Building Democracy in Nepal

July 27, 2007—After more than a decade of conflict, Nepal’s government took historic steps toward democracy by adopting an interim constitution earlier this year and establishing a transitional parliament to involve more parties in the decision-making process.

Nepal’s post-conflict process provides an opportunity to advance women’s leadership, foster democratic culture and create new policy frameworks, governing structures and institutions that support women and their families.

CEDPA/Nepal is working to advance the leadership and advocacy skills of Nepalese women to ensure that they can shape and lead post-conflict efforts.

More than 20 young women joined CEDPA/Nepal from July 22-25 for a workshop on What to Expect in Peace and Transition. The workshop outlined the political processes that occur after conflict has ended, and ways women can engage in these processes to advance women's leadership.

Participants represented community organizations that advance women’s lives, but had not directly engaged in peace building or post-conflict efforts.

Participants from across Nepal came to the workshop to explore ways to take advantage of political opportunities to improve women's lives post-conflict.

“It is vital that women take advantage of the window of opportunity that occurs post conflict,” said Rebecca Sewall, CEDPA’s senior technical advisor of democracy and governance. “Women must make sure that the constitutional drafting process includes women and that the new constitution protects and promotes their rights - if not, they may never get another chance to change the constitution.”

The young women leaders left the workshop with increased self-confidence and heightened awareness of their own leadership styles and advocacy skills; tools for improved program design in democracy and governance; linkages with donors, networks, partners and CEDPA staff and alumni; and more effective communication and fundraising skills.

Find out more about CEDPA’s work in Nepal.

  What is RSS?