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Integrity Icon is a global campaign by Accountability Lab that is powered by citizens in search of honest government officials. When we talk about innovation we always look toward the ideas from foreign countries. It is the expected norm that innovation doesn’t start in Nepal. In 2014, Accountability Lab Nepal did the unexpected. A campaign that has revolutionized the way people fight corruption, which started in Nepal, has now been replicated in 15 other countries across the world and has now become a global campaign. Imagine the most difficult terrain in a village in Nepal. There are no roads, electricity is limited and vegetation is scarce. Access to good education and public services is miles away. Corruption is deep-rooted in societal values. There, a humble woman works in a small public health post, helping people however she can - delivering newborn babies, curing diseases, and saving lives. To the people of that community, she is a hero. It’s hard to believe that a public servant can become a hero for common people when the narrative is dominated by naming and shaming the bad ones, ignoring the good doers. Integrity Icon Nepal has been identifying such individuals and highlighting them since 2014. Every year, 5 amazing government officials are highlighted among over a thousand nominations from the public. And the winning 5 are absolutely inspirational. Take last year’s winners for example. Manamaya Pangeni was one of the very few female Chief District Officers in Nepal and was respected as a strong and inclusive leader by the people in the places she worked, not bowing down to anyone’s unethical pressures. Lok Bahadur Lopchan was passionately working towards preserving the languages in the verse of extinction and strongly advocated for languages of ethnic minorities to be taught in the schools. Shila Sharma, whose leadership as a covid focal person in providing efficient services at Bheri Hospital situated in one of the covid hotspots is impeccable. Chandrakant Chaudhary has been successful in raising the living standards of farmers by supporting them with loans and ensuring they get the prices they deserve for their produce through community cooperatives. And  Sumitra Gautam, who was able to completely change the face of Bhaktapur Hospital from a run-down old hospital to one of the best serving government institutions in the country. But, what’s important isn’t who wins or who is the best. It’s the conversation that it creates around integrity in Nepal - about what it means to be honest within a corrupt system. Nepal’s bureaucracy has been known to be mired in inefficiency, lack of accountability, and corruption. People’s hope in the public service had increased after the 2017 local elections but said hope didn’t take long to die out. Audits of the fiscal year 2021/22 show exorbitant arrears in the local units. Corruption has been a part of our public system for decades while the citizens and law enforcement have been trying to put an end to it by pointing out the wrong-doers. But, Integrity Icon has shown that fighting corruption isn’t all about enforcement and locking people up. It’s not about enforcing rules on its own because if those rules don’t correspond to the way that people interact, the way that they organize society, then they can’t be enforced. Instead of putting corrupt officials behind bars, Integrity Icon put honest officials in front of cameras. Instead of prosecuting the bad-doers, Integrity Icon celebrated the do-gooders. And in the eight years that it has existed, Integrity Icon has highlighted 40 outstanding government officials in Nepal, with the program being replicated in 17 other countries. The key isn’t just to catch people doing the right things. It’s bringing them together and helping them collectively push back against the negative dynamics. Through Integrity Alumni, the Icons continue to connect, engage and brainstorm ideas to build integrity within the institutions they work around the country. The network doesn't just comprise the Icons - it’s a hive of unlikely networks of business leaders, journalists, change-makers, activists, academicians, and philanthropists who all support and push each other to bring positive reforms in Nepal’s public service. This has helped create a virtuous circle of reforms. One’s efforts are being replicated in other areas. Shila’s leadership during the covid pandemic inspired many others in the health sector to work day and night in Nepalgunj Sub-metropolitan City. Manamaya’s grit and leadership have inspired many female officials to stand up against the patriarchy and their corrupt supervisors. Youths are the most critical part of this process. Over 50 percent of Nepal’s population is under the age of 30. They are more energetic and more connected than ever before. Integrity Icon helps this generation to stand up for their values and build integrity before they get sucked into the corrupt systems that exist. The older generation has been in power so long that they can’t be part of the change that needs to happen. Therefore, creativity around these issues is necessary. Through Integrity School, young and passionate government officials are brought together to discuss the challenges in their workspaces, learn from the practical experiences of honest government officials, and co-create solutions to navigate difficult and corrupt working environments. The school builds a network of fun-loving, dynamic, and like-minded young government officials who are striving toward building integrity within the bureaucratic system through creative ideas and innovative tools. Integrity Fellowship is a similar part of the campaign where young graduates outside the government are given the opportunity to work with and learn from the Integrity Icons. This facilitates the exchange of knowledge between young Nepalis and Integrity Icons and provides an immersive experiential inter-generational learning opportunity for young Nepalis in accountable and transparent government systems. The other end of the bargain offers key government reformers with committed and creative youth to support them in their efforts to build integrity in governance systems. These fellows are also exposed to the government sector which helps change their negative perceptions of Nepal’s public service. Through these initiatives, the young and bright youth of Nepal are constantly being mentored and molded into becoming honest, moral, and accountable public leaders in the future. This has brought creativity to the whole possess. People have started performing theater plays around the importance of integrity. Young people have displayed their understanding and need for integrity through art and poetry. The media is also slowly moving towards reports on success stories of government and organizations, and the amazing work they do, proving that the citizens' perceptions are now changing. The citizens, who are constantly conducting silent rallies and writing blogs around the value of integrity have been empowered to hold their government accountable through positive approaches. Hundreds of students painted bright pictures of Nepal’s gloomy bureaucracy in art competitions as well.  Still, the core value of Integrity Icon isn’t that corruption or lack of accountability shouldn't be called out. It doesn’t mean that justice isn't essential, rules aren’t enforced, and intuitions aren’t set up. But what it means is that the people doing the right thing should be supported even more. They have to be celebrated and encouraged to move forward. They have to be connected and supported with voices and provided with the tools they need to step up as role models. If the Integrity Icon has done anything, it has given the people hope. Hope that things can change, because individuals like the Integrity Icons are everywhere. They just need the recognition and motivation like the Integrity Icons have received. For that, the campaign needs support - to identify these amazing people, to spread the word, and to continue having conversations around the value of integrity. This can change the way people look at the world and give hope for a different kind of future that everyone can help to build.

Mediation as an alternative dispute resolution mechanism is gaining prominence in federal Nepal; it is now an indispensable function of the judicial committees across all 753 local governments. In Nepal, where citizens lack access to adequate means of resolving local disputes, mediation brings judicial assistance by providing immediate, affordable, and locally accessible dispute resolution services. Mediation offers a space to resolve interpersonal and collective disputes, transforming adversarial tensions into cordial relationships based on mutual respect. The mediation process encourages parties to constructively explore ways to resolve a dispute with the help of locally trained mediators. The emphasis is on discovery, understanding, and respect for the needs and interests of all parties involved in a dispute, and any resolution is predicated on the parties’ recognition of the interdependency of their interests. A significant outcome of the mediation program has been the active participation of women and members of marginalized communities – as beneficiaries and providers of mediation services. As a result, they are now well respected in their communities and serve as active citizens by taking leadership roles in other local development activities. The Asia Foundation Program  Since 2001, The Asia Foundation has worked intensively in developing and implementing facilitated, interest-based mediation and is currently a recognized leader in community mediation in Nepal. The Foundation promotes community mediation to improve access to justice at the local level and establish a culture of conflict resolution within communities. The Foundation initially initiated its community mediation program in three districts by supporting the then Ministry of Local Development (MLD) to introduce and pilot community-based dispute resolution. This support was then expanded to eight additional districts through the support of different donor agencies.  Currently, around 12,000 community mediators provide dispute resolution services in 150 plus rural municipalities and municipalities across Nepal. In May 2015, the Foundation implemented interest-based facilitated dialogue and mediation in seven earthquake-affected districts to address local disputes arising from issues related to post-earthquake short-term relief and medium to long-term recovery. The support in these locations continued till March 2021, when the project phased out, handing over the reins to the local government after six years of continuous support in strengthening mediation. The Foundation is currently implementing the Community Mediation program in seven partner municipalities under its flagship Subnational Governance Program (SNGP), supported by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT).  As of March 2022, the Foundation and its local partners have received over 40,000 mediation cases and have achieved a resolution rate of about 90 percent. These figures are a strong indicator of Community Mediation being a culturally acceptable and effective means of dispute resolution. Further, a network of broader service providers has been established in all the project districts to facilitate referral and ensure quality, integrated, and holistic justice delivery services to beneficiaries. Leveraging a decade of mediation experience, the Foundation also supports a network of practicing community mediators to amplify and include the voices of practitioners in policy making. Over the last two decades, Community Mediation has evolved in sophistication to handle a variety of disputes, including individual disputes, group disputes, gender-based violence cases, domestic violence cases, and complex multi-stakeholder disputes related to conflicts over natural resources, post-disaster rehabilitation & relief distribution and social injustice and identity-based discrimination. Recently, the Foundation has broadened the discourse to incorporate gender and restorative justice lenses to conflict transformation. This has further consolidated the need to engage with broader themes and promote resolutions that recognize and proactively strive not to perpetuate historical, social, or structural injustices. Mediation in Nepal  The transition to the federal governance structure in Nepal presented opportunities and challenges at all levels of governance and society. At the national and regional levels, there was uncertainty and conflict between different levels of government as the transition unfolded. At the local level, the change presented opportunities to engage local communities in governance, but the transition process also suffered from uncertainties that caused confusion, conflict, and unrest. Specific to the implementation of community mediation, the newly promulgated Constitution 2015, Mediation Act 2014, and Local Government Operations Act 2017 (LGOA) changed the governance landscape and brought structural changes to judicial mechanisms at the local level.  They established a close interface between community mediation and newly formed judicial committees headed by the deputy mayor or deputy chairperson at the municipal or rural-municipal level. First, the policies shifted mediation centers from municipalities to the lowest administrative ward units. Second, judicial committees, led by elected representatives, were responsible for regulating and monitoring mediators and mediation activities at the local level.   Supporting this model for a tiered, locally led justice delivery system has the potential to bring justice administration closer to individual communities and make it more responsive to the time, cost, and efficiency needs of citizens.  This has provided safeguards of due process for quality control of services to ensure access to holistic justice delivery service. At the national level, the Foundation is working closely with the Mediation Council, an apex body housed at the Supreme Court, in developing policies and strategic plans that align mediation policies and practices with the transition to federalism. At the subnational level, the program is working to enhance coordination with local, provincial, and national stakeholders, including newly elected local representatives and judicial committee members, to ensure program sustainability, ownership, and support. Through its project, the Foundation continuously works to make the practice of mediation more culturally relevant and strives to deepen the understanding of Nepali approaches to community mediation and social harmony and re-configuring approaches consistent with and drawing from the best of Nepali culture. Simultaneously, keeping abreast of the current state restructuring in Nepal, the Foundation is shifting its emphasis to institutionalizing a model that harmonizes and sustains high-quality community mediation practices.

ActionAid Nepal has accomplished a new milestone: 40 years of working for social justice, gender equality, and poverty elimination, all while advancing human rights.  ActionAid Nepal is a member of the global ActionAid International federation. Starting from charity-based work to improve the basic living conditions of the poorest people in the 1980s, AAN has now adopted a human-rights-based approach shaped and driven by its values, vision, and mission, working for transformative and structural social changes through people’s active agencies. 40 years is more than just a landmark; it represents thousands of personal experiences of transformation, change, and inspiration from all around Nepal. We would like to thank our donors and partners for their inspiration—and efforts to ActionAid’s work. Our team has selected two change stories to reflect our values and the profound potential of transformation via solidarity, volunteerism, empowerment, and knowledge. Challenging the norms, standing for rights: Sandya’s aspiration Sandya Kumari Ram, a student of grade 11, is from the village of Pokhariya Municipality ward 7 in Raniganj, Parsa. She exemplifies how understanding and trust can bring about immediate and long-term positive change within a person as well as the family and community. She is an active member of the Divya Yuva Club under the Samunnati project, where she attends legal and psychological awareness sessions. Basically, these sessions are one of the interventions under the project through which ActionAid aims to capacitate young boys and girls to promote gender-equitable attitudes, raise voices against various forms of gender-based violence, and increase reporting of incidents with increased access to justice and security services. I wasn’t ready for marriage, but I come from a culture where girls are considered burdensome, and their parents often marry them off at a young age. My father began making plans for my marriage as soon as my adolescent elder sister was married. Given the societal practice of a large dowry as the girl grows older, as well as the desire to be free of their responsibilities to us, particularly financial ones, my parents were determined to marry me immediately before my grade eight exam. I was first hesitant to speak up against my marriage as a girl child since I had seen my sisters never speak out and my mother’s opinion is never valued. Attending several sessions of the Youth Club, as well as my mother's involvement in a women’s group from the same project, we learnt about the challenges of child marriage and the likely outbreak of gender-based violence, which motivated us to take action to end my marriage. I was terrified of the scenario, so I tried to talk to my father, but he reprimanded me. My mother and I then went to a Women’s group and then a Men's group. My father was given various examples and drawbacks of child marriage. During those discussions, I also mentioned that underage marriage is not only illegal, but also a risk factor for GBV. I provided the example of my sister, who married at a young age, resulting in poor health for her and her child. This truly worked; I said that continuing my school is my top priority, and my father couldn’t say no, and he now stands up for my rights. It took time, and I had to miss a year of school, but I eventually made it, and now other girls and boys from the school and community look up to me. I, as a girl from the so-called dalit community with less privilege, can bring about change via myself, my family, and my community. I wonder what it would look like if every young person raised their voices to end the harmful practice of child marriage. A community of practice to end patriarchal thinking: Stories of recognizing unpaid care work Jamuna Parki of Dipayal Silgadhi Municipality-5 Dhami Gaun is an active participant of ActionAid and Equality Development Center Nepal’s Local Right Program-35. (LRP-35). She is a determined woman and a change agent from the Dalit group. She came from a poor home where women had to work double shifts grinding wheat millet to feed the family. She and other women had little choice for care; even after 12 to 15 days of giving birth, they had to work on field while male members of their community traveled to India to earn. She recalled that we were involved in agriculture and that, due to workload, we were unable to build our leadership, seize the opportunity for political representation, participate equally in economic, social, and political domains, take leadership in federal government local level structures, and care for our health. However, thanks to the LRP-35 orientation, meetings, and sessions, we were able to reach an agreement with the Municipality and Ward to construct the mill. She continued to state that following the facilitation, a decision to run the mill in Dhamigaun was taken based on community demand. The mill was only operational once the group members agreed to delegate responsibility for the mill’s operation. The group became involved and took the initiative to operate the mill in their own community. We submitted the ward and municipality with a plan and budget. The municipality set up Rs 100,000 for this initiative proposed by a women’s group. Our group was then able to operate the mill thanks to the program’s, municipality’s, and group members’ financial contributions. For the mill’s successful and smooth operation, a guideline was developed. The availability of a mill in one’s own town has lessened the need for women to travel to the market for grinding. As a result, we can make better use of our time. 400 homes have begun to receive services from this mill. Similarly, Durga Bisht from Dipayal Silgadi Municipality-5 had similar challenges; her village ran out of water for drinking and even for keeping clean during birth and maternity. The tap was a long distance from the home. She said that her husband was in India, leaving just her elderly mother-in-law at home. Her mother-in-law was unable to carry water, so she had to gather it herself for bathing and other everyday tasks. She and her toddler were starving by the time she accomplished all of these tasks, and she had no energy to do anything else. She is an active member of the women’s group and brought up the problem during a group meeting. According to the group’s request, they have constructed tanks and taps by controlling the wastewater near the village with the support of the project, which has decreased the effort and made it much simpler. At the moment, the workload of women in 70 houses in the village has been eased, and the drinking water problem has been solved. These two women represent over 400 households that were once preoccupied with patriarchal thoughts and classified women as unworthy of being surrounded by household chores, but a shift in perspective and positive impact was seen as women’s empowerment was prioritized and the community began to recognize unpaid care work. Women from the community established a long-term influence with resource utilization, which has surely brought about a shift in patriarchal power relations and understanding. It has capacitated women to raise their voices with confidence from home to society. Similarly, knowledge and empowerment initiatives have assisted women in reducing the load of domestic and care work while also increasing their political presence. It has built an environment for them to enjoy their leisure time. Because of shared household chores and better women’s health, women can get engaged in group and community activities. Women can now participate in productive work, which has enhanced their recognition in redistribution and reduced unpaid care work. They can indeed enjoy their equal participation rights in economic, social, and political spheres.

In the dawn of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (Industry 4.0) shaped by AI, blockchain, Internet of things, multiverse, and quantum computing (World Economic Forum 2016), the emphasis on creativity and innovation, entrepreneurship, and technology development also affects the ways the so-called non-profit sectors design and implement development and humanitarian programmes in developing countries like Nepal. In the past few years, World Vision International (WVI) Nepal has incorporated emerging technologies and innovation to save lives, to reach the most vulnerable and hard-to-reach communities, and to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of humanitarian and development actions. Following the 2015 Nepal Earthquake Response, WVI Nepal has ideated, prototyped, and scaled up community focused innovative solutions like Sikka, KITAB Bazar, and Participatory Disaster Risk Assessment (PDRA) tools integrated into its development and humanitarian initiatives. Sikka Sikka is a digital tool that facilitates cash and voucher assistance programmes by distributing digital tokens to beneficiaries through a blockchain technology. The tokens can be exchanged for cash or goods at participating merchants, financial cooperatives, or relief centers. SIKKA’s digital tokens are transferred through SMS text messaging. Blockchain transactions are transparent and trackable allowing aid agencies to deploy this last mile distribution tool even in fragile contexts. The system has been used to assist 92,788 people during the Covid-19 response. KITAB Bazar It is a cutting-edge online marketplace that enables results-based financing as a solution to improve access to supplementary reading materials in schools. The platform simplifies the entire process of selecting, ordering and purchasing books for children in coordination with key stakeholders like municipalities and private publishing houses, which proved quite relevant in covid operational context. KITAB Bazar has served 53,412 children in 831 community schools by providing 133,008 supplementary reading books in local languages through the platform. With an intention to share the resources and deliver public service at a better value through KITAB Bazar, the platform was handed over to the private sector in April 2022. Participatory Disaster Risk Assessment (PDRA) The development of a digital platform for participatory disaster risk assessment at household level and vulnerability classification along with a facility to generate household disaster preparedness and response plans (HDPRP) is an innovative initiative undertaken by WVI Nepal under the USAID TAYAR project, implemented at Lamkichuha Municipality-9 in Kailali district in 2021. After effectively deploying the data collection tool (the PDRA mobile application) for survey of more than 1,700 households in the ward, along with data collection of community resources/infrastructure using a team of locally trained enumerators, the PDRA tool was used for vulnerability assessment of households. PDRA is a set of tools which assess the household and community level existing hazards, disaster risks, vulnerability, resources and capacities, and identifies the plans to mitigate, prevent and manage their impacts at household and communities level. Supported by USAID, PDRA works by assessing the household and community level existing hazards, disaster risks, vulnerability, resources, capacities and identifies the plans to mitigate, prevent and manage the disaster’s impacts at household and communities level. Social plastics In Nepal 16 percent of urban waste is plastic, totaling 2.7 tons of daily plastic waste production with Kathmandu alone using around 4.8 million plastic bags as of 2018. Micro plastics have been found in the snow and stream water samples in remote regions of Mt. Everest. WVI Nepal has been exploring the possibilities of reducing plastic waste found in communities, focusing on creating livelihood related opportunities by innovatively co-creating with different stakeholders to create the right value propositions. In the past, WVI Nepal has designed products such as the squat latrine pans and floor tiles,  that were made of a mixture of 60 percent sand and 40 percent PET plastic that were gradually heated up and compressed into a mold to take the shape of the final product. The mold was created to be flat packed for transportation to remote areas. Similarly, with the onset of the covid pandemic, to support WVI Nepal’s covid response, exploration of products ranged from 3D printed bag valve mask (BVM) Ambu Bag mechanical respirators, to phone holders, to mask hooks for children. The initiative has resulted in repurposing waste plastics to produce low cost and durable materials such as thermal insulation for schools and health centers during emergency, and high strength bricks for housing and squat latrines for vulnerable households and communities. These products have proven vital in supporting and providing relief to the most vulnerable communities in Nepal.

Almost a decade ago, a massive flood in the Mahakali river raged against Khalla Maseti village in Kanchanpur district of Nepal. The forthcoming story intends to shed light on the undeterred resiliency of Anjali Bohora, a local resident of the village, whose house was washed away in the flood, making her family homeless overnight.   Anjali Bohora takes a nostalgic trip of the past as she walks in the arid sand washed by the floods. Her house, and nine others in the community were swept in the fury of nature, making the entire community inhabitable. A stark contrast of what the community has become today could be easily imagined when Anjali described her village before the floods.  “The entire stretch of land was painted with little specks of green vegetables that provided livelihood for the families living near the riverbanks”, says Anjali.  But a fateful night turned everything upside down for Anjali as she narrates the entire incident of the flood.  “It was a gloomy afternoon with a small amount of rainfall which was normal for us. During the daytime we didn’t think anything serious would happen. But at night when we were asleep, I heard people crying for help and shouting to save their lives. I immediately took two of my children out of my house and moved to a higher ground. Within hours, our house, farm, and cattle were washed away in the floods, leaving us with nothing”, says Anjali.    After the flood, she started living with her sister, which provided some respite to Anjali.  “For several months after the flood, I was lost. I had several questions in my mind: how I will educate my kids, how I will start earning again. I was also aware that I cannot stay with my sister forever and add up to her financial burden. So, one day, I decided to fight back with my fate. I borrowed some money from local people with the intent of starting a general shop”, says Anjali.  Anjali approached a local temple who let her use their land to construct a shop. Within a month, Anjali was able to set up a modest structure where she started a tea shop. Gradually, she expanded her shop and started providing snacks, lunch, and grocery items. Anjali’s friendly nature started attracting customers, and she started earning a livelihood. She tells us that not only has she repaid all her loans, but she also managed to educate her children.  “My son is currently studying in grade 11 and my daughter has finished her high school and has now started her bachelor’s degree in commerce”, says Anjali. She further adds, “My children mean the world to me. My major concern in life now is to provide good education to my children”.    Having lost her house and cattle in the flood almost a decade back, Anjali has gradually picked herself back and has been the breadwinner of her family. Her husband, who left home looking for a job in India two decades ago, never came back home.  “My husband probably doesn’t even know about the flood and that our children have grown up. I had to go through all of this alone”, says Anjali while standing on the same spot where her house used to be before the flood.  She grabs a water pipe which is the only remaining structure of her house. “This pipe is the only memory I have of my house”, says Anjali who was not able to control her tears while saying these words.  And as she quickly recovers from her tears, she tells us that she does not want the younger generation to go through all the hardships that she has faced. That’s why Anjali is actively involved as a Community Disaster Management Committee member established by Oxfam’s Strengthening Community Preparedness, Rapid Response and Recovery in Asia (SCOPR3) project. “As a member of CDMC my role is to organize coordination meetings with the local ward office to prepare crisis management plans and to inform the government to conduct rescue operations in case of emergency”, says Anjali.   Anjali also received a portable steel container shop as a part of livelihood support from Oxfam’s SCOPR3 project under the recommendation of another Oxfam’s project called TROSA operating in the same village . “My shop right now is just beside the road, and I have made it on someone else’s land. I might have to evacuate this land anytime. With the portable shop, I feel more secure about my livelihood as I can easily transport this kiosk anywhere I want”, says Anjali.  Besides, Anjali was also involved in lobby meetings organized by the members of Women Empowerment Center (WEC) established by Oxfam’s Transboundary Rivers of South Asia (TROSA) project. The lobby meeting was conducted to demand a telecommunication tower to obtain internet services and mobile network connectivity.   “The members of WEC asked me to join a lobby meeting with the local government to establish a telecommunication tower in the village. “I immediately accepted to join the meeting because having a telecommunication tower in the village meant that we could use our phones to communicate information to different communities in case there were floods”. She adds, “If we had a tower back in 2013, we would have received information about floods on time, and I could have salvaged many valuable belongings that I lost in the flood”.  The telecommunication tower has not only helped in easing communication in the village but has also germinated a new form of online services as internet connectivity has been established in the village. As Anjali serves lunch to her customers in her shop, many visitors from the village greet her with respect. Most people in the village consider Anjali to be like an elder sister as they look up to her when they are in trouble.  And as she reflects back on her own life and the people who helped her during difficult times, she says, “It’s important to help each other out when times are difficult, because we all are vulnerable when we are alone, but when we are together, no one can break our spirit”.

Tribhuvan University (TU), the oldest and largest in the country, is again in the limelight for the wrong reasons. Excessive politics is destabilizing the institution all over again as it continues to be used by political parties to push their partisan interests. On August 29, the main opposition CPN-UML flagged this issue in the parliament, prompting speaker Agni Prasad Sapkota to ask the government to take measures to resolve the chronic problem. In the past three years, different student unions have padlocked TU offices for a total of 300 days. This time, it is the Nepal Student Union (NSU), a student wing of ruling Nepali Congress (NC), which is into the dirty act. Two years ago, NSU cadres had thrashed Assistant Professor Prem Chalaune. A case has been filed at Kathmandu District Court against those involved but the coalition government is trying to withdraw the case. Concerns over the security of TU teachers, who continue to face various threats, are growing. Clearly, university classes cannot be run in an atmosphere of insecurity. All political parties and student unions are equally responsible for the current state. Excessive politics is weakening the institution, degrading the equality of education, and boosting corruption. It is not only the unions; whichever party comes to power, they routinely interfere in the university’s functioning. For far too long, student unions have behaved like a law unto themselves, often with robust backing of their mother parties. Top political leaders cultivate them largely to be used to heat up the street during political protests or to hound their opposition. The student unions have little interest in actually helping improve the quality of education. The government should take immediate measures to resolve the ongoing problems and ensure complete security inside the university. Unions should in all cases be barred from disruptive activities like padlocking university offices, and their members must be punished when they threaten teachers and administrators. The unions should be helping with the university’s development as a learning environment for teachers and students alike. If not, they can be done away with.

Sharmila Lama, 39 lives in Manikhel, Mahankal Rural Municipality, which lies in Southern Lalitpur. She lives with her daughter, now 18 years old, who is her only child. She lost both her parents and her two brothers in a devastating landslide when she was just 11. She moved to Lalitpur after getting married. Her husband left for foreign employment soon after her marriage, when her daughter was just six months old. Tragically, her husband went missing just three months after leaving for Malaysia and she never heard back from him. All she was left with was a huge loan taken for her husband, and an infant to feed and take care of. All this with no income was indeed unimaginably challenging for Sharmila. Sharmila started to work as a housemaid in Kathmandu which did not provide her with enough money to look after herself and her daughter. Then she decided to move to Kuwait for employment, leaving her young daughter with her relatives. “Leaving my daughter back in Nepal was the hardest decision of my life, but I had no choice!”, says Sharmila. She further adds, “On top of that, life in Kuwait was not easy at all. The work was extremely difficult, and I could not save enough money, despite the hardship. After six years in Kuwait, I realized that it is better to do something for a living in my own country. I also realized that it is better to become a merchant than serving other merchants abroad”. She returned from Kuwait, determined to do something on her own, but things were not so easy. She started small-scale vegetable farming but that was not at all enough to handle her family expenses.  She struggled for years just to live hand-to-mouth until one day back in 2017, a field staff of FWEAN, FCA’s implementing partner NGO, visited her and informed about the ongoing FCA project that supports women like Sharmila to establish their businesses. She showed interest and chose to start a bamboo handicraft business. At first, she received 28-day “Start and Improve Your Business” training for bamboo handicraft production. Soon after completion of the training, she started making bamboo products like baskets and cup holders from her newly gained skill. Later, she also received a 22-day refresher training to further enhance her skills. The project staff facilitated for her to become a member of a FCA established and supported women’s Cooperative from which she could access a loan of Rs 200,000 for her initial investment to buy raw materials and tools. The support from FCA was not just limited to this. Like thousands of other women in Nepal, FCA linked Sharmila to the market and buyers from different places. This was done by selling her products from a product outlet in Chapagaun, Lalitpur, established and run with FCA’s support. She has also sold her products and found long-term buyers in business expos organized by FCA’s partner FWEAN. These expos are organized each year at local as well as national levels. Her products were also sold in a virtual expo conducted online during the pandemic. Her products can also be bought from winbiz.com.np, an online business portal run by FWEAN.  Sharmila makes 19 different types of products now, which include food baskets, cloth racks, laundry baskets and so on. After fully paying back her loan, she took another loan of Rs 700,000 which she is paying back as monthly installments without any problems. Her products are in high demand now, especially after she was linked with new regular buyers in the trade expo. Now she plans to train and hire some women to work for her, as it is now getting difficult to meet demands from her buyers. As a backup support, Sharmila also started to do some small-scale commercial farming of asparagus and tomato; she has received commercial farming training and tomato tunnel support from FCA’s ongoing project.  Sharmila’s livelihood has drastically improved in the past years. She was able to construct her own house in 2021; her daughter Rupa is studying bachelor’s degree in Computer Science in Chapagaun and is working part-time as a salesperson in the product outlet established with FCA’s support. She receives a monthly stipend of Rs 10,000 which she utilizes as her pocket money.  Sharmila told FCA staff members during her household visit, “I cannot even explain how much my life has changed in the past few years. FCA, Women’s bank of Finland and FWEAN are like my mothers, who gave me a new life and a reason to live. I can never thank you enough. Who does all these things? I mean, right from giving training, providing an opportunity to take loans, supporting for starting a business, making connections to the market. If possible, please pass my sincere thanks to everyone who is behind providing support to women like me”. FCA has been working in Southern Lalitpur since 2009. The projects are funded by Women’s Bank of Finland and implemented by NGO partners SOLVE Nepal and FWEAN. SOLVE does all the work related to cooperatives and women’s social empowerment, while FWEAN supports women for entrepreneurship development and marketing. There are 12 women-led and owned cooperatives running in Lalitpur with FCA’s support (29 in Nepal). The support includes right from the establishment, building construction, operational and financial capacity building, capacity building of executive members, support in procuring essential assets, and providing grants for various initiatives of women, for instance, Local Women Economic Development (LWED) project for women’s skill enhancement and establishment of their own enterprise. There are currently over 4,500 women directly affiliated with FCA supported cooperatives in Lalitpur who are making regular savings and accessing loans for doing their own business. FCA has also been supporting social empowerment of women and facilitating their participation in development processes. 19 women who are members of FCA-supported cooperatives are recently elected and now serving as municipal and ward level representatives in Lalitpur. 

Of the total students enrolled in Grade 1 almost ten years ago (i.e., in the school year 2008), only 58.4 percent of students reached Grade 10. This illustrates that nearly 41.6 percent of children either repeated or dropped out without completing secondary education. In other words, only One child out of every Two children enrolled in Grade 1 reached up to Grade 10. 459,275 students appeared in the SEE in 2075 BS, 325,330 of them were from public schools. In the same year, around 41 percent of private school students had A/A+ Grades while only about four percent of public school students had A/A+ Grades. Despite the higher enrollment rate, Public schools have been able to produce only one academically sound student for every 10 similar students out of Private schools. Free public education is the only option for the majority of these children who come from lower economic status. Without a quality education, children cannot access better life opportunities and are forced into low paid jobs, unsafe working conditions in foreign countries and get caught in the vicious cycle of poverty. Also, failure to access quality education limits their power and choices in making reproductive decisions, securing financial independence, ensuring personal safety and exercising their fundamental rights and voices.  Teach For Nepal works toward the day when every child in Nepal attains an excellent and equitable education. TFN annually finds and nurtures leaders who commit to expanding opportunity for under-resourced school students in rural Nepal, beginning with at least two years teaching Fellowship in a public school. Teach For Nepal Fellowship is an opportunity for brightest and most promising Nepali youths, who have graduated from best universities and workplace from Nepal and abroad, to serve as full-time teachers. Annually 100s of outstanding graduates apply for the Fellowship of which, only 7-10 percent of applicants are eligible to become a Fellow and enroll onto the program from a range of diverse academic backgrounds. Through two years of teaching and working with key education stakeholders, Teach For Nepal Fellows are exposed to the grassroots realities of Nepal’s education system and cultivate the knowledge, skills, and mindsets needed to attain positions of leadership in and beyond education, working collectively to build a vibrant movement for educational equity across Nepal.  As of today, Teach For Nepal has 68 Fellows directly serving 6000 public school students in six districts. Similarly, the TFN Alumni has a community of 375 members of which more than 60 percent continue to work in the education sector or the larger development sector post their Fellowship. Every year around 60-70 outstanding graduates join TFN with a mission to drive change through TFN which was founded in 2012, as a social enterprise that works to improve quality education in public schools of the country.  Transforming the nation, one classroom at a time For many children, the Fellows are their first encounter with an engineer. It is the first they see a woman with a bachelor’s degree in sciences. And the first time they meet either somebody visually impaired, or a Dalit, with a bachelor’s degree. Living and working in the community as teachers in public schools, Fellows embark upon a leadership journey that roots them within the contextual reality.  At the same time, through training, workshops, and conferences, Fellows deepen their understanding of the larger contexts that impact national and international policy and programs. In two years, Fellows make a significant impact in raising classroom achievement and influence the community towards positive change. Greater access to national and global opportunities for higher studies Fellows help students secure scholarship opportunities to pursue higher education in both local and global schools. To date, six female students have received prestigious scholarships for IB education at United World College, a network of international high schools, in Germany and India. Some are now pursuing fully subsidized university degrees, including in the United States. Over 30 other students are on scholarships studying in some of the best private colleges in Kathmandu.