• Background
• Goal
• Objectives
• Duration of the Project
• Young leadership component
• Accomplished activities
• Need Assessment
• Training
• Upcoming Activities

Background

Karnali region is one of the least developed regions of Nepal. The districts of Karnali present a huge challenge for service delivery and good governance. Besides being among the poorest districts of Nepal in the most remote region, the traditional and feudal mindset of civil society and decades of governance malpractices have hampered local development and poverty reduction. Special initiatives are made by the government and main donor agencies to alleviate overwhelming poverty of these districts but, it has been difficult to achieve tangible impact at the grass root level due to the lack of quality participation of civil society and young leaderships in local bodies. In addition to that the recent return to democratic government in the country has raised people's expectation who now expects to sees governance systems that fully represent them and meet their demand and needs. In this context, a partnership has been formed among SAP-N, Pro Public and SNV-N to implement the project with the purpose of Strengthening Civil Society Organizations for Social and Political Change in select districts of Karnali i.e. Kalilot, Mugu, Humla and Dolpa.

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Participant putting her view at training program, Kalikot	Young Leaders of Kalikot

Goal

To support civil society organizations in rapidly playing a major role for social and political change and ensuring transparency and accountability in decision-making, delivery of services and utilization of public resources.

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Objectives

• To support the emergence of 60 young leaders and their respective organizations And to increase representation and participation of marginalized groups and villages in local governance system, and their access to services and public resources and
• To build capacities of four umbrella pressure groups at the district level to improve transparency and accountability of local bodies and administration towards the population and to promote right-based approach to development.

  In order to achieve these objectives the Project is divided into two components one is Young Leadership and the other is Transparency. SAP-N is implementing the Young Leadership component whereas Pro Public is implementing the Transparency component. SNV N provides advisory services to the project.

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Guest giving his view on the project at Mugu during the orientation program for the stakeholders	Priority ranking during the Need Assessment for the young leaders' capacity building at Mugu

Duration of the Project

The initiative has been designed as a flexible project and short term project (12 to 16 months), where activities and costs have been established per district. Initial plan is to start with four districts in Karnali and expand to the other remaining district when other funds will be available. The four selected districts for pilot implementation are Kalikot, Dolpa, Humla and Mugu where civil society and especially pressure/transparency groups have gained much momentum and are presently very active.

The expected outcomes of the project are

• Young Leadership Component: Improved representation and participation of civil society organizations from marginalized groups and villages, intervening in local affairs, developing new projects for their communities.
• Transparency Component: Increased transparency and accountability in local affairs due to a strong monitoring and follow up carried out by civil society and its organizations.

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Young leadership component

Among the two major components of the project, SAP-N is leading Young Leadership component. For the effective implementation of the project SAP-N has established partnership with organizations working at district level.

Objective: to support the emergence of 15 young leaders and their respective organizations in 4 very remote and destitute districts of Nepal
Expected outcome: improved representation and participation of civil society organizations from marginalized groups and villages, intervening in local affairs, developing new projects for their communities

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Accomplished activities

Partner NGOs selection

Young Leaders Selection

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Need Assessment

To develop a capacity building plan of the young leaders two days need assessment session were organized at Kalikot, Mugu and Humla

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Training

First Session training is accomplished in three districts i.e. at Kalikot, Mugu and Humla. Training was given on the topic Human Right, Good governance and Democracy.

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Upcoming activities

• Joint field mission to Dolpa to select young leaders, orient stakeholders of the district, conduct need assessment and conduct first session training.
• Exposure visit
• Second session training