ssi 2017 Community Envisioning Report of 10 communities From Combatants to Peacemakers Program Submitted to THE DEMOCRACY AND GOVERNANCE OFFICE THE UNITED STATES AGENCY FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT (USAID) MISSION Maharajgunj, Kathmandu, Nepal Submitted by Pro Public Linkamarga, Kuleswore, Kathmandu P.O. Box: 14307 Telephone: +977-01-4283469 Email: [email protected] 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 CBO Community Based Organization CDO Chief District Officer C2P Combatants to Peacemakers CPN Communist Party of Nepal CSO Civil Society Organization DDC District Development Committee DE Dalit and Ethnic Communities 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 LDO Local Development Office LPC Local Peace Committee NC Nepali Congress NPTF Nepal Peace Trust Fund PLA People Liberation Army Pro Public Forum for the Protection of Public Interest SDG Social Dialogue Group SM Social Mobilizer 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 report briefly summarizes the activity report of community envisioning organized by Pro Public under the 'Combatants to Peacemakers' Program supported by United States Agency for International Development (USAID), during the period of USAID's CMM commitment to, and Pro Public's involvement in, the promotion of social harmony and peace in the communities absorbing ex-combatants in Nepal. The project would not have been possible without moral and material support of several organizations and people whom we would like to thank. Pro Public would like to express its gratitude to Democracy & Governance Specialists Ms. Amanda Cats-Baril and Ms. Sumitra Manandhar from Democracy and Governance Office, USAID for their unwavering support to make community envisioning workshop possible. Pro Public extends its sincere thanks to organizations and individuals, who helped in the organization of community envisioning in communities' an advisory committee members from 10 communities for their active participation in workshop. With great acknowledgement, Pro Public appreciates the support of Executive Officers of municipalities, Secretaries of Village Development Committees (VDCs) and Conveners of Local Peace Committees (LPCs) from 10 project communities for their excellent support and cooperation for workshop. All the individuals participated from aforementioned organizations deserve the high respect and great gratitude for their continued support and warm coordination for the program. Pro Public would also like to express special thanks to Dialogue Facilitators and Mediators and SDG members from 10 communities for their preparatory works. On behalf of Pro Public, Sr. project staff were active to coordinate and backstop the events namely Mr. Babu Ram Poudel, Program Manager; Mr. Chiranjibi Bhandari, Training Coordinator; Mr. Prem Bahadur B.K., Program Officer and Ms. Mamata Shah were mobilized in different communities with close backstopping and guidance from the project’s Team Leader Sr. Advocate Mr. Prakash Mani Sharma. Pro Public values the contribution of Ms. Jagat Sharma, Finance Officer for facilitating all the financial aspects of the community envisioning workshop. Also, it was not possible to accomplish all these activities without administrative and logistic support of Mr. Madan Maharjan, Office Assistant in Kathmandu Office. Table of Contents Content Page Abbreviations Acknowledgement Table of Contents Executive Summary 1. Background and Objective of the program 1 2. Process of Organizing Community Envisioning Workshop 1 3. Dates and Locations of Community Envisioning Workshops 3 4. Participation in Community Envisioning Workshops 3 5. SWOT Analysis in 10 Communities 5 6. Community Development Plans 9 7. Challenges 13 8. Success and Lesson Learnt 14 9. Conclusion 15 List of Annexes Annex-I: Sex Ratio Annex-II: Age Ratio Annex-III: Caste and Ethnicity Ratio Annex-IV: Monitoring and Coordination Committees Annex – V: Selected Photographs Annex – VI: Registration Annex- VII: Sample letter sent to the Government bodies (at community and district level) requesting for addressing the plan made by the community envisioning Executive Summary 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. 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. Based on the SWOT analysis, the participants then developed five-year plans for their communities, referencing previous plans made by the SDGs. Primarily, physical infrastructures, social awareness program, youth mobilization as well as activities related social harmony and peace in communities were prioritized in the plans. In general, the community envisioning workshop was considered as a unique component of the project that allowed participants to gain hands on experience with participatory decision making processes. 1. Background and Objectives of the Program C2P intends to promote social harmony and peace in 16 communities absorbing Maoist ex- combatants through a people-to-people (P2P) approach by using both preventive (i.e. trainings, SDGs meetings, peace events, psychosocial counseling) and curative (i.e. mediation) strategies of conflict management and mitigation. Out of 22 milestones listed in the project document, milestone (B4), Community Envisioning Workshop (10 in total – one each in new six communities, and four old communities from GIZ/STPP). 2. Process of Organizing Community Envisioning Workshop In order to facilitate the community envisioning workshop, preparatory work was done by the DFs and project team. In order to invite the participants, a formal invitation letter was circulated in advance to the selected participants (around 40 participants in each community). on the program day, the first task was registration of the participants by DFs. Following this, all the guests and participants were invited to take their respective seats in the program. On behalf of Pro Public, a DF from each community delivered welcome speech to the participants along with brief background description of C2P project and objective of the program was highlighted by project team. Following the overview, participants primarily raised different introductory question, like: what is community envisioning exercise? Why it is important for community development? What is the process of doing this exercise? Who would be responsible to carry out these plans? After the 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. In this exercise, all the participants were requested to close their eyes and go through an imaginary journey as meditation. This imaginary journey was around 20-25 minutes. During that time participants were requested to follow the guidance of a facilitator, who was guiding the participants for the journey. In the beginning the participants were requested