGs, peace libraries, dialogue/mediation centers and advisory committees are operational and linked with local government bodies and key institutions. The communities are aware and making use of, the services;

3. The government and other stakeholders are aware of the work of DFs in the country and the status of ECs integration;

4. Organizational Capacity (OPI and OCA score) of Pro Public improved as demonstrated through staged assessments.

In the first year of project implementation from October 2015, when the project agreement was signed, to March 2017, the activities accomplished in line with four major results are summarized as follows. Detailed reports on all activities have been submitted as per the Fixed Amount Award milestone plan between USAID and Pro Public.

In line with result (1), 48 individuals completed the basic, advanced and refresher level dialogue facilitation and mediation training from the new six communities, 56 individuals completed advanced and refresher training from old 10 communities and 35 individuals completed para- psychosocial counseling training from 10 communities; including six new and four old communities. Overall, the trainings targeted capacitating the ECs and community members to deliver dialogue, mediation and para-psychosocial services in their respective communities.

In line with result (2), in order to provide the project briefs to VDC/Municipality level stakeholders, a discussion program was held in all 16 communities. From the same program, advisory committees were formed, oriented and operationalized. The members in the advisory committee were ensure from the local government bodies; municipality and VDCs, political parties, Ward Citizens Forum, Civic Awareness Center, Local Peace Committees (LPCs), women groups and representatives from local NGOs, were convened four times in the course of the project in communities for the discussion on peace library, peace events and social dialogue groups meetings updates and so forth. As the members of the Advisory Committees were from the different institutions and groups, i.e., local bodies, LPCs, local political parties, CBOs, media, Ward Citizen Forums (WCFs), users groups and so forth they have intensive knowledge and information about the community and the needs. So, they were consulted and based on the discussion the agreed suggestions from committee were picked up organized the event.

In all 16 project communities, a total of 94 social dialogue groups (SDGs) were formed and supported to function throughout the project period. In line of achieving the overall goal of the

project, Pro Public ensured representation of ex-combatants, conflict victims from both state and then rebellion side and members from disadvantaged and marginalized groups in the social dialogue groups. The members of SDGs met regularly until 7th time to share their childhood stories, good news and recent problem, painful stories, empathy exercise personal envisioning, identification of community problem and community envisioning to create a space for host community members and ex-combatants to know each other better and create an conducive environment for collaboration by building strong relationship. The meetings were facilitated by trained DF team in all the 16 project communities.

In order to provide the access to literatures on peace building, conflict resolution and to resolve disputes and facilitate dialogues, 16 peace libraries and dialogue/mediation centers were established and operationalized. In all the 16 peace libraries and dialogue/mediation centers, a center coordinator was appointed selecting from the DFs of the respective communities based on their interest and time availability.

Similarly, different peace events were organized to create a space for collaboration between ex- combatants and community people, enhance the leadership skills of community members, and change the existing negative perception towards each other. These initiatives were instrumental to bring thousands of people in a place and ensured good relationship among them, as well as and ensured a conducive environment for smooth implementation of project activities in all the communities.

In support of people in need of psychosocial services, TPO counselors, and trained DFs provided support, care and counseling services to the people, with aim to helping people for internal wellbeing and peace. TPO provided training to Pro Public’s DFs and also mentored to them due to their expertise in the area of psychosocial care. TPO and Pro Public signed a MoU under which TPO had agreed to provide its counselors in all the project communities and provide their expertise and mentor DFs. Pro Public DFs identified the people with need of psychosocial service and TPO Counselors provided counseling services to them in need basis. In the case of the need of the medication they were referred to the nearby hospital too.

Thus, both counseling as well as medical services were utilized by needy people, however due to social taboo very few people came out and asked for these services. Due to the project’s outreach efforts and IEC materials, however, more people asked for these services once they are informed about them. The SDG members were also relayed the messages by DFs for using and relaying the messages about psychosocial and mediation. . In each community 500 posters on mediation and 300 posters on psychosocial services were distributed. Similarly, radio jingles on the same were aired from 28 local FM stations in the 16 communities. Thus, around 23000 community people were calculated as the regular listeners of the jingles. Overall, all these activities contributed in making communities aware about the project objectives, approach and activities to be carried out during the project period and also available services i.e., dialogue, mediation and para-psychosocial in their respective communities. Production of radio jingles and posters and dissemination of them were

done with the objective to convey the message about the peace library, dialogue, mediation and psychosocial services.

Posters stuck in municipality office of Ghodaghodi/Kailali Posters stuck in a local restaurant of Nayabelhani of Nawalparasi

People are receiving posters to take in their locality in Local police observing posters in Purandhara, Dang Sainamaina of Rupandehi

10 Community envisioning sessions (six community envisioning in six communities were held in the previous phase of the project that was supported by NPTF) to create the hope and plan for the future and 16 interaction/handover program to brief the project results/impacts and sustainability of the efforts especially, peace library and dialogue/mediation centers, were organized.

Under the line with result (3), the government and other stakeholders are aware of the work of DFs, VDC secretaries, executive officers of municipalities or conveners of the advisory committees, they were actively engaged in designing peace events and other activities associated with project. And, finally a national level sharing meeting was held where around 100 people were from communities, government agencies, civil society organizations and so forth. The guests and participants were briefed about the overall results and impact of the interventions through presentations, live stories and documentary.

Regarding the organizational capacity development, Pro Public improved its existing policies and endorsed new policies i.e., grievances handling policy, information and technology policy, safety & security policy, sexual harassment policy volunteer and intern policy, travel policy petty cash policy and so forth. Under this, project staffs were provided opportunities for the trainings, i.e. project activity planning, monitoring and evaluation training, crisis communication, monitoring and evaluation workshop organized by USAID. Based on the preliminary assessment of OCA and OPI score assessed on March 10, 2016, Pro Public rated itself at a 53 percent in OPI and 2.73 in OCA score and developed an action plan. When Pro Public was reassessed after these programs, the result was 69 percent in OPI and 3.25 in OCA score. Pro Public has used this learning as a tool to improve and strengthen the organizational functions.

2. Context Update

In the first six months of project implementation, mainly declaration of new constitution, unofficial blockade from Indian side, blockade and its connection with ethnic and regional issues in Terai and impact of Maoist (mainly Biplov's) activities in communities were experienced. A strong disagreement of Madhesi and ethnic groups regarding the provision of new constitution created some tensions in the southern part, especially in Saptari and, Mahotari districts, of the country.

Unofficial blockade from Indian side that was started on September 2015 caused hardship in everyday life of people all over the country and added challenges in smooth travel and everyday life of people in project communities In fact C2P didn't face any hard situation for organizing project activities. In the period of April to September, Netra Bikram Chand (Biplov)-led Maoist group created tension in various parts of the country with the sense of anti-I/NGOs sentiments and created sporadic violence and tension in eastern and mid-western hill areas. Also, very specific and significant activities related to Maoist parties and various groups were happening at national, district and local level.

Particularly, CPN-Maoist led by Netra Bikram Chand (Biplov) group created the sense of fear and a degree of tension for people in community and development workers as well. Mainly the Biplov group started to extortion, hurled petrol bomb as well as attacked the World Vision International's car, which created sense of fear and tension among the people in project communities. Similarly, they proclaimed autonomous state, torched in various districts, formed People’s Government in Lamjunj and Bajhang reminding people of the decade long insurgency, obstructed Government efforts for the reconstruction of damaged houses from earthquake, announced for closing of the schools, attacked in Ncell tower in Lamjung. Biplov said time to time "The party strongly stands against the parliamentary system, and it will start armed insurgency at any time.‖ Due to these activities and collecting donation police arrested cadres of Biplov time to time that fueled their activities and created fear among the people.

Similarly, CPN-Maoist led by Matrika Yadav threated time to time about using of weapons revolution for liberation of Madhesh. In between Former Prime Minister and former UCPN-M leader Dr. Baburam Bhattarai organized a press conference in Kathmandu on behalf of his new party ―New Force‖. On April 20, 216, five Maoist parties in a meeting held at UCPN-M party office at Kathmandu decided to press the Government to amend the TRC Act with a provision of bringing the war-era sub judice cases under the jurisdiction of the commission from various courts.

On September 23, 2016, police arrested 15 leaders and cadres of Mohan Baidya-led CPN-RM for trying to enforce Chaka jam in Kathmandu. The party had announced protest programme to pressurize the Government for 'unconditional release' of its four leaders Mr. ShivaramYadav, Mr. Dipendra Gahatraj, Mr. Ram Nepali and Mr. Mahesh Shrestha who were arrested from Bagbazaar for extorting businesspersons on September 21, 2016.

The coalition of government was changed at national level and UCPN (Maoist) Chairperson Puspa Kamal Dahal became the Prime Minister of Nepal on 3rdAugust, 2016, that also changed the power dynamics at community level as well. Power equation between Nepali Congress and UCPN (Maoist) and CPN (UML) played role of opposition from national to community level. As supreme commander of conflict, his step in Prime Minister Office raised some hopes and frustration among the ex-combatants, conflict victims and other marginalized community people.

Also, in order to settling the war time cases through Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) appeared one of the challenges for him by making sure none of the party members get arrested for the same charge; it was clearly seen in the discussion with ex-combatants and party leaders in project communities. Also, the issue of addressing the demands of the Madheshi and Janajatis through constitutional amendments was also one of the pertinent issues widely discussed in district and community level. In general, there was no any negative impact on project activities. However, political activities of CPN-Maoist party led by Netra Bikram Chand created some sense of fear among the people in communities and added additional dilemma for ex-combatants about the country's future. For instance, on May 30, 2016 he said "the party strongly stands against the parliamentary system, and it will start armed insurgency at any time. When we stand against the

parliamentary system, the government will obviously suppress us, prompting us to take up arms against the state."

On February 20, 2017 cabinet meeting decided to hold the local body election. Even it is not a major concern that either election will be take place in the stipulated time or not. The political parties especially from Madheshi political parties expressed their serious discontent towards constitution and raised their voices for the amendment of it before election. This concern is seriously took forward by the major political parties; Nepali Congress and CPN Maoist (centre) involved in government. However, the major opposition party CPN (UML) is not in the favor of it. Recently, political parties agreed with agitating Madheshi parties to hold the election in two phases and declared the date for second round as well, which led towards a serious political dilemma. After declaration of the local election one serious incident was occurred in Rajbiraj where three people were killed. These incidents created a tension in the district and it was impossible to organize any event in such a violent environment. Due to the same reason Pro Public postponed its three activities (peace event, community envisioning and interaction/handover program) that were organized around the end of the May 2017. And, that was one of the major reasons for the extension of the C2P's time frame from March end to June end 2017.2.1. Effect of Context Changes on

Project Activities

During the reporting period, no serious incidents were reported in the project communities. However an incident occurred in Rajbiraj of Saptari created terrible situation in the whole district that resulted to postponement of the three events (peace event, community envisioning and interaction/handover) and extension of the project period from March to June 2017. As frequently reported by national newspaper and other reports, general frustrations of ECs was noticed in changed political context, which was considered as the byproduct split of Maoist party and lack of livelihood opportunities within their locality and country in broad. In various communities, in one way, ECs reported that the expectations raised by the leaders during the Maoist movement have not been fulfilled, and doubt that there is any chance they will be fulfilled in the future. Similarly, community people also expressed their concern towards the blanket amnesty for war time crime.1 Also, a fresh controversy has surfaced after Truth and Reconciliation Commission inducted an ex- Maoist fighter into a mechanism set up to screen complaints from the conflict-victims2. This is led towards frustration, aggression and depression, which is serious concern in internal wellbeing of individuals. As common citizens, ECs also reintegrated into the society. However, participation of

1 Interview with Surya Kurung Gurung, chief of TRC, "TRC Can't Recommend Amnesty To Perpetrators Surya Kiran Gurung Gurung, Spotlightnepal, Vol. 9 No 22, June 3, 2016 (Jestha 21) http://www.spotlightnepal.com/News/Article/Nepal- 2 Pandey, Lekhnathh, "Ex-Maoist fighter’s presence in TRC body draws flak" Himalayan Times, March 28, 2016 http://thehimalayantimes.com/nepal/ex-maoist-fighters-presence-trc-body-draws-flak/

ECs in decision-making processes at the community level was less than other people and the ECs were struggling to complete intermingle with larger community that was assessed from the rapid community assessment held in the beginning of the project. Despite aforementioned conditions, the unique nature of project and strong sense of ownership in project activities from community and ex- combatants including political parties, local government bodies, civil society organizations and media allowed implementation of the project activities to move forward. Because of strong collaboration, project team was able to carry out project activities and achieve C2P’s goals.

Similarly, political manipulation of ECs by different groups of Maoist and other political parties was one of the phenomena noticed in the field. The impact of frequent changes of party was resulted in social dialogue groups too. The management of expectation of ECs was another pertinent challenge in the project implementation because during the war they fought for the aspiration of better life and prosperity. Now, they are back in normal life with different realities i.e. strong needs and demand for livelihood and other income generation related activities by ECs. In order to address the livelihood related concern of community people and ex-combatants, in a symbolic way, project established revolving fund in 13 communities based on interest of the DFs and members of SDGs. Whereas needy and most disadvantaged group of people would be kept in priority and they will get the fund in rotation basis to do something for livelihood activities.

Pro Public completed all the activities planned under the C2P project successfully. During the implementation of the project C2P faced a problem in Saptari that resulted to postpone the activities and extension of the project period. Except that incident C2P didn’t face any such hard situation.

3. Coordination with USAID/CMM Projects

From October 2015 to March 2017, Pro Public joined four quarterly review and coordination meetings with all recipients of USAID’s Conflict Management Mitigation (CMM) grants. The first meeting was hosted by Care Nepal from January 22 to 24 at Dreamland Gold Resort of Manigram of Rupandehi and The second CMM quarterly meeting was organized and facilitated jointly by Mercy Corps and Mandawi from May 11 to 13 in Hotel Rubas, Duhagadhi in which Mr. Babu Ram Poudel, Program Manager of C2P at Pro Public joined. Later Pro Public cohosted with Mandawi to host the third CMM quarterly meeting from August 25 to 28 at Hotel Manaki, Janakpur. Similarly, Pro Public hosted the, as co-hosts with TAF of the events on March 27 & 28, 2017, the final CMM quarterly meeting. Details of the first quarterly review meeting were reported in the bi-annual report of March 2016 and the same of the second and third were reported in the annual report of September 2016. So the following section focuses on the fourth quarterly meeting (actually 11th and final in CMM series), which was co-hosted by Pro Public.

3.1. CMM Quarterly Meeting

Pro Public co-hosted the 11th CMM partners meeting on March 27 and 28, 2017 with TAF. The objectives of the meeting were to share the overall project achievements including best practices

and lessons learnt of the projects; sharing of good practices on conflict sensitivity and do no harm approach and sharing the experiences with the assessments and action plan of OCA/OPI. In fact, by sharing the learning and enrich the knowledge and skills of the partner organization including their organizational capacity USAID's effort was for making strong and vibrant organization that can lead for the peace building and conflict transformation activities even in a post CMM funding situation.

Pro Public, Sajhedari Bikas and TAF shared their own progress of the latest quarter and also presented impact stories directly from beneficiaries. Ms. Amanda Cats-Baril, Democracy and Governance Specialist from USAID, presented on Do No Harm (DNH) approach and the partners shared their own best practices on conflict sensitivity and do no harm they have applied in their respective projects.

On March 28, 2017 Mr. Prem Ojha of CS:MAP presented overview of the Organizational Capacity Assessment Tools (OCAT) and Advocacy Readiness Index (ARI). After this presentation all the partners, Pro Public, Sajhedari Bikas and TAF, presented the overall status of their OCA action plans. The meeting was fruitful to share the progress and achievements among the partners and learn from each other. This was the final CMM quarterly meeting hosted amongst USAID partners.

4. Accomplishments

By the end of March 2017, following activities have been successfully completed.

Activities Milestone Number Rapid community assessments in six new project communities A1 Update training manuals (basic, advanced and refresher) A2 Basic training on dialogue facilitation and mediation to 48 selected candidates from A3 new six communities Advanced training on dialogue facilitation and mediation to 56 pre-existing facilitators A4 Basic training on psychosocial counseling to 20 DFs from 10 communities A5 Advanced training on dialogue facilitation and mediation to 48 individuals from six A6 new project communities Refresher training on dialogue facilitation and mediation to 56 pre-existing facilitators A7 Refresher training on dialogue facilitation, mediation, and reconciliation provided to a A8 minimum of 48 candidates from new communities

Conduct psychosocial refresher training in cooperation with TPO for 35 people A9 Establishment of dialogue/mediation centers and peace libraries in 16 communities B1 Orientation trainings and first round of interaction meetings for advisory committee B2 members in all 16 project communities Production of radio jingles and pamphlets/posters produced B3 VDC envisioning meetings, hosted in new and STPP communities (10 total) B4 Peace events B5 Radio jingles and pamphlets/posters dissemination B6 Second round of interaction meetings B7 Organization of national level experience-sharing meeting C1 Production of documentary and publication C2 Monitoring and evaluation framework D1 Bio-annual and annual report of project D2 External evaluation D3

In the first one year of the project (October 2015 to September 2016), activities associated as project milestones (A1, A2, A3, A4, A5, A6, A7, B1, B2, and D1) were completed successfully and the activities under the milestone B5, a total of 21 peace events were completed out of 44 planned during the life of project. Detailed separate reports on these events and activities were submitted to USAID earlier and the brief parts of the same are also included in C2P’s bi-annual report of March 2016 and annual report of September 2016.

The status to the reports delivered to USAID and the reports of the other completed activities are presented below as per the four project results.

1. Dialogue facilitators are capacitated to deliver dialogue, mediation, and para- psychosocial services are deepened.

Under this output, all nine milestones activities were completed as scheduled.

Milestones Activities Dates delivered to USAID A1 Rapid community assessment in six 31st December, 2015 communities

A2 Update training manuals (basic, advanced 31st December, 2015 and refresher)

A3 Basic training on dialogue facilitation and 31st December, 2015 mediation to 48 individuals from six new project communities

A4 Advanced training to 56 DFs on dialogue 31st December, 2015 facilitation and mediation

A5 Basic training on psychosocial counseling to 3rd April, 2016 20 DFs

A6 Advanced training on dialogue facilitation 7th October, 2016 and mediation to 48

A7 Refresher training on dialogue facilitation 20th September, 2016 and mediation to 56 pre-existing facilitators

A8 Refresher training on dialogue facilitation May 23, 2017 and mediation to 48 individuals from six new project communities

A9 Refresher training on psychosocial 16th April, 2017 counseling

As the activities associated with milestones A8 and A9 were organized after September 2016 and are not included in the annual report, a more detailed description of the same is presented below.

4.1. Refresher Training on Dialogue Facilitation and Mediation (A8)

Refresher training on Dialogue Facilitation and Mediation, to 48 DFs from new six communities, was conducted in Birendranagar, Surkhet from November 27 to December 1, 2016. Principally, this training was organized to further deepen the knowledge and skills of 48 dialogue facilitators from six communities who were selected and trained on basic and advanced training under this project. The training was focus on refreshing major components of basic and advanced training by creating a space of theoretical discussion and group work. Also, this training was focused on practical learning and experience sharing of dialogue facilitators based on their works of dialogue facilitation, mediation and peace building activities in the project communities.

This report briefly summarizes the refresher training on Dialogue Facilitation and Mediation organized by Pro Public with the support of USAID, which was conducted in Birendranagar, Surkhet from November 27 to December 1, 2016.

Altogether 48 participants from six new project communities attended the five-days refresher training. The communities represented five districts: Kailali, Banke, Dang, Nawalparashi and Sunsari. All participants were selected under the Combatants to Peacemakers Program and attended basic and advanced training in December 2015 and May 2016. A few members from the social dialogue groups were selected for the training due to unavoidable circumstance like sickness of mother, children and in some case getting new job with placement in other district of some of the previous dialogue facilitators. New members were selected from social dialogue groups by the nomination of advisory group members and team of dialogue facilitators.

By method, the training was highly experiential and participatory. In order to update and refresh DFs' knowledge and skills a variety of tools including power point presentation on theoretical session, group-exercise, role-play, practice session, dialogue and mediation practice, group and individual presentation as well as games and entertainment activities were conducted throughout the training.

In addition to this, the training relied on experience sharing of participants, which became instrumental to share their knowledge with each other. Most of the activities were conducted in groups immediately after a brief orientation of the activity by the trainer and facilitators. Activities like plenary, recaps and feedback sessions were done throughout the five days, which embraced the principles of adult learning, sharing and team spirit among and between the dialogue facilitators. 48 DFs those who completed advanced and refresher training more than 90% and 73% individuals expressed above than 80% confidence to deliver the dialogue and mediation services respectively in their respective communities.

The participation of the DFs is presented in the table and graphs as following.

Participation in table

Sex, Cast and Ethnicity Total Male Female Brahmin/Chhetri Ethnic Communities Dalit 48 28 20 22 15 11

Age Total 25-29 30-34 35-39 40+ 48 11 17 11 9

Participation in graph

The detailed report along with all the annexes on this training was submitted for payment to USAID on May 23, 2017.

4.2. Psychosocial refresher training

Training on Psychosocial Counseling was organized by Pro Public from October 19 to 25, 2016. Altogether 35 participants from sixteen project communities attended the seven-day training, which was intended to refresh the knowledge and skills of those already trained on psychosocial matters

and to equip them to deliver psychosocial support and care in their respective communities as well as to heal their own trauma, if any. For this training, altogether 35 individuals from 16 project communities were selected. Out of 35 individuals, 20 and 15 individuals had received basic training in March 2016 under C2P, and April 2014 under National Peace Trust Fund (NPTF). Out of 20 individuals who participated in the basic training (Milestone A5), in March 2016 2 individuals (one from Nawalparasi and another from Masuriya, Kailali) were replaced with new participants. The replacements were selected in conversation with other DFs from same community, who had health- related background and basic understanding on psychosocial matter. Further, the readings of basic training were provided in advance to be prepared in basic understanding prior to training. In the case of older communities, mostly individuals who were trained during the Nepal Peace Trust Fund program attended the training.

The training method was itself highly participatory and experiential. It utilized a variety of tools including power point presentation on theoretical session, group-exercise, role-play, practice session, storytelling practice, group and individual presentations, as well as games and entertainment activities. Primarily, the training relied on presentation, discussions, interactive methods, mainly focused on role play etc. and limited presentations by the trainers. Most of the activities were conducted in group work following a brief orientation of the activity or the sharing of theoretical knowledge by the trainers. Activities like plenary, recap, parallel session and evaluation were done throughout the seven days, which embraced the principles of adult learning and team spirit.

Out of the 35 individuals that attended the training, 29% of the individuals expressed their level of confidence to deliver psychosocial support and care services in their communities above 80%.

The participation of the DFs is presented in the table and graphs as following.

Participation in table

Sex, Cast and Ethnicity Brahmin/Chh Ethnic Total Male Female Dalit Others etri Communities 35 17 18 16 13 5 1

Age

25-29 30-34 35-39 40+

14 8 10 3

Participation in graph

The detailed report along with all the annexes on this training was submitted for payment to USAID on April 16, 2017.

Output 2: Dialogue/mediation centers and advisory committees are operational and linked with local government bodies and key institutions. The communities are aware and making use of the services.

Under this output, total seven milestones activities were scheduled that all are completed.

Milestones Activities Dates Delivered to USAID

B1 Establishment of Peace libraries and 18th April, 2016 dialogue/mediation centers

B2 First Round of interaction meeting, formation of 6th April, 2016

advisory committees and Orientation to advisory committee members

B3 Radio jingles and pamphlets/posters produced 12th January, 2017

B4 VDC envisioning meetings, hosted in new and October 27, 2017 STPP communities (10 total)

B5 Peace events (16 Health Camps) 26th February, 2017

B.5.2 Peace events (28 events, speech, cultural, peace November 31, 2017 rally, sports, interaction and revolving fund)

B6 Radio jingles and pamphlets/posters 6th March, 2017 dissemination

B7 Second round of interaction meetings October 27, 2017

As B3, B4, B5.2, B6 and B7 were completed/organized after September 2016 and are not included in the annual report the brief note of the same are presented below separately.

4.3. Radio jingles and pamphlets/posters produced

Pro Public produced three radio jingles on mediation, psychosocial support and dialogue to make community people more aware of services available in their own communities. Similarly the posters on mediation and psychosocial problem were published and distributed in all the communities. Both jingles and posters are produced/published in three languages i.e., Nepali, Maithili and Tharu. The detailed report along with all the annexes on this milestone was submitted for payment to USAID on January 12, 2017.

4.4. Radio jingles and pamphlets/posters disseminated

Information, education and communication materials are essential to the success of a program. Dissemination of materials not only helps people to learn about the availability of a service, it also helps to understand the program better. It can also be a starting point or reference for changes in behavior of beneficiaries in using available services i.e., mediation, dialogue and psychosocial under the project. With the objective of providing information about the program and the availability of services, the C2P program produced radio jingles and disseminated posters. The posters informed viewers about the availability of mediation and psychosocial services and the radio jingles informed listeners about mediation services, dialogue, and psychosocial services.

Posters were posted in public places like municipality and VDC offices, schools, health posts, and other public point of the communities. In addition, the posters were distributed to the social dialogue group members, members of advisory committee and other stakeholders to put them up in

their own locality and in public places i.e., VDC/municipality offices, schools, health posts and other public places where the people could see them easily.

Jingles were aired from 28 local FM radios in different regular time slots so as to reach different target groups. The jingles, in Nepali language were aired in all the communities, in Maithili in Piprapanchim/Saptari and Bardibas/Mahotari and Tharu in Bijauri of Dang, Kohlapur and Binauna of Banke, Gulariya of Bardiya and Lamki, Ghodaghodi and Masuriya of Kailali were aired additionally as local language. The detailed report along with all the annexes on this milestone was submitted for payment to USAID on March 6, 2017.

Monthly Planning on Airing of Radio Jingles November, 2016 to March 2017 Day Month/Plan 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 231 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31  Right before, in between or right after the news of 7 am on every morning – one time  Right before, in between or right after the news of 9 am on every morning – one time  In between from 12 noon to 1 pm of every day – one time Plan  Right before, in between or right after the news of 3 pm on every afternoon – one time  Right before, in between or right after the news of 6 pm on every evening – one time  Right before or right after the BBC news of 08:45 pm on every night – one time Total three 3 radio jingles @ 6 times in a day = 18 times in a day and 126 times in a month of November 2017, i.e. November from November 24 to 30, 2016.

December Total three 3 radio jingles x 6 times in a day = 18 times in a day and 558 times in a month of December 2016. January Total three 3 radio jingles x 6 times in a day = 18 times in a day and 558 times in a month of January 2017. February Total three 3 radio jingles x 6 time in a day = 18 times in a day and 558 times in a month of February 2017. March Total three 3 radio jingles x 6 times in a day = 18 times in a day and 558 times in a month of March 2017.

In the communities where the radio jingles will be broadcasted more than one language, i.e., Nepal compulsory and Tharu and Maithili in the specific communities, three times in Nepali (7 am in the morning, in between 12 noon to 1 pm and 6 pm in the evening) three times in a specific language (9 am in the morning, 3 pm in the afternoon and 08:45 pm at night.

4.5. Community envisioning meetings

As listed in the milestone of Combatants to Peacemakers (C2P) project, 10 communities envisioning a social interactive process designed to help define community’s development aspiration and to develop a mental picture of the state to be achieved (visualizing), workshops were organized in between the period of. The purpose of community envisioning is to motivate action to achieve success. It is a necessary tool for communities. The workshop was designed to envision the plan for the next five years of respective communities in the presence of the representatives of municipality, LPCs, leaders of political parties, intellectuals, members of Social Dialogue Groups (SDGs), representatives from NGOs/CBOs, media, academia, ward citizen forum and other different groups like mother, community forest and so forth.

The community envisioning were started from the introduction. After introduction a representative from each of the SDGs was requested to summarize the main issues and plan of seven rounds of meeting in the group that were done. As the fifth rounds of the dialogue exercise completed with the SDGs was community envisioning- aiming to identify the community problem at their own locality and plan to address them in a collaborative way—each DF shared the plans that came out of their individual SDG. This sharing was really supportive for clarifying to the participants what they were going to do and in setting priorities for the community. After all the points were shared by the DFs, project team facilitated a community envisioning workshop.

Altogether 516 individuals from 10 communities attended the workshops in the respective communities where they analyzed the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) of the communities, aka conducted a SWOT analysis. Mostly as the strength of the communities participants shared that accessibility of road, political collaboration and culture of consensus, natural resources as well as infrastructures in education and health facilities. Likewise, lack of skilled human resources and lack of opportunity for job and skill development were considered as weakness. Potential for tourism development and possibility of infrastructure development were considered as opportunities in almost all communities. Open border, youth leaving country for foreign employment, general unemployment and illiteracy were considered as threats in all communities.

The participation of the participants is presented in the table and graphs as following.

Participation in table:

Sex, Cast and Ethnicity

Ethnic Madheshi Total Male Female Brahmin/Chhetri Dalit Newar Muslim Others Communities

516 239 277 242 154 95 4 3 4 14 Age 15-19 20-24 25-29 30-34 35-39 40+ 3 52 88 137 117 119

Participation in graph

The detailed report along with all the annexes on this milestone was submitted for payment to USAID on October 27, 2017.

4.6. Peace events

Total 44 peace events were organized in all the 16 communities by the end of the March 2017. The idea of the peace event was to bring the members of both ex-combatants and community together

for a good cause, better future of their respective communities. The aim of the organizing such events was to heal from the past and move ahead with a constructive outlook for the future.

By nature of activities; five types of events were designed as the part of peace events i.e., Health Camps; Peace Rally, Cultural Program and Speech Competition; Sports, Establishment of Revolving Fund; Interaction Program. The short overview of these events is presented separately.

In collaboration with local government bodies, health offices- district health camps and health post and national medical colleges, health camps were organized in 16 locations to gather people in a place and inform about the program. Altogether 4996 individuals including 1033 male and 3963 female received the services from health camps under various categories (2738 general, 1406 gynecological, 803 psychosocial and 49 orthopedic). The report of these 16 peace events was submitted to USAID on February 26, 2017 and the brief was included in the annual report too.

As second category of events, six peace events entitled "Peace Rally, Cultural Program and Speech Competition" were organized successfully in six new communities with the slogan of International Peace Day "The Sustainable Development Goals: Building Blocks for Peace". The purpose of conducting peace events in communities as marking of international peace day was to create awareness of peace as well as celebration among the ex-combatants, community people, youth, school students and larger segment of society. The program was intended to enhance the social harmony and promote peace through students and other young people in the respective communities. Also, the other aspect of designing this type of event was to inject the concepts and ideas of relation between sustainable goal and peace building, including other many peace messages to the students so that they can widen their knowledge and disseminate the peace messages in their families, schools and other individuals, which support to enhance the harmony in the society.

As third categories of activities, two interaction programs were organized. Aiming to increase social harmony and promote peace in the community through awareness about against of caste discrimination to the community people a day interaction program was organized in Katari, Udaypur and an interaction program with brief documentary screen and discussion on the role of community in peace building and current situation of the ex-combatants was organized in Dharan/Sunsari.

As fourth category, friendship matches and sport activities were organized in communities. Aiming to bring all the major political parties in a place for collaboration including wide range of individuals from different walks of life in the respective communities, friendship football and volleyball competition were organized in various communities with the slogan of "Interparty/Inter- Club/Inter-Ward Friendship Football Competition for the Promotion of Social Harmony. The slogan of Football and Volleyball completion was "youth activeness and unity: block of the peace and development".

As fifth category of event, altogether, 13 social dialogue group revolving fund have been established in 13 communities (except Triyuga, Udaypur, Pipra Paschim, Saptari and Sainamaina, Rupandehi) to assist the DF and members of SDGs who are most in economic need and continue the relationship between ex-combatants and community members involved in SDGs. For each of such fund, initial fund of NRs. 60,000.00 was provided. Dharan Sub-Metropolitan City of Sunsari

and Rankachuli VDC of Nawalparashi committed to increase revolving fund by contributing NRs. 50,000.0. The funds aim to increase the income generation activities among the DFs and members of SDGs. The fund targets DFs and members of SDGs who are economically poor and have clear plan for investment and to ensure its return. The fund is provided based on the demand for maximum six months with priority to the poorest of the poor members. Others get the opportunity to receive the fund once the previous receivers pay back the amount. Thus the members can use it turn by turn based on their need. the objective of the project was to increase social harmony and peace in 16 communities absorbing Maoist ex-combatants. The peace events contributed to achieve this objective as it was very successful to bring the people together from different walks of life including mentionable number of ex-combatants in all the events. This created an environment to work together, understand each other and build the relationship stronger that ultimately helped to increase social harmony and peace.

The total participation of the participants in category of second, third, fourth and fifth are presented in the table and graphs as following. Participation in table:

Sex and Caste/Ethnicity

Ethnic Musli Total Male Female Brahmin/Chhetri Dalit Newar Madheshi Others Communities m

13583 6587 6996 6855 2429 372 112 38 55 366

Age 0-14 15-19 20-24 25-29 30-34 35-39 40+ 3653 3914 1719 963 1034 808 1492

Participation in graph:

4.6.1. Feedback of the participants

Also, in order to assess the impressions and feedback of those who attended the peace events, a brief survey of six questions (five closed and one open), was administered after the events in all locations. As sample of participants, out of 13583 individuals who participated in all peace events, a sample survey was administered to 1121 individuals, which was average around 8% of all those who visited 28 peace events in the 16 communities. The details regarding the total participants and sample taken for the feedback is mentioned in Annex VI. At least 5 and maximum 10% participants were covered for the feedback of the events.

Q. N. Responses

1. What is your overall perception towards the peace events in your communiti es?

2. Do you think that peace event was useful to increase the understand ing between the people in your communit y?

3. Do you believe the peace event was effective to create a space to meet with people and enhance relationshi p?

4. Are you feeling happy after attending the free peace event?

5. Do you think similar types of activities are necessary in future?

The report of these 28 peace events was submitted to USAID on October 31, 2017.

4.7. Second round of interaction and handover programs

Pro Public organized interactions and handover programs in the project communities in February and March 2017. The main objective of the program was to present the achievements of the project to the key stakeholders of the community and also handover the efforts i.e., peace library and dialogue/mediation centers to the local bodies for the continuity and sustainability. Pro Public, Dialogue Facilitators/Mediators, Local Peace Committee, Advisory Committee and respective municipalities have signed the three page long agreement with clear roles and responsibilities for the sustainability and continuity of the library and dialogue/mediation centers along with the other collaboration among them. A handover agreement was signed between Pro Public, respective VDCs/municipalities, Advisory Committee, Local Peace Committees and Dialogue Facilitators/Mediators that has clearly mentioned about further management of the Peace Library and Dialogue/Mediation Centers, responsibilities and collaboration among parties they have signed.

The total participation of the participants is presented in the table and graphs as following.

Participation in table: Sex and Caste/Ethnicity Sex and Caste/Ethnicity Ethnic Tota Mal Femal Brahmin/Chhetr Dali Newa Madhesh Musli Communitie Others l e e i t r i m s 841 404 437 455 232 102 22 5 4 21 Age 15-19 20-24 25-29 30-34 35-39 40+ 9 61 155 141 122 353

Participation in graph:

2. The government and other stakeholders are aware of the work of DFs in the country and the status of ECs integration;

Under this output, Organization of national level experience-sharing meeting has been completed.

4.8. National level sharing meeting

After completing the activities scheduled under the project a National Level Sharing Meeting was organized on March 24, 2017 in Kathmandu. Hon’able Dr. Kripa Sindhu Prasad, member of National Planning Commission (NPC) was the chief guest of the meeting and other guests were Mr. Surya Silwal, Former Secretary and Director of National Peace Trust Fund (NPTF), Mr. Bishnu Raj Neupane, Under Secretary of Ministry of Peace and Reconstruction (MoPR), Ms. Maria, Elena Barron, Director of Democracy & Governance Office of USAID, Dr. Bishnu Raj Upreti, Conflict

Expert and Deputy Representative of JICA Nepal Ms. Yuki Daijomoto. The meeting was chaired by Former President and Sr. Advisor of Pro Public Prof. Dr. Shreekrishna Shrestha.

A short presentation on outputs and good practices of Combatants to Peacemakers (C2P) were presented and a documentary was also shown that has included the activities carried out under the project, good practices and changes with the Dialogue Facilitators/Mediators, member of Social Dialogue Groups and in their communities in broad. The dialogue facilitators, representatives of VDCs/municipalities, Local Peace Communities and Advisory Committees spoke and shared the results of the interventions in the respective communities.

The guests forwarded their remarks about the success of the program and highlighted for the expansion of such initiatives for promoting social harmony and peace in the other communities too. Mr. Bishnu Raj Neupane, Under Secretary of MoPR emphasized the needs and continuation of different program from ministry for the sustainable peace in the country. He also mentioned that the ministry has conducted psychosocial program in the 10 districts. The chief guest Hon’able Dr. Kripa Sindhu Prasad, member committed to have peace activities in the periodic plans which ensure sustainable peace in the country in the long run.

The total participation of the participants is presented in the table and graphs as following.

Participation in table:

Sex and Caste/Ethnicity Ethnic Total Male Female Brahmin/Chhetri Dalit Newar Madheshi Muslim Others Communities 83 49 34 44 19 6 2 4 0 8

Age 20-24 25-29 30-34 35-39 40+ 3 7 17 23 33

Participation in graph:

4.9. Production of Documentary

Pro Public has produced a 30 minute long documentary and a publication capturing all the major activities carried out under the C2P including its learning, impacts, results and impressions of the key actors and the beneficiaries. The documentary and publications reflects on past and current perception and the relationship between former combatants and community people and show how the project intervention helped to build smooth relationship and brought social harmony and peace among the community people. These also reflect that social dialogue process is a powerful tool to build the relationship among people who have different enemy images of each other. Similarly, They has presented effectiveness of peace events, establishment and operationalization of peace library and dialogue/mediation centers, establishment of revolving funds and so forth. The documentary and publication capture the impressions/remarks from senior representatives from the Government of Nepal , DFs, members of social dialogue groups, members of advisory committees, representatives of VDCs/municipalities and LPCs. These also sheds light on sustainability of the efforts beyond the project duration. 5. On-Going Project Activities In addition to the activities reported in March, 2016, the project’s on-going activities continued between the period of April to September 2016. Throughout the period, the social dialogue groups' meetings were on-going, dialogue mediation centers and peace libraries are operational, mediation and para-psychosocial counseling and support and meeting of advisory committee members are ongoing in regular basis. Details of these activities are presented below.

5.1. Formation and conducting meetings of SDGs

As one of the most important components of project, the SDG meetings were conducted to bridge the existing gaps between ex-combatants and community people through joint story telling process. Altogether 94 SDGs were formed in all the 16 communities. Total 750 individuals from various walks of life, including 50% ECs and the rest conflict victims and host community representatives,

were involved in the social dialogue process. All the 94 groups completed all seven rounds of dialogue meetings during the project period.

Detailed of the social dialogue groups' members is as follows:

Sex and Caste/Ethnicity Ethnic Total Male Female Brahmin/Chhetri Dalit Newar Madheshi Muslim Others Communities 750 333 417 302 274 146 9 7 4 8

Age 15 to 19 20-24 25-29 30-34 35-39 40+ 10 78 189 218 85 170

Throughout the project period, a social dialogue group completes seven rounds of meetings in the time intervals of two-three weeks in general, based on the convenience and consent of social dialogue group members. A team of three DFs facilitate the meetings in each group. Ideally, it was designed that a team of DFs, which starts the first rounds of meeting, need to complete all seven rounds of meetings. These meetings has significantly contributed for the building the relationship and increase the trust level among the ex-combatants and community members.

First Second Third Fourth Fifth Sixth Seventh

Good Painful Empathy Personal Identification of Community TChildhood News and stories envisioning community problem envisioning story recent of life problem The DFs facilitated the creation of a safe environment to share personal and sometimes painful stories among the group and help them to practice of empathy. This helped ex-combatants and community members to understand each others problem like their own and created better understanding among each others. As an experience of dialogue meeting, members of SDGs expressed them in the following way: Binu"Bihani" Bantawa, an ex-combatant, A community member in from Sunsari Masuriya, Kailali said “initially dialogue program was not taken "my attitude towards the ex- serious when I joined the social dialogue group. combatants is fully being changed. I consider them as part of my family. Being a member of close group and sharing my childhood stories to most painful incidents and The dialogue program helped me to hard feelings with other people helped me to understand the underlying humanity reconcile with other people in society. Also, this among us despite our different

program helped me to realize the feelings of political ideology and association". other people towards me".

Roshan KC, Dialogue Facilitator, Purandhara of Dang

"I am from the People's Liberation Army (PLA). I only thought about myself, the difficulties I faced while working as PLA that I

have not been able to settle in the society. My thought was individualistic. When I listened to their stories of childhood and tragic of their lives, I realized that they too had undergone difficulties times and faced difficult things in their lives live like I had done. I learnt how to sympathize and empathize and this has

reported us."

Participation in graph:

5.2. Advisory Committee Meeting

In order to ensure regular feedback and suggestions to the DFs and SDGs for the activities to be carried out under the project activities at local level, advisory committees were formed in all 16 communities. Altogether 388 individuals from various backgrounds including local government bodies; local political parties, municipalities/VDC and local peace committees, political parties, ward citizens forums, women groups, civil society organizations, academicians, social workers and ECs are affiliated with the advisory committees. The detailed composition of advisory committee members presented in the table that follows.

Ethnic Total Male Female Brahmin/Chhetri Dalit Newar Madheshi Muslim Others Communities

388 218 170 206 115 52 6 6 2 1 Age 15-19 20-24 25-29 30-34 35-39 40+ 2 11 36 62 72 205

Total four rounds of meetings have been completed in all the 16 respective VDCs/municipalities. Meetings of the advisory committee are periodic, approximately once every four months, and people attend in the meeting to discuss about the project activities and future plans in their communities. For example, in first meeting, mostly all the advisory committees meeting were centered into finalize the location of peace library and formation of social dialogue group. Second and third meetings were focused on brainstorming and finalizing peace events and updates of social dialogue group meetings as well as sustainability of project initiatives in communities.

In the meetings, mainly establishing peace libraries, organization of peace events and formation of social dialogue groups were discussed and formalized by advisory committees. The decisions and plans made by the advisory committee members were transformed in to program implementation and activities by DFs and the project team.

In overall more than 80% members of advisory committee participated in various rounds of meetings. These meetings also suggested linking the project activities with livelihood options of ex- combatants and poor and disadvantaged communities. Furthermore, advisory committee members and DFs have mentoring relationship and exchange of support and coordination in project activities in the communities.

5.3. Psychosocial Care

To ensure social harmony and peace in the project communities, psychosocial counseling and care service was provided in project communities. As psychosocial problems create difficulties in a person's external world, the problems associated with this result from background, personalities, and social factors. Also, it is true that a psychosocial disorder is a mental illness caused or

influenced by life experiences, as well as maladjusted cognitive and behavioral processes. To ensure the overall peace, individuals' internal peace and external peace both are important. Whereas, internal peace belongs to the personal wellbeing of individuals and external peace is the condition of absence of direct violence and indirect violence. During the health camps organized as peace events under C2P, 803 individuals visited psychiatric doctors and counselors for services. On the cases registered in health camps, TPO's counselor along with para-psychosocial workers had provided counseling and care in the respective communities. Before this, altogether 35 participants from 16 project communities were trained under C2P by the trainers of TPO Nepal.

Mainly Pro Public and TPO Nepal provided three types of psychosocial services in the field. In accordance to the service contract between Pro Public and TPO Nepal (Annexed as III) , TPO Nepal provided the service of psychosocial counseling in respective communities. The counselors frequently made community visits and provided services to the people, who were suffering from psychosocial problem and approached to the Pro Public to get the services being informed through DFs, posters and radio messages, and also coach and guide DFs trained as psychosocial service supporter. TPO psychosocial Counselors guided DFs in terms of preparing the case history of each individual whom they provided psychosocial care and support to and submitted a report on services provided in each community to Pro Public. In addition, TPO psychosocial counselors referred the cases to the psychiatrist to nearest hospital of the respective communities as and when required. Detail of Psychosocial Session: S. N. Communities Number of Sessions 1. Dharan/Sunsari 10 2. Triyuga/Udayapur 12 3. Bardibas/Mahottari 25 4. Kalika 32 5. Nayabelani/Rankachuli 14 6. Sainamaina/Rupandehi 58 7. Purandhara/Dang 41 8. Bijauri/Dang 34 9. Binauna/Banke 39 10. Kohalpur/Banke 43 11. Gulariya/Bardiya 39 12. Birendranagar/Surkhet 45 13. LamkiChuha/Kailali- 17 14. Ghodaghodi/Kailali 12

15. Masuriya/Kailali 12 Total 433 The major causes of psychosocial problems were reported as: family disputes, experience of serious accident, manmade disaster and natural disaster, armed conflict, separation of family members, i.e. husband/wife in foreign employment, poor economic condition, having only the girl children in family, second marriage by the husbands, use of drugs, physical pains; bullet case and wounds in

the body of ECs and other people, sense of insecurity about future, trafficking, sexual violence and sense of alienation from family, society and networks.

Altogether 433 sessions of counseling were provided by TPO counselors in coordination with DFs

"Mr.Asharam Chaudhary, 40 hears old resident of Gulariya municipality of Bardiya was suffering from psychosocial problem for last two years. He checked up his health while the health camp was organized in Gulariya in May 2016 and was prescribed some medicine. Medicine improved his health and he continued medicine later with the suggestion of psychiatrist. Pro Public supported him for the medication costs as he is from poor family. Before treatment he used to fight and misbehaved with the family members and other community members. He was not concentrated on his tasks at all. Now he works and earned money and is caring for himself and his family members, wife and three daughters.

Reported by Ms. Sabitra Gautam, DF, Gulariya, Bardiya

in the project communities. Beside the presence of the TPO counselors the DFs, who were trained as psychosocial supporter, also met them as required time to time and coordinated with the counselors for the further suggestions. In some of the cases, the counselors also talked to the persons over the telephone and provided suggestions in between of the face to face counseling. Some of the success stories are presented in the following boxes. In some of the situation, counselors suggested to the persons to use the medication and as per the suggestion of the counselors they met with doctors and used the medicine from the support of Pro Public. Now they are totally fine and living with full joy.

5.4. Mediation Service

It is commonly believed that human relationships take place in groups, society, or a nation, and then disputes emerge in social and political relations due to different needs, views and Ms. Nita BK (changed name), resident of Purandhara VDC of Dang district was suffering from being faint time to time for last one year. Due to this problem her perspectives. Dispute and family was in tension even she was not feeling well after so many traditional and conflict exists in every medical efforts. Hundreds of thousands money were spent for her treatment, but society; and it cannot be the result was nothing. In the continuation of her treatment she was taken to the local health post and local health worker suggested to consult with the understood only in a narrow psychosocial counselor. After that her family explored for the counselor and they or negative sense. Conflict is came to know that C2P program of Pro Public is supporting in such kind of negative, if it cannot be problem. Finally they approached to the DFs and DFs arranged the time of counselor Mr. Prakash Ghimire in his regular visit in the community. Mr. negotiated or mediated in a Prakash Ghimire, psychosocial counselor met and counseled her and suggested constructive manner on time her to engage in different kinds of activities what she likes, talk to the friends, and ultimately turns violent. hear music like that and also suggested to the family to care her and create a lovely environment within the family. After 2-3 counseling sessions and practiced Easily accessible and timely of the suggestion given by the counselor now she is fine and goes to school dispute resolution regularly and cooperate to the family members in the house chore activities. mechanisms have great potential to help societies

avoid violent conflicts. In recognition of this, Pro Public’s DFs are trained not only in dialogue facilitation, but also in mediation and provide mediation services in the project communities. DFs were given 40 hours of training on the content of the mediation approved by the Mediation Council in three rounds (milestone numbers: A3-baisc, A4 & A6 – advanced and A5 and A7 and A8- refresher). As the trainings were conducted as per the curriculum approved by the Mediation Council, thus mediators are entitled to register themselves in the District Court of respective districts.

Altogether 27 disputes were settled by DFs/mediators during the reporting period. Out of these, 22 cases were related to women, youth or people from marginalized groups. Mainly the disputes reported include domestic violence, defamation between each other, accident, tender, land disputes, transaction related issues, disputes between family members, physical assaults defamation, house rent, and inter-caste marriage induced untouchability issues etc. These cases were reported by either side of disputing parties and the cases were resolved by trained DFs, mostly within 1-3 sittings which means 1 to 3 weeks' time. One of the major objectives of the mediation is to resolve the dispute and provide social justice in short span of time. Resolving the disputes locally in the very short span of time is saving money and increase the social harmony and peace. If the same nature of disputes is registered in the formal courts that takes months and years to reach to the decision and from where one party wins and another party loses the case that ultimately disconnect them for long. But, from the mediation both parties win in their common understanding and agreement that connect them and build the relationship stronger. In the case of Bijauri/Dang, a transaction related dispute between the two individuals living in same community Rs. 20,000 was taken by a person (ethnic group) from another person (Brahmin). The transaction related dispute emerged when the person refused to return money back. It created some problem between them when there was misunderstanding in interest rate between the individual as well as the person took the loan has no any source of income to pay back. Likewise, another person had no enough legal documents to move ahead for legal procedure. The issue of transaction created misunderstanding and tension between them. In primary phase, the issue was only between the parties, when both parties were not able to resolve their differences by themselves. The case reached to the police office. However there was no legal document to proceed ahead. Then the person explored the mediators and shared his problems. Trained mediators invited both of them for mediation session. Through mediation both parties explore the solution for their problems. The person who was taking the loan was ready to pay it back after six months of mediation with interest rate of 20% and problem was resolved.

Similarly, in a dispute of Birendranagar/Surkhet Ms. Bimala Udadhaya purchased a piece of land from Mr. Puskar Rawat in NRs. 250,000.00 (NRs. Two hundred fifty thousand only). Ms. Bimala provided the agreed money to Mr. Rawat and due to some technical reasons it was delayed to transfer the land from the name of Mr. Rawat to Ms. Upadhaya. After around six month when Ms. Upadhaya asked to Mr. Rawat to transfer the land in her name Mr. Rawat asked her to pay the current value of the land. In this situation Ms. Updhaya disagreed and registered the case to the police office and police referred the case to the mediators. Dialogue Facilitators/Mediators

facilitated the mediation session where both the parties discussed together especially in the conditions that were set in the beginning. After long discussion Mr. Rawat agreed and transferred the land in the name of Ms. Upadhaya without any additional cost. Now, the relation between them is nice and cooperative.

Disputes Settled in Communities S.N. Community Number of Cases

1. Dharan 25 2. Bardibas/Mahottari- 13 3. Sainamaina/Rupandehi- 4 4. Bijauri/Dang- 5 5. Binauna 7 6. Purandhara/Dang 7 7. Birendranagar/Surkhet 13 8. Gulariya/Bardiya- 9 9. LamkiChuha/Kailali 10 Total 93

 DFs are also occasionally invited by the police office to facilitate cases, which indicates that local formal institutions also recognized the importance and quality of the services provided by the DFs. Moreover VDCs are giving priority to the program as Ministry of Federal Affairs and Local Development has recognized mediation program as one of the core services to be provided by the VDCs and for the same purpose ministry is in the process of formulating guidelines for the delivery of mediation service. In this context, after establishing of dialogue/mediation centers Pro Public handed over to the respective VDCs/municipalities by signing joint agreements between the representative of respective VDCs/municipalities, Local Peace Committees (LPC), Advisory Committees and Dialogue Facilitators, Mediators group and Pro Public in the respective communities. Based on the MoU DFs with the support of Pro Public are advocating in the local level for its running in sustainable way.

5.5. KII and Survey Project had envisaged to decrease conflict and increase social harmony by 60% after intervention of the project in 16 communities absorbing ex-combatants and the indicator for the same was set "perceived decrease in number of conflicts and increase in social harmony as a result of the project among key actors in communities" To assess the overall impact of the project, key informant interviews and surveys with the SDG members and participants of interaction program were conducted.

In this context, out of set 320 Key Informant Interview total 284 interviews were taken in the 16 communities to know the perception of the key stakeholders about the decreasing of conflict as the result of the project. Out of them total 94.71% people said that conflict has been decreased in the community 94.36% people said that the social harmony has been increased in the project communities. Similarly, total 712 SDG members and 556 individuals from second round of interaction meeting attended in survey process. Out of them 89.03% people expressed that dialogue facilitators have contributed to reconciliation in society. Trustworthy

Actually, before intervention of the project the relationship between ex-combatants and other community members was not trustworthy. So, the main goal of the project was to change the perceptions that they have taken each other and build the relationship stronger. And, it was believed that the strong relationship between them reduces the conflict and increases the social harmony. So, to make it possible project provided the skills and knowledge to the DFs and engaged them for dialogue, mediation, interaction, psychosocial care and organization of mass level events collaborating with the various level of stakeholders in the respective communities. Establishment of the peace libraries and dialogue/mediation centers was one of the important steps of the project from which thousands of community people have been sensitized about conflict, peace and other social issues.

To make the sustainable peace in the community the continuation of such good efforts and the mechanisms are really important. So, Pro Public has ensured that situation by handing over the peace library and dialogue/mediation centers after signing joint agreements between the representative of respective VDCs/municipalities, Local Peace Committees (LPC), Advisory Committees and Dialogue Facilitators, Mediators group and Pro Public in the respective communities that has created the bigger space to DFs use their skills and knowledge and continuation of the peace libraries and dialogue/mediation centers. It is strongly believed that this mechanism will make sustainable peace and social harmony in the communities.

5.6. Number of Visitors in Peace Libraries

After the establishment of dialogue mediation centers and peace libraries in 16 locations during February and March of 2016, people started to visit the centers for reading books, newspapers and social dialogue group meetings. Also, this space is considered as safe space for formal and informal

discussion between ex-combatants and community members. Sangita Malla, a frequent visitor of peace library from Bijauri Dang said that "a wonderful space with wide range of books is great opportunities for us. This center is considered a resource center for schools kids, young people and other intellectual people". During the project period, total 17,879 people received services like access to book and newspaper in peace libraries. The libraries were established in the 15 communities during February and March of 2016 and in Kalika of Chitwan it was established in June 2016. The libraries were opened six days in a week (except public holiday) around 4 hours daily in average. Also, people get safe space for dialogue and mediation services. In total, 6,562 people received services as of September 2016. Thus, a total of 11,317 visitors visited peace library during the period of October 2016 to March 2017 and received services. Please sees annex – II for detail

Additionally, to enhance the peace libraries and leverage C2P’s interventions, Pro Public approached different national and international organizations to get additional resources. In this connection, Pro Public received 800 children’s books from Room to Read. Similarly, Pro Public purchased 592 books with the financial support of Spirit of America. US Ambassador Ms. Alaina Teplitz handed over a box of books purchased from the support of Sprit of America to the Peace Library of Kalika municipality of Chitwan in a formal program and Ms. Amanda Cats_Barirl from USAID handed over a box of books to peace library of Binauna/Banke while the Center Coordinator Ms. Ramkrishni Tharu was in Dhulikhel for refresher training on psychosocial training. Similarly, Pro Public coordinated with Book Bus that displayed Book Bus Library for three days in Kalika Municipality of Chitwan from which hundreds of people especially students were benefited. At the same time a three days training was conducted on Spoken Word Poetry for the 40 community people that include ex-combatants, member of SDGs, advisory committee members and other members from the Kalika municipality of Chitwan.

Overall impression of Community

The establishment of peace library with the support of USAID in the communities is one of the great initiations under the project that has created the hopes among the community people. Additional financial support from Sprit of America and Room to Read to add the additional books in the 16 peace libraries running in the 16 communities of the 12 districts of Nepal under Combatants to Peacemakers (C2P) has given extra hopes and courage to Pro Public and the dialogue facilitators in the communities including its readers. It has given new confidence that how the international supporting hands reach to us for the expansion to our initiation and establish peace and social harmony. The support has been a milestone in the

expansion of the resources in the library and spread of knowledge that can bring real Demographicspirit in data the oncommunities the libraries’ to visitorsmove forward. is presented The samein the kind table of and supports graphs is that expected follow: for the expansion and institutionalization of the library in the coming days too.

The Project team also facilitated the visit of Pacific Command (PACOM) /Department of Defense (DOD) representatives and organized meeting with local government bodies, ex-combatants and community people in LamkiChuha of Kailali, Piprapaschim Saptari, Rankachuli/Nayabelhani of Nawalparashi and Kalika, Chitwan in order to explore possibility of support from PACOM in construction of peace library annex buildings. This encourages community people to further support the project activities. The project team is in communication with PACOM/DOD through USAID in this regards. These kinds of annex buildings will be really valuable for the sustainability of the peace libraries and dialogue/mediation centers that maintain sustainable peace and social harmony in the community that is the ultimate goal of the project.

6. Challenges, Lessons Learnt and Success

6.1. Challenges

Throughout the project period, the project team faced several challenges and gathered information as lessons learnt. In some communities, ensuring complete reintegration of ex-combatants and community members was challenging because the number of ex-combatants is higher than the available space for ex-combatants in social dialogue groups. Even in the case of Kohalpur, Banke and Lamki Chuha Kailali, some of the ex-combatants requested to be part of SDGs however, it was not possible to include all of them. To address this situation a criteria that was set to include only one member from one family, even if there are two ex-combatants, was very helpful. Similarly, the ex-combatants, who were not included in the SDGs, they were involved in the advisory committee, various levels of peace events, interaction and so forth.

In all the 16 communities, a wide range of individuals were engaged as DFs and balancing the internal group dynamics among DFs selected from combatant was a challenge due to internal conflict and division of the party. While selecting participants for the training of psychosocial care and support, participants who had health background were selected in new six communities and GIZ/STPP supported four districts whereas participants already received training under the NPTF project were invited to participate in the training.

In some communities, space also considered as challenge for mediation and dialogue facilitation services because the peace library and dialogue mediation center were housed in multipurpose rooms. The library coordinators were selected in consultation with all the DFs of respective communities by unanimous decision during the time of first training organized in December 2015 in order to avoid unhealthy competition. It had ensured transparency, accountability and ultimately maintained the do no harm approach during the project period. Similarly, candidates for psychosocial training were selected with higher preference for the candidates with health background on the consensus of DFs of respective community.

In some cases, in order to maintain the high degree of privacy between the mediation parties, space is considered problem. A single room office is considered only enough for peace library. In that situation, DFs found time either before or after the office time and explored other private spaces, agreed for both parties, for mediation session. In some of the communities where Community Mediation Centers (CMCs) are established, i.e., Kalika of Chitwan, Sainamaina of Rupandehi, Ghodaghodi of Kailali, Bijauri of Dang and so forth, mediators were coordinated as key actors throughout the project and CMCs were taken as the safe space for the mediation session as required.

Timeliness of project and context of reintegration itself are some of the pertinent issues encountered during the project. Due to busyness of the other family members DFs were getting less support from their family members that had resulted that some of the female ECs were getting difficulties to manage their time because of the taking care of their children. Despite, all these hurdles, the characteristics of the program especially collaboration between ex-combatants and community people, co-operation and trust of from local bodies, and smooth collaboration between DFs, project team in all project activities helped to address the challenges associated with the program. In addition to that, frequent changes of staffs at local bodies and transfer created some hurdles for timely project implementation. For example, all the NGOs should go through the process of project approval from VDCs to DDCs to Social Welfare Council for project activities and need to coordinate them for their recommendation letter for renewal of organization and sustainability of the project. DFs and project team had met regularly with the VDC Secretaries and Municipality Officers to update about the progress of the activities, and that helped for smooth coordination with them. The VDCs and municipalities were coordinated from the very beginning of the project and they were made aware about the mechanism of handing over of the program beyond the project period. Based on the same, all the peace libraries and dialogue/mediation centers have been handed over to them after signing MoUs between them and Pro Public. As the local structure has been changed and the new officials and local elected representatives are in the communities Pro Public has already submitted formal letters to them by briefing about efforts made under the C2P and its importance of institutionalization as well as sustainability along with the plan made by the community envisioning for addressing by ensuring them in their regular plan and these are being advocated by DFs of the respective communities in the guidance of Pro Public.

Due to the intensive activities in the communities and frequently field visits of all the staff members in project sometime it was hard for preparation and submission of the reports on time. Similarly, another challenge during the workshop was the political unrest in Saptari due to which the community envisioning was postponed. Unfortunately, on Mar 6, 2017 three persons were killed when police opened fire to contain the situation after a violent clash with Madhesi Morcha cadres who were trying to foil CPN-UML’s programme in Rajbiraj of Saptari. The CPN-UML had organized this program as awareness campaign focusing to the local elections. These incidents created a tension in the district and it was difficult to organize any event in such a violent environment. However we (Pro Public and USDAID team) discussed about the peace event in Saptari from which we can reduce the conflict and connect the people but discussing from different angles and as it was too much politicalized the team decided to postpone the event.

Thus a peace event, community envisioning and interaction program of Saptari was organized in the last week of May 2017. And that was one of the major reasons to request for the extension of the C2P's time frame from March end to June end 2017.

6.2. Lesson learnt Based on the project implementation experience, project team realized that peace is not possible only through the dialogue, interaction and other activities related to awareness and advocacy; it is directly linked with day to day livelihood concerns of people. To address the livelihood concern Pro Public established 13 Social Dialogue Group Revolving Funds in 13 communities based on the interest of the respective communities and provided NRs. 60,000.00 for each (Annexed as IV) as initial fund that has aimed to increase the income generation activities among the DFs and member of SDGs. In some cases, relying on a single person to deliver information in community through is considered as challenges. Therefore, ensuring horizontal vs. vertical communication and coordination among the DFs and other community members is essential for major peace activities. Actually, C2P met and discussed periodically with DFs and member of Advisory Committee Members and even with the other stakeholders, i.e., local bodies, LPCs and other organizations like medical colleges, health posts, schools, political parties, youth organization, media, civil society organizations and so forth for the various level of meeting. After discussion the key actors were communicated directly by the C2P team and also from the DFs in close coordination that helped to be in the same level of the understanding and responsibility. The advisory committee members were not only as advisors but also as active coordination between DFs and C2P team as required, especially in the mass level events. Also, communication was an issue many times. A strategy of clear communication with the community people and DFs became instrumental to mitigate the high expectation of people. C2P shared in the very beginning that what Pro Public is going to do during the project period and discussed all the issues among DFs and advisory committee members. It helped to understand the local needs and address the same from the participatory decision making process. It built the level of participation and transparency and maintained the do no harm approach in all the project communities. In order to make project activities successful, the project team coordinated family members of DFs to make them aware about the project activities.

6.3. Successes

Bridging the gap between ex-combatants and community members even after the longtime of their re-settlement in their respective communities has been noticed as the success of the program. DFs are capacitated to become leaders in various organizational platforms like community organizations and involved in ward citizens forum, community user groups and other activities in their respective communities. Women are highly visible in decision making process in ward citizens' forum, community user groups and other committees formed by VDC and municipality office and other governmental and non-governmental forums. In total, 214 women associated with C2P are engaged in leadership position in mother groups, cooperatives, ward citizens forum, women health volunteer, and community forest user groups. Also, the collaboration with local government bodies and other stakeholders in project communities opened further space for collaboration in peace activities, which helped DFs to engage with wider communities. Training opportunities and the

provision of co-facilitators of DFs in various training also created a space for DFs to network within and beyond the project communities.

Furthermore, peace events became beneficial to poor and marginalized communities to get health and psychosocial support. In collaboration with PACOM/DOD office, some opportunity of moving ahead for construction of the multipurpose building in project community has been initiated. With support of AOR, the project team successfully garnered financial support from Spirit of America (MoU with Sprit of America). The books donated by from Room to Read supported to furnish libraries in communities. Local and national media like newspaper and FM station also contributed to program outreach in project communities and beyond. Overall, the dialogue program has been highly successful to transform the enemy image into friends and therefore could be used as a mechanism for future conflict mitigation and management. DFs are considered as change agents in their respective communities and getting positive feedback from community members and local government bodies.

The peace library is being beneficial for proper time utilization of youth and other people in community engaging them in reading books, novels and newspaper. Also, open and easy access in peace library by children and young people in communities is helpful to ensure the access to information for the youth and other group of people in community.

Also, individuals from agitating parties such as Limbuwan and Biplob also participated in peace activities in Sunsari and Udaypur districts. This collaboration became a connector to deliver the message that even Limbuwan and Biplov group also can join their hand together with other group for broader issue of peace. For instance, two DFs in Udaypur are associated with Maoist group (led by Biplov). Being the member of DF resource pool, they are facilitating the dialogue to promote peace moving ahead the party policy. In overall, project became instrumental to mobilize the various stakeholders in communities; collaboration, coordination and communication with political parties, local government bodies, ward citizens forum, security agency, women groups, youth, conflict victims, schools, business communities, LPC, journalists, media houses proved essential.

For the continuation and sustainability of the peace libraries and dialogue/mediation centers an agreement has been signed in the project communities between Pro Public, concerned VDC/municipality, LPC, Advisory Committee and DFs that has ensured its regular operation and expansion in the days ahead.

7. Sustainability

To achieve the outcome "increased peace and social harmony in the project communities" Pro Public carried out different activities particularly, created resource pool of Dialogue Facilitators and Mediators, formation of social dialogue groups and provided leadership quality to organize mass level peace events where community people get health services and also create the solidarity among

different political parties and social groups. It has strengthened social ties and has help to remove enemy images among each other.

Beside this Pro Public have established peace libraries, dialogue, and mediation centers in all the 16 project communities as the mechanisms for peaceful transformation of potential conflicts. All the activities under the project has been conducted as per the advice of Advisory Committees chaired by Executive Officer and Secretary of Municipalities and Village Committees respectively which has created local ownership in the program and willingness to give continuity to its core activities like supporting the peace libraries, dialogue, and mediation centers.

In order to provide sustainability to the project outputs Pro Public following tasks that has ensured its continuity and sustainability.

 Pro Public handed over peace libraries and dialogue/mediation centers to the respective VDCs/municipalities by signing joint MoU between the representative of respective VDCs/municipalities, Local Peace Committees (LPC), Advisory Committees and Dialogue Facilitators, Mediators group and Pro Public in the respective communities. After signing the agreement, all the municipalities/VDCs have owned the peace library and dialogue/mediation centers providing the space for their running and even in some of the communities, i.e., Birendranagar/Surkhet, Kohalpur/Banke, Purandhara/Dang, Bijauri/Dang the local bodies have supported the library rents as they are continued in the rent house until managing spaces in the premises of the municipalities/VDCs.

 The MoU has also created the space for all the DFs to use their skills and knowledge collaborating with the local government bodies that will help them for their regular engagement and maintain sustainable peace social harmony in the respective communities.

 Pro Public established Social Dialogue Group Revolving Fund in 13 project communities by providing a seed money of NRs. 60,000.00. This fund aimed to provide small amount as loan to its members to support their economic activities and improve the livelihood and hold them together for the longer term. For the sustainability of the fund systematic operation is highly required for which proper guidelines and supporting documents has been prepared and handed over to the DFs and committees of the revolving fund along with the orientation in using them. The members pay their registration fee (NRs. 300 to 500 that is vary as per the community) to be a member of the fund and save their money (NRs. 100.00 per month by each members) regularly. Fund also earns interest from the investment that has ensured the sustainability of the fund.

 Similarly, the collaboration between, and among the various stakeholders and resource sharing (physical space and leveraging the funds, to be provided NRs. 50,000.00 by Dharan Metro-Politian city and Nayabelhani VDC) and sustainability plan by DFs and local actors had created a good signal of the sustainability of the program.

8. Monitoring and Evaluation Performance

As a part of ongoing monitoring, the project team backstopped and monitored the social dialogue group formation, advisory committee formation, orientation, meetings of advisory committee members and peace events both through a M&E plan and associated indicators, and through site visits. In line with various indicators, throughout the reporting period 104 individuals completed all series and training and they are expressing their level of confidence to deliver dialogue and mediation services in their respective communities. Pro Public established 16 peace libraries and dialogue mediation centers and formed Advisory committee in all of these communities. Regarding the participation of women and marginalized communities substantive role in peace building 214 and 201 individuals from marginalized communities recorded. Similarly, 94 groups trained in conflict mediation/resolution skills or consensus building techniques. In the period, 16 dialogue/mediation centers established and advisory committee formed. Altogether 44 peace events were conducted and 18579 individuals from various walks of life attended the peace events program. Also, 658 meetings of social dialogue groups held and 93 cases of mediation resolved by trained mediators with women, youth and marginalized communities), 433 session of para-psychosocial counseling session conducted by TPO counselors. 10 communities envisioning workshops were organized and 16 last round of interaction meetings were held from which all the peace libraries and dialogue/mediation centers were handed over to the respective local bodies by signing MoUs separately. Out of 56 DFs those who completed advanced and refresher training more than 80% individuals expressed above than 60% confidence to deliver the dialogue and mediation services in their respective communities. Out of 48 DFs those who completed advanced and refresher training more than 90% and 73% individuals expressed above than 80% confidence to deliver the dialogue and mediation services respectively in their respective communities.

9. Joint Monitoring Visit of USAID and Pro Public

Since the very beginning of the project, USAID team attended the various program for the monitoring purpose. In December 2015, Amanda Cats-Baril and Carolyn O’Donnell from USAID visited Hetauda Makawanpur for observation of basic and advanced training. In March 19th 2016, Amanda Cats- Baril attended inauguration ceremony of basic psychosocial training in Dhulikhel, Kavre. Likewise, she attended closing ceremony of refresher training on psychosocial counseling on 25th October 2016 at Dhulikhel, Kavre.

Similarly, in the period of June 12 to 18, 2016, USAID's Democracy and Governance Specialist Ms. Sumitra Manandhar and Pro Public's Training, Monitoring and Evaluation Coordinator Mr. Chiranjibi Bhandari and Program Officer Mr. Prem Bahadur B.K. conducted joint monitoring visits in Bardibas of Mahottari, Kalika of Chitwan, Rankachuli and Nayabelhani cluster of Nawalparashi, Sainamaina of Rupandehi, Bijauri of Dang and Kohalpur of Banke. In all six communities, the monitoring team interacted with Advisory Committee Members, DFs, SDG members, local

government authorities such as VDC secretaries and executive officers of municipality, ECs and community members regarding the project implementation and its overall impact on their lives and communities.

From February 20 to 25, 2017 Ms. Amanda Cats-Baril from USAID visited Kalika of Chitwan, Nayabelhani of Nawalparasi, Sainamaina of Rupandehi, Bijauri of Dang, Surkhet of Birendranagar, Kohalpur of Banke Lamki of Kailali and Piprapanchim of Saptari where she observed interaction/handover program, community envisioning and met and discussed to DFs, representatives of the Advisory Committees.

During the visits the discussions were associated about the engagement DFs, status of dialogue and mediation and sustainability of peace libraries after the project period and its visitors. In one way, team realized that the model of dialogue can be easily replicated with other community people to promote the social harmony and bridge the differences among the various social and political groups in Nepal. In other way, team noticed that longer support to DFs is more effective to make it institutionalized.

10. OCA/OPI

An effort was made to integrate USAID standard indicators for its Development Objective 1, with particular attention to indicators regarding Organizational Capacity Assessment (OCA) and Organizational Performance Indicators (OPI). Based on the preliminary assessment of OCA and th OPI score assessed on 10 March 2016, Pro Public rated itself at a 53% in OPI and 2.73 in OCA score and developed an action plan.

Current score: 63% Baseline score: 53%

11. Training and Workshop Participation

Throughout this period, C2P staffs also attended the various trainings and workshop organized by USAID and Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Office (CAMRIS International). The trainings received from the very beginning has been mentioned below.

S.N. Date Activity Name Individual Attended 1 22-23 September, USAID Monitoring, Evaluation and 2016 Learning Workshop Mr. ChiranjibiBhandari 2 25 August, 2016 Data Quality Assessment Training 3 18 July, 2016 Aid Tracker plus training Mr. Baburam Poudel Mr. Chiranjibi Bhandari 4 14-15 July, 2016 Crisis Communication Workshop Mr. PremBahadurBK 5 6-7 June, 2016 Activity M&E Plan Development Mr.ChiranjibiBhandari 6 3 February, 2017 2 hours CMM P2P approach meeting

7 5 February, 2016 A half day workshop on "Award Treasure Mr. Chiranjibi Bhandari Hunt" Ms. Jagat Sharma 8 23 February 2017 Attended half day orientation and updates in GIS, AT+ and Trainet system Mr. Chiranjibi Bhandari 9 15 March 2017 Attended DG partners M&E point of contact meeting 10 March 30 & 31, Monitoring and Evaluation Mr. Babu Ram Poudel 2017

Annex – I 5. 2. Summary of Performance Indicators Tracking Table