• Good governance

Good governance

This document reports on a conference on “Nepal: looking beyond Kathmandu: challenges and opportunities for peacebuilding from below", held in Brussels in April 2007. The conference aimed to explore the political, diplomatic, economic and social policies in order to achieve just and sustainable peace in Nepal through combined efforts from both national and international actors, including the European Union.

The paper emphasises that, after ten years of Maoist insurgency, Nepal must now face the task of establishing sustainable peace and establishing true democracy. The conflict cost over 13000 lives, and displaced an estimated 200000 people, with devastating effects on people and also causing huge economic, social and cultural damage to the country.

A number of recommendations came out from the conference as next steps. These include:

• EU aid should aim at the eradication of poverty and should, therefore, be focussed on reaching people living in poverty
• the EC should ensure that it has indicators to measure that its aid to Nepal has reached people excluded from development – which is at the root of the conflict
• in the Country Strategy Programme, the EC should ensure that the issue of transitional justice should be addressed and that strategies need to be developed to ensure a more inclusive political process
• the EC should include in its political dialogue with the government of Nepal the issue of resolving the ongoing agitation of the Madhesis and the Janajatis by initiating a meaningful dialogue with the leaders of these ethnic groups.
  

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