NEPAL

Crisis Prevention and Recovery Support to Nepal project supports UNDP's development of new peacebuilding initiatives and the operations of its Peace Building and Recovery Unit.

Background

Following the political turmoil of mid-2007, the seven-party political alliance and the Maoists reached a 23-point agreement on 23 December, 2007, which brought the peace process back on track. Having been postponed twice during 2007, the Constituent Assembly elections were successfully conducted on April 10, 2008. The final results from these elections were announced by the Election Commission on May 8, 2008. The conduct of the polls was deemed to be largely free and fair by the Commission and by election monitors from around the world. As the newly elected Constituent Assembly begins its work, significant challenges remain in sustaining the peace process and in consolidating peace-building activities. These challenges include but are not limited to:

• Uncertainty regarding federalism and state restructuring
   
• Failure to extend peace dividends to marginalized groups
   
• Increased prevalence of local level conflicts
   
• Limited government capacity to implement peace agreements
   
• Uncertain future for former Maoist combatants

Objectives

The Crisis Prevention and Recovery Support to Nepal (CPRSN) project aims to provide support to UNDP Nepal in two phases, with the goal of strengthening the promising but still fragile peace process. In the first phase, the project will provide targeted strategic support that will address the immediate needs of UNDP Nepal to engage with peace building support opportunities and help prepare for a significant scaling-up of UNDP peace support activities in the post-election period, in view of the ongoing, substantial, downsizing of UNMIN. In the second phase, when the political situation will hopefully be less fluid, the project will support the operationalization of the Crisis Prevention and Recovery (CPR)component of the Country Programme Action Plan (CPAP). Specifically, the project will consolidate UNDP's peace-building efforts by:

• Providing immediate support to implement priority peace-building activities
   
• Consolidating Country Office's capacity to provide technical and programmatic support to the peace process
   
• Developing a longer-term, comprehensive programme strategy/framework for addressing key CPR issue areas

Activities

CPRSN has evolved as a result of UNDP's longstanding involvement in a number of areas designed to mitigate the impact of the recent conflict in Nepal while supporting the peace process by helping to build a more democratic and inclusive national polity. In this regard, several activities have been undertaken by CPRSN;

• Assess local processes and forums for building multi-stakeholder consensus around programmes, priorities, resource allocation and implementation.
   
• Form a pool of facilitators and trainers to assist with the management and resolution of specific disputes and conflicts, and to impart these skills to the relevant institutions and individuals.
   
• Conduct a capacity assessment exercise of government peacebuilding bodies and key partner ministries to produce a capacity development strategy/project, and to mobilize necessary resources to provide technical assistance to strengthen the coordination capability/mechanism and process/dialogue skills.
   
• Conduct a strategic assessment of different UNDP local governance/livelihood initiatives and identify key challenges to promote coordination/synergies within UNDP and external partners, improve targeting towards conflict-affected /marginalized groups, strengthen conflict-sensitive approach, and enhance linkages between downstream and upstream policy interventions.

CPRSN also seeks to develop a strategic partnership and targeted programme strategies by enabling a comprehensive mission of CPR experts to assist the country office in operationalizing CPAP


CPRSN at a glance
 

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