By Bikram Singh Basnyat

Social and Economic Response:

Part 1
Part 2
The government should provide new institutional arrangements and legislations for a security and governance approach to social and economic development.

Education and Health:

Institutional arrangements for security of schools and education establishment should be rapidly put in place through district and community action. School security and management teams should be formed to govern school affairs. System of compulsory education, which fits the new Nepal, should be introduced, aiming at 100% attendance by all school aged children. Compulsory literacy and adult education classes may be beneficial to mobilise and training community resident in building a new Nepal. Successful projects run by BASE can be examples on how this can be done.

Since the teacher community may be penetrated with opposing political views and may be more politicians than teachers, it might be good to encourage the local community authorities themselves to screen and even recruit the best teachers for their schools. Important criteria are non-political affiliation and training in pedagogical sciences.

Each local community should have its own health care services. The best example is of BASE in Dang and of UMN in Palpa, where communities themselves own and manage their health services. Local community authority should be encouraged to identify and recruit their own health workers, including medical personnel. Community-based health insurance schemes should be initiated as well.

A most important area of reform is higher education. Each district should have its own university where the youth can access high quality education. By doing this, the current involvement of politics in educational establishment should be gradually removed. Students and teachers should have access to self-governing student bodies and not political parties as such. Higher educational establishments should have their own autonomous management, which function under governmental regulations but not controlled by the government. Strict sanctions should be applied to teachers and students who engage in politics that counter the human development needs and rights of Nepali citizens. This should be a crime against human development. Examples of EC countries should be taken in terms of management of university and twinning arrangements should be explored to improve quality.

Agriculture and Economic Growth :

New institutional arrangements for local agriculture and economic development should be developed. Nepal has many successful projects in this regard, for example the Participatory District Development Program, SAPROS and CEAPRED. Whether agriculture or non-agriculture, all activities should be seen from the perspective of individual or collective farm or non farm enterprise(s).

Local communities should be given the institutional option of both “individual farming” and also “market based collective farming”. Cluster of farming villages should be given the option of forming, through alliances or coalitions while maintaining individual property rights, agriculture development organisation of their own and for themselves. The organisation can take the form of private sector cooperatives or companies (without barriers and restrictions by the government). All market based collective farms should be registered through their own initiative with the local community or district authority.

All farming communities, given the size of landholding in Nepal, should be encouraged and motivated to form or make their own institutional arrangements. Incentives should be designed whereby farming communities receive training, technologies, credit schemes etc for production as well as support for harvesting and marketing. In addition, this institutional arrangement can reach out to each farming community with inputs and services they need to maintain high quality farming, increase production and also increase their income. The farming communities should be encouraged to recruit their own managers and professionals, either from amongst themselves or from outside, for operation of their own agriculture support centre, cooperative or company. The example of CIS countries, such as Ukraine, can be considered.

Rural and urban communities, whether belonging for farming or non farming families, should compulsorily be engaged in small, medium and large enterprises. Similar to the agriculture communities, rural and urban communities should be supported to organise their own enterprise development organisations in close cooperation with the community authorities. Local communities and authorities should recruit their managers and professionals to provide services related to identification of products, production processes, marketing and trade. There are many projects in Nepal, which are working in this subject area and can be revised. As for agriculture, it will be important to receive donor support through twinning arrangements with companies of the donor countries. The example of China with village enterprises can be considered.

For strengthening regional and district economies, linkages of rural and urban enterprises should be planned better and organised. Financial incentives should be formed to strengthen rural urban linkages amongst nationally based enterprises. Rural and Urban production and consumption oriented enterprises should be contractually linked to each other. For this, donors should be supported to invest in training so that quality of human resources can be enhanced.

Through a range of agriculture and non-agriculture related enterprises, the concept of access to wealth (for example only to land) should be gradually changed (by taking EC standards for example). Also, through agriculture and non-agriculture enterprises, the local community authorities and district authorities should ensure all residents are 100% employed, are all paying taxes and are all engaged in forming the local economy. Local communities should be supported to move out from subsistence towards establishing their own local economies (which practically is not organised currently). Local authorities should also have schemes of social benefits for those who are under the poverty line and who are recognised as their citizens but can not be employed.

Trade and Investments:

Rural and urban agriculture and non-agriculture enterprises should be open to mobilise internal or external investments. Mobilisation of investments can be from banks, industries, businesses and others; but all of this should be institutionally organised through contractual agreements.

National level authorities should engage in forming large-sized industries and companies through national or foreign investments that can link up with the locally based agriculture and non-agriculture enterprises. Emphasis of national level industries should be in forging links with rural production systems.

Finally, institutional arrangements for national and international trade, with the involvement of the small, medium and large enterprises in the rural and urban areas, should be reviewed and developed. Trade is going to be the main vehicle for economic growth.

Security for Enterprises and Businesses:

Schools, enterprises and business must be given rights to form their security arrangements through legislation and based on monitoring by the national or district human security and development authorities.

Conditions for Success:

The IOM, political parties and government will need access to loyal and committed professionals, who are organised, to the make the above happen. Nepal has plenty of these professionals currently working, besides in the government, in donor assisted projects and programmes. For this, it may be useful to mainstream expertise available with donor projects and programmes into mainstream decision-making, not necessarily under the so-called government bureaucracy but in many cases to guide government. It requires the identification of about 100 strongest leaders, who can then lead their teams. The example of how ACAP is successful can be considered.

Nepal has access to significant human and financial resources, beyond what is available in the government budget. On human resources, Nepal needs to invest in education and training of its human resources, who can do miracles. Projects of UNDP, different donors and non-government organisations and, now, the Maoists demonstrate that local communities are capable of generating their own resources. Using these examples, donor assisted projects can be gradually revised to focus on the institutional arrangements mentioned above and such arrangements implemented through donor-assisted projects and programmes. It may be strategic to use such assistance to ensure adequate staff incentives so that corrupt practices need not be employed. Parallel to this, it should be national pride for people to contribute through taxes for local and national development.

The National Execution modality of UNDP should be attractive to the government. It may be strategic to use UNDP cost sharing arrangements whereby donor and other resources are mobilised or channelled through UNDP for the projects of the government. Under national execution, decisions are owned by the government while UNDP incentive schemes apply. This might be very good during a transition process of one system to another.

Process of citizen based dialogue for constitutional reforms should be initiated. Constitutional amendments to accommodate democratic practices of political parties, decentralised local government and security arrangements as well as rights to social and economic prosperity should be reviewed. Legislations on formation of political parties should be reviewed and conditions created for the existence of several large sized political establishments. Example of political parties in the US, UK should be studied. Leaders and networks of the human security authorities, if they perform well, can become the alternative political force besides the existing parties.

The concept and strategy of how national and local security is organised should change. Besides the armed forces, the national level human security and development council can be transformed to be the “national intelligence and security agency”. Given the experience with the Maoist movements, the concept of having a national police authority should change in favour of transforming it into the national bureau of investigation while local security becomes the function of the district and local communities. As an alternative, the current national police should be changed into a more “professional investigation force” of the internal ministry and the armed wing of the current police should be brought under the control of the armed forces or the new national intelligence and security agency. Incentives and social status of the security forces must be raised to be the pride of Nepali society. If this done, this will likely have a high level of positive impact on the perception of the ordinary Nepali people for whom the current police force is a sign of government oppression and corruption.

Government should be restructured gradually with different time frames through rapid re-profiling. All ministries and departments currently causing more development barriers and have responsibilities which are genuine functions of local governments should be abolished. Key government functions at the national level can be – Foreign Affairs; Internal Affairs; Budget, Finance and Banking; Industries and Investments; Health, Education and Human Development; National Infrastructure Development; Energy and Environment and possible Natural Resources; National Intelligence and Security Agency; National Defence and others. It is time to focus on using capacities – both national and local and not making one necessarily dependent on the other per se. Government should be organised with area-based security and development orientation, preferably regionally. Incentives and status of government should change.

There might be the need to form different technical support and research institutes in each district. Also, development of communal infrastructure and services should be the function of local governments. Government funding should be open for not just government agencies but for and through other government, non-government and civil society organisations. Government investment in private companies should also be opened but without control over the management. Government should view institutional arrangements of government, non-government, civil society and private organisations as capacities it should use to promote security and development.

There should be clear delineation of functions and responsibilities between national government, local district government and local community authorities. Government, local district authorities, and non-government should function as policy or implementation support organisations. Implementation responsibilities should be vested invested in the local community authorities and organisations. Businesses and industries should be formed based on networking with rural and urban farm and non farm enterprises. Rural and urban economies should be around farm and non-farm enterprises and industries. These should be the economic foundations for rural and urban employment and income opportunities.

With the successful establishment of human security and development authorities and their networks through local community-based security and development authorities, security arrangements for streets, villages and towns should be ensured by no other than the people who chose to live in peace, constitutional monarchy and multi party democracy. It is then important to transit into democratic elections first at the district level, then at the national level or both together. There are several options on how elections can be organised, learning from experiences in Chechenya, Afghanistan and now Iraq:

The National Election Commission can organise nation wide elections at one go as has been the case in the past.
National Election Commission can organise District Election Commissions and elections organised as districts show they are ready and secure. Such elections can be organised for cluster of districts, for example zones. Success in a first set of districts can encourage other districts to follow suit. This may not be the perfect way of holding democratic elections but will be a genuine way for people to select their representatives and authorities.
National elections can also be organised for each or cluster of districts at the same time as for local representatives and authorities. Or alternatively, elections can be organised separately by regions.
Organising district, cluster of districts or regional based elections will allow national democratic forces to overwhelm the threats posed by Maoists. It will also be a victory of the IOM, democratic forces, which form alliances.
The system for political representation and governance should change and mistakes of the past not repeated. Suggestions are:

The democratic foundations of political parties should be developed through new legislation and example of the US and UK should be considered.
National elections should be based on proportional representation, which is based on national vision and programmes of political parties. Proportional representation should be district based rather than regional or national.
Formation of government should be the function of the parliament with the support of the monarch and the people.
The current system of forming the government from amongst the representative elected in the parliament is one way. The alternative may be for the Prime Minister and members of the cabinet not to be active members of the Parliament but approved by Parliament for appointment by HM the King. Members of parliament can be candidates but should cease being members once appointed. This will allow the government to be politically and professionally oriented.
Political parties should introduce their candidate for the post of Prime Minister and the program to be implemented during the elections. This will allow the people to indirectly participate in voting in the Prime Minister.
Candidates for post of Prime Minister (if not identified during elections) and Ministers must be subjected to parliamentary hearings and endorsement.
The term of the government should be for a period of around 3 years, with possibility of extension of the second term. This means the term of the Parliament should be 5-6 years.
Local elections should be for (1) District Governor or Administrator, who should be subjected to oversight by the (2) elected District People Council. These can basically be replacement of the Human Security and Development Authority and the Council. Alternatively, the human security and development authority can become the district intelligence and security agency. Alternatively, the District Governor or Administrator can be appointed by the Prime Minister; but this should go through hearings and endorsement by the People Council. Council of Europe standards can be used.
Elections should also be organised directly for village or cluster of village-based local community authorities. This not the current VDC but at the level of villages, cluster of villages and towns.
It may be politically and strategically good for human security and development to change from VDCs and DDCs to new form of local government authorities. Also, the Governor or Administrator as well as Mayor should be given the responsibility of forming his or her team who have to go through hearings and confirmation of their credentials through a independent committee formed at the district level.
Change will require human resources training and development. The current government training centres can be transformed and training provided for direct implementation and not just about concepts and strategies. It is important to increasing investment through national and local cultural events the feelings of local and national commitment and belonging.