Dialogue in Pursuit of Development - Are you looking for one of ...

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Nepal
In 1996, IDEA was just beginning to contemplate how to organize its work
and to develop programmes and activities to implement its mandate to “promote
and advance sustainable democracy worldwide” and “to strengthen
and support national capacities to develop democratic instruments”. It had
begun to identify key subject areas for the exploration of its normative
frameworks and was looking for possible opportunities and entry points to
begin developing country-level activities to support its goals for democracy
promotion and development.
It was during this period that Nepal was experiencing considerable political
turmoil and continual power clashes between and within its nascent
political party system. For IDEA, Nepal looked to be a promising setting in
which to develop a democracy support project. It became an early testing
ground on how to conduct a democracy assessment, which would later be
modified and consolidated in the Capacity Building approach.
Key outputs so far of the programme in Nepal include the following: a)
registration and establishment of the Centre for the Study of Democracy
and Good Governance (CSDG); b) A number of studies were conducted
on different issues of relevance; and c) establishment of a loose network of
NGOs working on democracy and good governance. Some of the outcomes
include: a) the Centre was established and started functioning; b) key political
leaders in the country realized the need for an apolitical civil society; c)
policy recommendations on reform of the civil service were forwarded to
the Prime Minister; d) the CSDG started collaborating with other agencies
and Government ministries to provide support services for their programmes
related to communication and consensus-building on various developmental
issues.
Relevance: IDEA has not only brokered financial support for programme
activities, but it was indirectly instrumental in the evolution of an NGO like
the CSDG. The CSDG has however, still to become an effective, selfsustaining
and broadly accepted democracy actor in Nepal. For instance, the
CSDG defines its role as support for institutional development for the
consolidation of democracy. However, the methodology it employs and the
approaches it has developed in the design and implementation of its programme
activities in fact bypass the formal channels and institutions of democracy
to work only with a select leadership from some political parties.
Given the political environment in 1998 when the CSDG formally began
its programme activities, its approach towards national consensus building
and support for the development of a democratic culture among various
institutions, facilitated by IDEA through its methodologies and the provision
of tools and options, was clearly an appropriate intervention.
Sustainability: There are some positive factors which could contribute to
the sustainability of the CSDG and its consensus-building efforts. The first
relates to the structure of the Centre. Despite changes in the membership