South and South East Asia

This paper grows from the meeting between IA and the Donor Group on 23rd November 2006 on how to respond effectively and appropriately in the changed political context in Nepal. Drawing on the comments and analysis at the meeting, this paper offers recommendations on priorities for donor engagement. The basic theme is that short-term goals can be achieved, but only if addressing the culture of power in Nepal is the starting point.

Briefing paper

Over the past 50 years, Nepal has received over USD11 billion in foreign aid.Today, almost 50 bilateral and multilateral donor agencies and more than 100 INGOs regularly provide aid to Nepal. International aid accounts for the majority of the national development budget whereby Nepal is dependent on aid (loans and grants) for basic service delivery, social and economic infrastructure development.Nepal remains, however, one of the poorest countries in South Asia, with over one quarter of the population under the poverty line and huge swathes of the country food-poor.

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International Alert (hereafter Alert) and Friends for Peace (FFP) began focusing on community security in mid-2006 in an effort to understand and address community security as a conflict prevention measure in support of sustainable conditions for peace and development.

Full report

One key weakness of the current peace process in Nepal is the failure to address diverse and complex security needs at the local level, while focusing instead on the issues of national security over community security, and physical security over human security. The peace process has therefore failed to address a fundamental underlying cause of the conflict - the ingrained culture of exclusivity that characterises every arena of public life in Nepal and which perpetuates the insecurity of many vulnerable and marginalised groups.

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Until a decade ago, India was regarded largely as a poor developing country with low visibility on the global political and economic front. A multitude of factors, most prominently its emerging global economic strength, have led India not only to redefine its self-image but also to adopt a new political role both internationally and within its immediate neighbourhood.

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This paper aims to summarise the key community security concerns and issues that were voiced by youth and student groups in consultations carried out in Sunsari and Morang districts between the 25th September and the 5th November 2007. Voluntary ‘Youth Steering Committees’, comprising active and knowledgeable youth stakeholders, have played a key role as representatives for their district and in steering the project process. Local level interactions were then held in order to understand the particular issues facing rural youth.

English - Youth Speak out on Community Security in the Eastern Terai

Nepali - Youth Speak out on Community Security in the Eastern Terai

The failure of Nepal's nascent peace process to address the diverse peace needs of marginalized and excluded communities at the grassroots level threatens to undermine possibilities for long-term sustainable peace in the country. Nepalese society has long been characterized by multiple forms of exclusion, divided along fault lines of, inter alia, ethnicity, caste, gender and economic status. Exclusion, in its multifarious forms, is widely recognized to be a major contributing factor to the past decade of conflict in Nepal.

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Climate change is upon us and its physical effects have started to unfold. That is the broad scientific consensus expressed in the Fourth Assessment Review of the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change. This report takes this finding as its starting point and looks at the social and human consequences that are likely to ensue – particularly the risks of conflict and instability.

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Between September 2007 and January 2008 International Alert and Friends for Peace conducted a research and dialogue process with affected youth in Sunsari and Morang. The overarching aim of this project is to strengthen youth voices on community security needs and perspectives across different identity lines in the eastern Terai. The aim of this paper is to outline the key community security concerns voiced by young people in Morang and Sunsari districts and reflect these voices up to policy and decision makers at the national level.

Briefing paper

This report reflects some of the perspectives and lessons learned from the Philippine-Nepal Exchange on the Peace Aspects of Constitution-making that took place in Kathmandu in August 2008. The report includes pertinent lessons from the Philippines experience of constitution-making from the perspectives of a Filipino peace practitioner, who served as a member of the Constitutional Commission that drafted the 1987 Philippines Constitution.

Full report

The accessible and accountable provision of security and justice is a key requirement for ensuring sustainable peace and economic and social development. In Nepal, there is an urgent need to address issues related to security provision and the security sector as part of the ongoing peace process. Success in security sector reform (SSR) is vital in ensuring the improvements to governance, without which further violent conflict in Nepal is likely.

Breifing paper

The Global Monitoring Checklist is a pilot research project designed to contribute towards international understanding on women, peace and security efforts. It highlights relevant activities at the local and national level by women, civil society, national governments and the international community. It is not a comprehensive survey of all initiatives relating to women, peace and security; rather, it is a first step in gathering and collating information that links directly to UNSCR 1325 implementation.

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This series of four country case studies explores the ways in which the economic causes, drivers and impacts of conflict have been tackled in different ways in a number of conflict-affected countries where Alert works. The aim is to encourage cross-country learning, and inform what has become a vibrant international debate in the last few years on how to adapt economic development interventions to conflict contexts, to make them conflict-sensitive, and able to support longer-term peacebuilding.

Full report

This series of four country case studies explores the ways in which the economic causes, drivers and impacts of conflict have been tackled in different ways in a number of conflict-affected countries where Alert works. The aim is to encourage cross-country learning, and inform what has become a vibrant international debate in the last few years on how to adapt economic development interventions to conflict contexts, to make them conflict-sensitive, and able to support longer-term peacebuilding.

Full report

The ‘Snapshot’ briefings are part of a longer-term initiative by International Alert to help address the current gaps in knowledge and understanding between those actors at the district level and those in Kathmandu. Each briefing aims to outline current security and justice needs and challenges in a particular district, and advance constructive recommendations for ways in which national and international actors could address these challenges. The briefings are based on research undertaken as part of Alert’s work for the Initiative for Peacebuilding project.

Briefing paper