Title: Nepal Human Development Report 2004
1Nepal Human Development Report 2004
- Empowerment for Poverty Reduction
2Chapter 1Overview Introduction
3Working 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.
4Purpose
- 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
5Main 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.
6Enabling 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
7Chapter 2State of Human Development and
Empowerment Indices and Measures
8Construction 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
9Social 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
10Economic 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)
11Political Empowerment Index (2 variables)
- Voter Turnout in the Last National Election
- Contested Candidates per Seat in the Local
Election
12Key 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
13Chapter 3Political, Economic and Socio-Cultural
Empowerment
14Main 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.
15Main 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.
16Chapter 4Empowerment of Disadvantaged and
Marginalized Groups
17Message
- Women, indigenous peoples, Dalits, people with
disabilities, children and senior citizens face
discrimination, subordination and exclusion in
the socio-cultural, economic and political
arenas.
18Why?
- 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.
19 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)
20Chapter 5Empowerment through Social
Mobilization Lessons from the Ground
21Message
- 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.
22Why 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
23Why 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
24SM 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
25Chapter 6Understanding the Dynamics of Conflict
in Nepal
26Messages
- 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
27Multiple causes exacerbated conflict
- Why and how
- Exclusionary practices
- Discrimination and disparities
- Livelihood insecurities
- Malgovernance
- Denial psyche
28Empowerment mismatch
- Raised awareness and unfulfilled expectations led
to frustration
- Multiple marginality fueled frustration
- Social, economic and political empowerment
fulfils expectations of people
29Development 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
30Conflict 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
31How 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