Reinforcing Women of the Chepang community as change agents for promoting local governance in Nepal
Reinforcing Women of the Chepang community as change agents for promoting local governance in Nepal
Development Exchange Center (DEC-Nepal) and South Asia Partnership (SAP-Nepal) jointly organized a National Level Knowledge Sharing Event on 28 February 2016 at SAP Falcha,Babarmahal, Kathmandu under the financial support of the United Nations Democracy Fund (UNDEF), USA. The event was organized as a part of the ongoing project “Reinforcing Women of the Chepang Community as Change Agents for Promoting Local Governance in Nepal.”
Honorable Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Women, Children and Social Welfare, Mr.Chandra Prakash Mainali graced the program as Chief Guest and formally inaugurated the program by lighting a lamp. Altogether 75 people attended the event. Participants included representatives from government offices (Ministry of Agriculture Development, Nepal Women’s Commission, Ministry of Forestry and Soil Conservation), executive members of Nepal Chepang Association; reputed personalities from various NGOs, INGOs; women activists;female local resource persons of the project;executive members of Women Chepang Action Fora;influential male leaders of Chepang community;executive members of SAP-Nepal;and media personals.
The program was divided into two sessions; the first session was chaired by Ms. Shikha Shrestha (Chairperson DEC- Nepal) whereas the second session was chaired by Ms. Shanti Chepang (Vice Chairperson of DEC-Nepal).
The objectives of the program were three folds:
1. To inform all the concerned stakeholders about the project
2. To share the progress and learning of the project to concerned stakeholders
3. To encourage cross learning amongst different stakeholders.
Mr. Narendra Prasad Joshi, Executive Director of SAP Nepal /Project Director,delivered the welcome remarks highlighting the objectives of the Chepang Empowerment Project and knowledge gained from it. He added ‘there are many challenges in implementation level to increase the participation of Chepang women in local development planning process. Institutionalization and use of Social Accountability tools can be effective to help to solve this problem.Following his speech’ A short documentary about project activities and its achievements was presented. After that Ms. Dilu Chepang President of Women Chepang Action Forum from Shaktikhor VDC and Mr. Kamal Chepang Influential Male Leader from Kaule VDC gave touching speech on socio- economic predicaments and challenges of Chepang women and how the project activities are helping in empowering them.The Chief Guest, Honorable Deputy Prime Minister Mr. Mainali, appreciated the positive intervention made by the project and emphasized that cooperatives could be an effective mean to uplift the socio-economic condition of Chepang community. He expressed his commitment towards creating favorable environment for the development of Chepang community. Ms. Shikha Shrestha, chairperson of the event, concluded the first session with closing remarks. She stated that Chepang community have been left backward mainly due to unbalanced development, lack of access to government services.She also mentioned that early marriage has been one of the major causes of Chepang women lagging behind in health and education. Citing a research study, she explained that spending more than 6 hours in daily household activities have left little time for Chepang women to be aware about their rights.
The problems faced by Chepang women were discussed in the event and some of the problems highlighted were lack of access to services due to geographical remoteness,starvation risk due nutritional food deficiency, conservative culture, child marriage and domestic violence, lack of access to participation in local development planning process.
Ms. Manisha Bhattaria, Monitoring and Evaluation Officer of DEC-Nepal,facilitated the program and presenteda summary of Policy Brief document and the findings of community score card practiced in six VDCs. Other speakers in the program were Ms.Bidhya Pandey Joint Secretary Ministry of Agriculture Development, Mr. Jitendra Chepang Central Chairperson, Nepal Chepang Association. Ms. Ambika K.C. former Chief District Officer (CEO) (first lady CDO of Nepal), Ms. Geeta Bhattarai, EC member of SAP Nepal, Ms. Kanchan Lama, GESI expert, Ms. Sanita Chepang (Chairperson of WoCAF from Siddhi VDC). They all shared their experience and views about Chepang empowerment program and the potential scope for their empowerment based on their expertise. At the end the program the floor was opened for the participants to give their views opinions and suggestions about the program.