ABOUT US uided by the principle of non-discrimination on the basis of ethnicity, political opinion, gender, race, caste or religion, SEBAC-Nepal has Gfunctioned in Achham, Bajhang, Darchula, Doti, Kailali, Sunsari, Morang, Salyan, Pyuthan, Dadeldhura, Kanchanpur and Makwanpur districts. Among them, Achham, Doti, Kailali, Sunsari and Bajura are currently operational districts. Poverty reduction, meeting the immediate needs of the poor people and enabling the communities to be self- reliant are the major areas of focus. It works with and through individuals, households, groups and communities in planning, implementation, monitoring 1. Achham and evaluation as well as 2. Bajhang maintains transparency and 3. Darchula accountability at all levels. 4. Doti 5. Kailali Vision 6. Sunsari Prospective of an equitable, justifiable, well-developed 7. Makwanpur and judicious society. 8. Dadeldhura 9. Salyan Goal 10. Pyuthan Sustainable development of 11. Morang the country and 12. Bajura improvement in the lives of marginalised children, 13. Kanchanpur women and, disadvantaged communities. Objectives Create awareness through advocacy and communication in order to strengthen the socioeconomic status of the people and complement to the poverty reduction goal of the nation. The specific objectives of the organisation are to: a. Promote and strengthen institutional capacity and mobilize various resources for the overall development of the country. b. Conduct advocacy and capacity building programmes for the rights of women and children. c. Conserve biological diversity and ensure sustainable management of natural resources. Annual ReportAnnual 2010 -11 SEBAC-Nepal Annual Report 2010-11 1 Annual ReportAnnual 2010 -11 d. Work for the improvement in the livelihood situation of the marginalised communities and e. Assist the people in creating community assets and other infrastructures. Partnership SEBAC-Nepal has established working partnership with various governmental and non-governmental institutions. These include: Partners/INGOs 1. USAID 2. WFP 3. UNHABITAT 4. Practical Action Nepal 5. TBSU/ Helvetas 6. Plan Nepal 7. CARE Nepal 8. UNICEF 9. LLINK/ Helvetas 10. FHI Nepal 11. GTZ/ RHP 12. SSM-P/ Helvetas 13. GTZ/ RPN 14. IDE/ Nepal 15. ESP 16. Winrock International 17. GTZ/ Food for Work 18. LWF/ Nepal 19. FINNIDA Govt. Agencies/ Local Authorities 1. Poverty Alleviation Fund-Nepal 2. Ministry of Local Development 3. APPSP/DADO-Achham 4. District Water Supply Office-Achham, Darchula & Bajhang 5. RAP/RCIW/DDC-Achham 6. RAP/RCIW/DDC-Doti 7. Department of Irrigation 8. District Cottage and Small Industries Office- Achham 9. District Education Offices-Kanchanpur & Dadeldhura 2 SEBAC-Nepal Annual Report 2010-11 Thematic Work Areas SEBAC-Nepal has been ascertaining its operational strategy on the grounds of four major thematic work areas which remain the vertebrae on the perusal of a project or a programme. They are: a) Governance and Peace Building b) Health, Water and Sanitation c) Livelihoods Security and Natural Resource Management and d) Climate Change A brief of the themes is given hereunder: a. Governance and Peace Building The reciprocal bond between the local governance and society should be based on bilateral understanding and active participation in ground level policy implementation. This may ensure the multiple development benefits to the communities. The design for an ideal social structure can be brought forward if only good governance and peace building go hand to hand. Crisis of governance is pushing the nation’s economy towards the hazardous stipulation and distorting the subsequent distribution of wealth and human capital. It is threatening the nation’s social justice, harmony and happiness. On the other hand, it has helped promote corruption, insincere environment in the society and widespread frustration among people. The institutionalized corrupt culture, exclusion and discrimination and political instability are the key features of poor governance in Nepal. Therefore, improvement in the governance system is a key priority issue for endorsing peace, prosperity and upgrading the quality of life of people. SEBAC Nepal is elevating the issue as a major programme priority with the aim to contribute in establishing good governance culture in the society. It works jointly with government agencies, local bodies, international and national agencies and CBOs on the following key areas: • Conducting research/analysis on root causes of pathetic governance, its consequences and strategy for improvement. • Capacity building, empowerment of women, poor, marginalized, vulnerable and socially excluded people for their rights and basic livelihood services. • Promotion of gender-parity, inclusion, peace and social justice through advocacy and alliance building. • Promotion of social audit practices emphasizing policies, result oriented programmes, and service quality of duty bearers and civil society itself. • Strengthening local governance particularly on capacity building, democratization, quality services and accountability building. b. Health, Water, Sanitation and Hygiene As the other side of the coin, rapid growth of consuming culture has produced its derogatory effects amongst the illiterate communities Annual ReportAnnual 2010 -11 SEBAC-Nepal Annual Report 2010-11 3 Annual ReportAnnual 2010 -11 and even the so called literate circle assumes to ignore the important fact that strongly recounts to hygiene and sanitation .All water that we consume is gifted by nature and the natural purity of water is deformed by mankind step by step due to lack of proper water, sanitation and hygiene practice. No one can deny the basic importance of water for life and the undisputed need for the focal collective effort to conserve water and stop it from being our friend to foe. The man made deterioration in water quality to a large extent and the improper health habits may cause fatal consequences. Highest maternal and infant mortality rates, water-borne diseases and poor health are the major health related problems in Nepal. Lack of awareness and self stimulation among the communities, lack of access to health services of people, and lack of quality in services even if there were any health facilities available are common. There are still more than10, 000 deaths occurring due to water-borne infections/diseases each year that might be prevented. Almost 80% diseases are occurring because of lack of safe hygiene and sanitation. Gender based discrimination against women is another major problem behind such miserable condition of health. There are many women in rural areas, who are compelled to exhaust for four hours a day in fetching water. This tendency in rural Nepal is highly corroding the overall status of women and children. SEBAC Nepal has prioritized health, water supply, sanitation and hygiene as its thematic work areas in line with Nepal government’s work plan and also the Millennium Development Goals of lowering the rate of water-borne diseases and reducing the morality rates. It has planned to work with the national and international organizations and make obvious itself as a dependable partner to cope up with these problems. It has put forward the following work strategies: • Study on safe drinking water and sanitation behaviour. • Co-work with the government, national and international agencies, civil societies, political parties, media and community based organizations active in health, drinking water sanitation and hygiene sector. • Prepare master plan and strategy for the management of water and sanitation with the leadership of DDC at the district and VDC and municipalities at VDC and municipality level in order to ensure access of all to water supply and. • Support to bring behavioural changes towards hygiene, safe drinking water and sanitation practices through various types of creative, communicative and effective awareness interventions among the communities. c. Livelihoods Security and Natural Resource Management Food security is understood as access to sufficient and affordable food to everyone. To be free from hunger and malnutrition is a fundamental 4 SEBAC-Nepal Annual Report 2010-11 human right of every woman, man, youth and child. Universal and sustainable food security is part and parcel for the social, economic and human development objectives. However, despite of being pre-dominantly agrarian economy, food insecurity is increasing in Nepal day by day. There is rising food demand with a significant increase in population. Global rises in food prices, prolonged drought, unwanted incessant rains, and dependence on rainfall for agriculture are hindering in living of the common people, mainly farmers. Agriculture production is generally poor in the hills and mountains of the far and mid western parts of Nepal due to insufficient arable land, limited area under year-round irrigation and lack of availability of agricultural inputs. The small farm-holders are main victims of rising food insecurity. As a result, there are higher rates of migration mainly to India among the rural and food insecure families, which is an all time coping method adopted by the people. Such situation will be more complicated, if timely action is not taken to address this problem. The development agencies in partnership with the government of Nepal must make agriculture a national priority to eradicate hunger and reduce poverty. There must be effective strategies so that Nepal could meet the growing demand for food on its own. Nepal is rich in forest and