Nepal Human Development Report 2004

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Nepal Human Development Report 2004

• Empowerment for Poverty Reduction

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Chapter 1Overview Introduction
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Working Definition of Empowerment

• Empowerment builds peoples capacity to gain
  understanding and control over personal, social,
  economic and political forces to act individually
  as well as collectively to make choices about the
  way they want to be and do things in their best
  interest to improve their life situation.

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Purpose

• Influence politicians, policymakers, development
  practitioner and implementers that empowerment is
  the strategic approach for social transformation
  to effectively address exclusion, poverty,
  conflict and sustainable HD

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Main Message of the Report

• Empowerment is the most inclusive approach to
  development to address the persistence of poverty
  and existing inequalities and discrimination in
  society fueling the ongoing conflict in Nepal.
• Existing structures both state and non-state -
  have failed to create an inclusive and enabling
  environment leading to low levels of empowerment
  for the majority of the countrys citizens.

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Enabling Environment

• Enabling environment for empowerment can be
  created by
  
• Removing policy and institutional barriers and
  promoting good governance
  
• Enhancing capabilities by expanding equitable
  access to and control over resources and
  decision-making processes
  
• Making voices of the poor and marginalized
  people heard through Social Mobilization
  

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Chapter 2State of Human Development and
Empowerment Indices and Measures
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Construction of Human Empowerment Index

• Constructed by pulling together objective social,
  economic and political indicators available at
  the district level.
  
• Takes a holistic perspective to measure the
  empowerment level of all human beings in the same
  spirit of HDI rooted in capability approach
  
• Provides a tool for identifying pockets of
  concentrated poverty and disempowerment at
  geographic levels
  

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Social Empowerment Index (12 variables)

• Education
• Adult literacy (15 )
• Child literacy (6 14)
• Health
• Infant mortality (number/1000 live birth)
• Malnourished children under 5 ()
• People expected to survive but die before 40 ()
• Population with access to safe water ()
• Population with access to sanitation/toilet ()
• Information Communication Media
• Household population with radio
• Household population with television
• Household population with telephone
• Social Mobilization Outreach
• Household membership in social organizations

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Economic Empowerment Index (8 variables)

• Land based
• Landless households as of farm households
• Gini corrected average size of land holding
• Economic Infrastructure
• Electrified Households
• Credit
• Households with access to institutional credit
  Average size of credit (Rs.)
  
• Employment
• Labour force employed in non agricultural sector
  
  
• Usually unemployed
• Income
• Per capita GDP ( PPP)

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Political Empowerment Index (2 variables)

• Voter Turnout in the Last National Election
• Contested Candidates per Seat in the Local
  Election
  

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Key Results

• Overall level of empowerment is low with wide
  disparities across districts
  
• Level of economic empowerment lower than social
  empowerment in most districts
  
• Political empowerment is relatively high
• Multiple disempowerment and mismatch prevail
• HEI is lower than HDI especially at the lower end
  of development where human poverty is high
  

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Chapter 3Political, Economic and Socio-Cultural
Empowerment
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Main Messages

• Political Empowerment
• Freedom and participatory democracy are the
  building blocks for empowerment.
  
• But in Nepal the existing democratic processes
  have been unable to ensure participation and
  representation of majority of people in
  decision-making processes at various levels.
• There is a lack of an adequate framework to
  ensure and enhance an accountable system, which
  has triggered authoritarian tendency in the state
  apparatus.
• Excessive politicization of state
  institutions/constitutional bodies and emergence
  of client and patronage system have further
  weakened the institutions.

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Main Messages

• Economic Empowerment
• Macroeconomic policies have been primarily urban
  biased and pro-rich leading to further
  marginalization of the poor and disadvantaged.
  
• Socio-Cultural Empowerment
• Persistence of socio-cultural discrimination,
  exclusionary institutions at all levels and weak
  enforcement of rules and regulations continue to
  remain major obstacles for socio-cultural
  empowerment.

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Chapter 4Empowerment of Disadvantaged and
Marginalized Groups
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Message

• Women, indigenous peoples, Dalits, people with
  disabilities, children and senior citizens face
  discrimination, subordination and exclusion in
  the socio-cultural, economic and political
  arenas.

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Why?

• Poor implementation of the existing
  constitutional provisions and laws, policies and
  programmes.
  
• Low levels of awareness and participation at all
  levels.
  
• Lack of capacity to raise collective voice.
• Low coverage of interventions.

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How?

• Strict enforcement of the constitutional
  provisions and laws
  
• Effective implementation of policies and
  programmes
  
• Social Mobilization for institutional capacity
  building to raise collective voice to enforce
  public accountability
  
• Building partnership for up-scaling the SM
  process using
  
• Exclusive approach (Intermediate)
• Holistic approach (Long term)

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Chapter 5Empowerment through Social
Mobilization Lessons from the Ground
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Message

• Accountable Social Mobilization is the most
  effective tool and process for breaking the
  culture of silence and culture of dependence.
  
• Without creative participation of the State,
  donors and civil society for collective actions
  SM cannot succeed.
  
• SM processes in Nepal have some successes but
  many failures.
  

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Why it has been successful?

• SM with common interest groups have been
  successful where
  
• Stakeholders included and involved in
  decision-making process
  
• A collective agenda on common issues developed
• Participatory approach adopted

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Why it is not working?

• Stakeholders not maintaining the legitimacy of
  the excluded people
  
• Sustainability, partnership and withdrawal
  strategies missing
  
• Weak coordination and integration
• Collective actions over common agenda missing

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SM can be effective, if

• Broad based national SM frameworks with active
  participation of all the stakeholders is
  developed
  
• Sustainability, equity, partnership and
  withdrawal strategies are developed through a
  long term vision and systematic planning exercise
  in SM processes
• The functional vertical links between local and
  national like-minded organizations and
  horizontal links between governments, donors,
  civil society and the people from grass roots to
  national levels are built
• A strong efficient monitoring system is in place
  for producing effective results

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Chapter 6Understanding the Dynamics of Conflict
in Nepal
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Messages

• Multiple causes, both structural and triggers,
  have exacerbated conflict and led to crisis
  
• Mismatch between economic, political and social
  empowerment contributed to escalation of
  conflict
  
• Development interventions so far not responsive
  to address conflict
  
• Nepalese conflict has brought tremendous
  opportunities for state restructuring and social
  change

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Multiple causes exacerbated conflict

• Why and how
• Exclusionary practices
• Discrimination and disparities
• Livelihood insecurities
• Malgovernance
• Denial psyche

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Empowerment mismatch

• Raised awareness and unfulfilled expectations led
  to frustration
  
• Multiple marginality fueled frustration
• Social, economic and political empowerment
  fulfils expectations of people
  

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Development interventions not responsive

• Not reached the poor and the most needy
• Filtering mechanisms exclude poor and
  marginalized people
  
• Centralized process and donor driven agenda
• Geographical disparity and exclusion

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Conflict brings opportunities for

• Political reform
• Constitutional and legal reform
• Social inclusion and development action
• Through
• Dialogue, negotiation and agreement with
  immediate, medium and long term agenda for
  political, constitutional and social reform

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How to address

• Multiple marginalities
• Focused policy responses
• Strengthening institutional capabilities
• Accountability
• Mismatch
• Promoting entitlement
• Participation of poor in decision making process
• Development failure
• Conducive policy
• Responsive institutions
• Monitoring and accountability