ssi 2017 Peace Events in Sixteen Project Communities (28 events comprising Peace Rally, Cultural Progam,Speech Competition, Interaction, Sports and Revolving Fund) 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 Kuleswore, Kathmandu P.O. Box: 14307 Telephone: +977-01-4283469 Email: [email protected] i 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. ii 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 GesellschaftFür 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 iii Acknowledgement This report briefly summarizes the activity report of peace events organized by Pro Public under the 'Combatants to Peacemakers' Program (C2P) supported by United States Agency for International Development (USAID), during the period of September 2016 to May 2017. 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 would not have been possible without moral and material support of several organizations and people 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 all these peace events possible. Pro Public extends its sincere thanks to organizations and individuals, who helped in the organization of peace event in communities' and advisory committee members from all the 16communities for their active participation in several rounds of preparatory meetings and events. With great acknowledgement, Pro Public appreciates the support of Executive Officers of municipalities, Secretaries of Village Development Committees (VDCs) and Convener of Local Peace Committees (LPCs) from all 16 project communities for their excellent support and cooperation for organizing these events. All the individuals associated with these 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 104 the Dialogue Facilitators and Mediator sand 750 SDGs members from 16 communities for their hard work for the preparation and organization of the events. On behalf of Pro Public, Sr. project staff were active to coordinate and backstop the eventsnamely Mr. Babu Ram Poudel, Program Manager; Mr. ChiranjibiBhandari, Training Coordinator; Mr. Prem Bahadur B.K., Program Officer and Ms. Mamata Shah were mobilized in different communities with close backstopping and guidance from Team Leader of the project 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 peace events. Also, it was not possible to accomplish all these activities without administrative and logistic support of Mr. Madam Maharjan, Office Assistant in Kathmandu Office. iv Table of Contents Content Page Abbreviations iii Acknowledgement iv Table of contents v Executive summary vi 1. Background and Objective of the program 1 2. Overview of Peace Events 2 3. Collaboration with Relevant Stakeholders 8 4. Date and location of Peace Events 9 5. Participation of People in Program 10 6. Successes & Lesson Learnt 11 7. Challenges 13 8. Feedback of Participants 15 9. Conclusion 17 List of Annexes i. List of organizations collaborated during the Peace Events in communities ii. Date and location of peace events in communities iii. Details breakdown of participants on the basis of sex iv. Details breakdown of participants according to the age group v. Details breakdown of participants according to the caste/ethnicity vi. Universe and Sample of Feedback of the participants vii. Concept Notes of Peace Events viii. Selected photographs of Peace Events ix. Bank Account Details of Revolving Fund x. Sample directives of Revolving Fund (in Nepali) v Executive Summary As enlisted in the milestone B5 of Combatants to Peacemakers Program, 28 peace events were organized in between the period of September 2016 to May 2017 to bring the members of both ex-combatants and community people together for the cause of promoting peace and social harmony in target communities. The underlying rationale for organization of the ―peace events‖ was to promote collaboration between ex-combatants and community people for long-run to sustain peace in the communities. The collaboration was designed to repair their images of past and move ahead with a constructive outlook for the future. The activities carried out as peace events included peace rally and cultural program, interaction, friendship matches and establishing revolving fund, which were decided by the project team and Dialogue Facilitators (DFs) based on consultation and discussion with USAID team. At the phase of project launching, community needs identification in October-November 2015 with an intervention of rapid community assessment in six communities (milestone – A1) and interaction with DFs and local stakeholders in other 16 communities (milestone- B2) was conducted. These initiatives were best platforms to explore the programmatic needs of community people and ex-combatants. These exercises helped to identify a broader list of needs, which were further discussed in various rounds of meetings and interaction with DFs and advisory committee members from January to June 2016. Specifically, DFs were consulted during the basic, advanced, refresher training on dialogue facilitation and basic and refresher psychosocial counseling training. Community activities including advisory committee meetings in communities were taken as opportunities for needs validation at broader level. For the implementation of all peace events, an event specific letter was circulated to Center Coordinators in all 16 communities for preparatory works; this circulation was instrumental to re-discussion within the team and advisory committee members in each community. All these events were organized in collaboration with a wide range of stakeholders; especially with LPCs, VDC/municipalities, schools, business houses, formal and informal organizations, Community Awareness Centers and local civil society organizations. Individuals from these organizations were in close coordination for the preparation and implementation of events. The peace events are categorized into four types for the purpose of reporting, as follows: (1) Peace events titled "Peace Rally, Cultural Program and Speech Competitions‖; vi (2) Sport activity among political parties, youth clubs and school teachers and students, (3) Interaction program was designed to discuss on status of ex-combatants and promotion of social and cultural harmony in society, (4) Revolving fund was established organizing an event to support the smooth relationship among the DFs and members social dialogue group ( SDGs) beyond the project period and also create an opportunity for their income generation from which they can improve their livelihood that was observed as an essential part during the implementation of the project. This fund was an innovation in response to requests from beneficiaries. In the above-mentioned categories of peace events, altogether 13583 individuals participated in the program. Out of them 7550 (including 3320 Male and 4230 female) individuals attended in seven peace rallies and cultural programs and speech competition. Altogether 2469 (1091 male and 1378 female) attended in 13 activities related to establishment of revolving fund in communities. Similarly, 3146 (1953 male and 1193) individuals from political parties, youth clubs and school teachers and students attended in sports activities and 418 (including 223 male and 195 female) individuals attended in two interaction programs. By and large, the peace events organized in the context of International Peace Day (September 21) were successful for delivering the message of peace among the wide ranges of stakeholders in communities. As symbolic activity, the events were successful in terms of mass mobilization and in terms of sustaining collaboration between local government bodies, LPCs, ex-combatants and community people. Likewise, the interaction programs were helpful to create awareness against untouchability, equality among various caste and ethnic groups, as well as status of ex-combatants