Gender and Nepal's transition from war

"This report explores gender relations and equality and Nepal’s transition from war. Focus areas include: affirmative gender action in the transition, for example regarding politics, employment or development; gender perspectives on specific aspects of the transition, such as security sector reform, access to justice and political participation; gendered experiences, expectations and priorities of marginalised groups, including women, sexual minorities, Dalits (‘low caste’), Janajatis (indigenous communities) and Madhesis (from the southern Tarai plains); and how different identities intersect. A short case study of the period of intense political change that followed the 2015 earthquakes in Nepal provides an illustrative, contemporary example of opportunities and challenges. The report reflects discussions from a gender workshop convened jointly by the Social Science Baha (Nepal) and Conciliation Resources (United Kingdom) in Nepal in August 2016. Workshop participants included 24 women and men, ensuring a broad cross-section of Nepal’s caste or ethnic, gender and regional diversity, and including local-level and national politicians, civil society groups, academics, journalists and independent researchers. This meeting was one of three gender workshops exploring political settlement beyond elites, with other events taking place in Colombia and Bougainville, Papua New Guinea. These meetings have focused on how diverse groups in conflict-affected contexts understand and experience transition processes, in particular access to security and social and political goods.

Gender and Nepal's transition from war

"This report explores gender relations and equality and Nepal’s transition from war. Focus areas include: affirmative gender action in the transition, for example regarding politics, employment or development; gender perspectives on specific aspects of the transition, such as security sector reform, access to justice and political participation; gendered experiences, expectations and priorities of marginalised groups, including women, sexual minorities, Dalits (‘low caste’), Janajatis (indigenous communities) and Madhesis (from the southern Tarai plains); and how different identities intersect. A short case study of the period of intense political change that followed the 2015 earthquakes in Nepal provides an illustrative, contemporary example of opportunities and challenges. The report reflects discussions from a gender workshop convened jointly by the Social Science Baha (Nepal) and Conciliation Resources (United Kingdom) in Nepal in August 2016. Workshop participants included 24 women and men, ensuring a broad cross-section of Nepal’s caste or ethnic, gender and regional diversity, and including local-level and national politicians, civil society groups, academics, journalists and independent researchers. This meeting was one of three gender workshops exploring political settlement beyond elites, with other events taking place in Colombia and Bougainville, Papua New Guinea. These meetings have focused on how diverse groups in conflict-affected contexts understand and experience transition processes, in particular access to security and social and political goods.

The Politics of Social Protection in Nepal: State infrastructural power and implementation of the Scholarship Programme

This paper explores the dynamics shaping the implementation of Nepal’s School Scholarship Programme, an educational assistance programme that provides cash stipends to primary and secondary students of marginalised communities. Drawing on fieldwork in four districts – Ilam, Saptari, Lalitpur and Jumla – this paper makes two distinct arguments. First, it highlights the importance of infrastructural power to the implementation of social transfers – especially the limited capacity of higher levels of the state to monitor effectively the actions of lower levels. Second, it concludes that programme design can compensate for some of the limitations of state infrastructural power – especially the use of categorical targeting to distribute scholarships that has emerged from social justice framing of the scholarship programme. The limitations of state infrastructural power are especially keenly felt with respect to the disbursement of scholarships. As such, limited state infrastructural power leads to delayed and reduced payments that are likely to undermine the potential of the programme to effect social justice