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Of 753 local governments in Nepal, only 18 have women municipal heads. The constitution mandates that political parties field one male and one female candidate for the top two positions in local governments. But most women got to contest only the post of deputies. In other words, political parties continue to prefer male candidates in the main executive posts. Pratik Ghimire of ApEx talked to Prabha Baral, Mayor of Rapti Municipality, Chitwan, about her experience of leading a local government and women’s overall representation at the local level.

How do you evaluate your five years as mayor?

As we were working under a new political setup, a large part of the past five years was spent on building the foundation for smooth functioning of our local government. We constructed buildings for municipal and ward offices and passed some municipal laws to begin with. We also set up health posts in every ward and rebuilt schools and homes damaged in the 2015 earthquakes.

As our municipality is surrounded by the Rapti River and the Chitwan National Park, a considerable amount of time and effort was also spent to prevent monsoon floods and wildlife incursion into human settlements. We built an embankment along Rapti to stop river-water from spilling over during the rainy season and destroying crops and properties. We also erected a concrete fence along the areas bordering Chitwan National Park to limit human-wildlife conflict. Then there is the problem of landslides in parts of the municipality that fall in the hilly region. We are trying to address this through an afforestation campaign.           

So overall, the past five years were productive. I think our work proved the worth of local bodies.

Did you experience any challenges as a female mayor?

Personally, I did not face any challenges or difficulties while executing my work. But there were some times when I felt that my judgments and decisions were being questioned just because I was a woman. Other than that, my experience of leading the municipality was good.

How was women’s participation in your municipality?

It was pretty good because our municipality provided different skill-based training to almost 700 women in these five years. These training sessions helped them to get jobs and start small-scale businesses.

Many women now feel empowered. They can speak in front of the mass, participate in municipal programs and raise questions before officials.

The municipality also formed a welfare committee comprising women leaders from all political parties to provide various platforms and opportunities to local women. As part of the women's welfare program, we also made sure that the construction projects under the municipality were primarily led by women. 

Why do you think the country has only a handful of women mayors?

We have tried to create an environment where men and women get equal opportunities through our constitution. Nepal is on the path of change, which doesn’t happen overnight. We only have 18 women municipal heads right now, but I am certain this number will rise.

A few women including myself were given the opportunity to lead our respective areas, and I believe all of us executed our roles well.

Our work helped break the stereotypes that hindered many women from reaching leadership positions.

Do you have any suggestions for political parties to increase women’s participation in local bodies?

Just give us a chance. Then you will see women are as smart and competent as men. I believe the current crop of women municipal heads is more progressive compared to male municipal heads.

Erik Solheim is a well-known global leader on environment and development. He served as Norwegian Minister of Environment and International Development from 2005-12. During his tenure he initiated the global program for the conservation of rainforests and introduced game-changing national legislation—among them the Biodiversity Act and legislation to protect Oslo city forests. He also increased Norwegian development assistance to one percent, the highest in the world.

Solheim has been chair of the OECD Development Assistance Committee (the main body of world donors) as well as Executive Director of UN Environment. He led the peace efforts in Sri Lanka as the main negotiator of the peace process and played a vital role in peace efforts in Nepal, Myanmar, and Sudan. Currently, he is senior adviser at World Resources Institute and President of the Belt and Road Green Development Institute in Beijing. ApEX talked to him on a range of environment and climate change issues.

How do you assess current global efforts to limit the rise of global temperature below 1.5 C?

Avoiding temperature rise of above 1.5 C is a huge challenge for humanity. We need to stick together as one family. For the first time the world is now moving in the right direction. China is the world leader in nearly all green technologies, the EU has embarked upon the green new deal, US President Biden has made the most environment-friendly budget proposal in the country’s history and Indian Prime Minister Modi is investing heavily in solar power and green hydrogen. The train has started rolling, but we need to speed up and increase the urgency.

Developing countries are scaling up the use of fossil fuels. What are the voluntary ways to scale back their use?

Many developing countries are fortunately in the process of abandoning the old development model. They understand we have win-win opportunities now. Solar is cheaper than coal everywhere in the world so the shift to solar is good both for ecology and economy. China is producing 80 percent of all solar panels in the world; 99 percent of all electric buses are running on Chinese roads. India is home to the world´s first all-solar rail station in Assam and all-solar airport in Kerala.

How do you evaluate the outcome of the COP26 Summit for least developed countries like Nepal?

It was crazy when some ministers and activists from the West accused developing countries of causing the climate crisis. Historically, Indian emissions are four percent of American per capita emission; Nepali emissions, even less. The fuel of the green transition is no longer diplomacy, but the political economy. Renewable energy, electric mobility, tree planting, circular economy and zero emission agriculture are now available for developing countries. So Nepal can focus on opportunities rather than problems.

What is your take on persistent reports of fast-melting Himalayan glaciers?

The melting of ice in the Himalayan glaciers is the single-most scary possible outcome of the climate crisis. If the great rivers of Asia, the Ganga, Indus, Mekong, Yangtze and more go dry it will be a catastrophe for hundreds of millions of people.

Developed countries had promised to channel $100 billion a year to less wealthy nations by 2020 to help them adapt to climate change and mitigate further rises in temperature. That promise was broken. Can we trust them to keep any of their promises now?

They can and should. But in the end this is small money. It is a lot more important for poor nations that the US, China and others turn around their domestic economies. Then the green shift becomes affordable for all. Nepal will be able to finance its own green development. The Peoples Bank of China has announced a domestic low carbon facility in the range of $1 trillion. That’s huge and very promising. The Belt and Road Initiative will allow Nepal to benefit from Chinese green investment.

What are your suggestions to the Nepal government on climate change?

Please see the opportunities! Nepal is rich in water resources and can be a hydro superpower. My nation Norway may assist it in this. Nepal has sunshine to power solar plants. Two-, three- and four-wheelers can go electric. Agriculture in the Tarai can learn from Andhra Pradesh and Sikkim in India that have pioneered zero-budget natural farming. Nepal is a fantastic tourist destination, top in the world. There are enormous promises in green tourism.

How do you assess the performance of the Nepal government in international climate forums?

Nepal can step up and take more of a leadership role. Nepal is a nation with any number of friends and no enemies. It can help lead the world into the green revolution both through domestic and global initiatives.

Snow on Nepal’s mountains is melting at an alarming rate yet the world seems to ignore it. What can Nepal do to draw the world’s attention?

I suggest inviting global leaders for study tours to watch with their own eyes.

How do you suggest Annapurna Media Network should press ahead with its new Unity for Sustainability campaign? How can we collaborate with international organizations?

The huge network and great standing of AMN offer a big opportunity to engage the people of Nepal in dialogue on climate issues. Please never be boring, academic or exclusive! We cannot bore or scare people into action. Please bring people on board in a positive campaign for change. We have a triple win opportunity in front of us. We can design policies for Nepal which are good for the wellbeing of people, for economic growth and jobs and at the same time taking better care of nature in this most beautiful of places, called Nepal.

As a Green Ambassador for our campaign, any specific message to Nepal and Nepali politicians on climate change?

Please focus on the positive. How agriculture in Tarai can give better yields to the farmers by going green. How the Nepali valleys can be hubs for hydro and solar energies. How the Himalayas can attract more tourists, but with less impact on vulnerable nature. I am so excited to be a part of this campaign.

The Election Commission recently elected 19 National Assembly members. In this connection, Pratik Ghimire of ApEx talked to Radheshyam Adhikari, outgoing National Assembly member of Nepali Congress, on the assembly’s shortcomings and achievements over the past four years. 

What are the major duties of the National Assembly? 

Besides formulating and passing bills, the National Assembly oversees and instructs the works of the government. It also discusses and sends resolution proposals on national issues, projects of national pride, and issues of public interest. Besides, the assembly examines the delegated powers of universities and other delegated legislative bodies.

How do you evaluate the past four years of the National Assembly? 

The assembly could certainly have performed better. As we have diverse duties, there may have been some shortcomings. But that doesn’t mean we didn’t perform at all. We updated and offered suggestions on many important bills to the lower house. For example, the draft of the Passport Bill sent by the lower house was so regressive that all the power was centered on the government. It was the upper house that made sure that the bill would be universal and accessible to all and updated it accordingly. We also revised the bill to amend the Citizenship Act and the Nepal Special Service Bill on counterintelligence, among others. The controversy surrounding the Guthi Bill was also resolved after the assembly revised its draft. 

So why is the assembly repeatedly accused of underperformance?

There are fewer sessions of the National Assembly, say compared to the House of Representatives sessions. Our sessions are only called when the lower house is active and it has kept us in the shadows. The conflict among the political parties in the lower house has hamstrung the performance of the upper house as well. 

Do we really need the National Assembly? Isn’t the House of Representatives enough? 

It is too soon to debate that. Everything has its time and the National Assembly must be given enough time to perform. If the assembly could not perform as expected, say after the next two elections of the lower house, then this debate could be relevant. For now, we should debate how to bring deserving members to the assembly and work effectively.

We also need the National Assembly to honor the spirit of check and balance. As I mentioned earlier, the upper house has done a lot of work on important bills. The lower house has a tendency of working in a rush. It always forwards bills that are incomplete and full of ambiguities. It is the work of the upper house to address those issues.

Has the National Assembly become a platform for parties to accommodate leaders who fail to get into the lower house? 

I don’t think that is the case. There are many deserving leaders who have made decent contributions to bring political changes in Nepal since the 1990s, and they have not gotten the chance to serve the nation. So bringing them into the National Assembly is only fair. But I do believe that the assembly is a chamber of intellectuals and experts, and that its members must have required skills and qualifications.

Shariful Islam is an Assistant Professor in International Relations at the University of Rajshahi, Bangladesh. He is the author of ‘Fifty Years of Bangladesh-India Relations: Issues, Challenges and Possibilities’ (2021, Pentagon Press, New Delhi) and co-author of ‘Covid-19 Global Pandemic and Aspects of Human Security in South Asia: Implications and Way Forward’ (2020, Pentagon Press, New Delhi). His research interests include foreign policy of Bangladesh, blue economy Diplomacy and economic diplomacy. Kamal Dev Bhattarai spoke to him to solicit his views on how Bangladesh deals with big powers, and particularly China.

Bangladesh occupies an important position geopolitically. How does it deal with big powers?

The location of Bangladesh makes it geo-strategically important for both regional and extra-regional powers. In addition, for many, Bangladesh has become a ‘development miracle’ from an ‘international basket case’. This rising socio-economic status of the country also attracts big powers. In fact, Bangladesh is one of the few countries that maintain warm relations with regional and extra-regional powers. Bangladesh sees big powers—i.e. US, Russia, China, Japan, India—as opportunities to strengthen the existing development and economic partnership.

How is Bangladesh maintaining balanced relations with India and China?

Bangladesh, under the current Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina (2009-present), follows the foreign policy philosophy of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, i.e. ‘friendship to all, malice to none’. Therefore, Bangladesh under Sheikh Hasina views India and China as friends, as development partners. Bangladesh prioritizes economic diplomacy, the well-being of the people in formulating its foreign policy objectives. Therefore, Bangladesh is maintaining warm relations with both India and China, which is beneficial to the people of the country and beyond.

What lessons can Bangladesh offer to other South Asian countries on dealing with China?

In fact, every country’s context, geography, location and other foreign policy parameters are different. So there is no ‘one size fits all’ approach. But Bangladesh is an interesting case to study how it maintains warm relations with both India and China. China and India are two largest trading and development partners of Bangladesh. In this case, the leaders of Bangladesh and their foreign policy philosophy helped develop warm relations with these two Asian giants. The current Prime Minister of Bangladesh is the daughter of Bangabandhu, the founding father of Bangladesh who formulated Bangladesh’s earlier-mentioned foreign policy principle.

Bangabandhu’s foreign policy principle helped Bangladesh emancipate its people from poverty and hunger, and to make it self-reliant. Therefore, Bangabandhu’s emphasis on economic diplomacy has inspired the current prime minister as well. Thus, Bangladesh prioritizes economic diplomacy in its international relations including in its relations with China which helped the country be a ‘development miracle’. In addition, Bangladesh negotiates and calculates well while taking Chinese loans so it does not fall under the so-called ‘debt trap’.

In fact, South Asian countries cannot afford to neglect China. They need to engage China constructively for economic gains, for the welfare and benefits of the people, rather than for the narrowly defined interest of a particular regime. In case of loans from China, South Asian countries including Nepal need to negotiate well for a better deal. The case of Sri Lanka should not be repeated.

Relations with India and China often become a domestic political agenda in South Asian countries. How is it in Bangladesh?

Some previous regimes in Bangladesh, particularly the BNP-Jamaat regime, used India, China for their political purposes. For instance, existing literature suggests that the ‘anti-India’ stand was a common feature in Bangladesh politics during the BNP-Jamaat regime. But after Sheikh Hasina came to power in 2009, Bangladesh deepened its ties with both India and China as the Hasina regime realized the importance of these two countries for the socio-economic uplift of the people of Bangladesh. And consequently, Sheikh Hasina’s ‘friendship to both India and China and malice to none’ policy helped Bangladesh move forward. This is the reason that even though Sino-Indian rivalry has impacted many countries, Bangladesh is not that affected.

How should Nepal deal with emerging China?

I am afraid that I am not an expert on Nepal. But as a foreign policy student, I can say Nepal’s geo-strategic location is very important for big powers including India and China. This location can be used for the country’s socio-economic development. Nepal can study Bangladesh and shape its policies if that suits it, though Nepal’s own context will determine its foreign policy orientation. One thing I want to emphasize is the role of political regimes and visionary leaders, which are essential for Nepal. In the case of Bangladesh, the visionary and patriotic leader Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and later her daughter Sheikh Hasina changed the fate of tens of millions of people in the country, and changed the global status of the country by following peaceful international relations.

Thus the regimes in Nepal need to think about long-term welfare and benefit of the Nepali people while dealing with emerging China. Here it can be reiterated that every country in South Asia including Nepal needs to engage China constructively. The bottom-line is that Nepal needs to maintain a balanced approach with China and India with economic diplomacy as a priority. In this case, the role of the media, academia, and other civil society organizations and people at large becomes necessary.