NEPAL
Nepal’s first NAP covered the period 2011-2016. The country has since introduced a second NAP from 2022-2025.
Objectives/Aims of the 2022-2025 NAP:
The latest Nepal NAP has four key pillars:
1. Participation: Equitable, proportional, and meaningful participation of women at all levels of decision-making of the conflict transformation and peace-building process. In addition to ensuring the meaningful participation of women in government institutions, the Second NAP focuses on increasing women’s participation in security, communication, industry, trade, the private sector and various other professional sectors.
2. Protection and Prevention: Protection of women’s and girls’ rights and prevention of the violation of these rights in pre-conflict, during conflict and post-conflict situations.
3. Relief and Recovery: Among all the various measures taken to address the suffering caused by rape and sexual violence against women, girls and children during the conflict, relief and reparation are important. To accomplish this, livelihood and empowerment programmes that focus on long- term rehabilitation will be implemented to respect the dignity of these survivors.
4. Capacity Development, Resource Management and Monitoring and Evaluation: For the successful implementation of the NAP, results-oriented monitoring and evaluation will be conducted and a report on its progress will be made public on a regular basis. During all of these processes, provisions will be made for the participation of victims/ survivors and stakeholders. Under this pillar, resource mobilization and management, the capacity building of agencies responsible for implementation and effective monitoring and structural arrangements have been covered. To accomplish this, the participation of development partners and the private sector will also be sought.
Commentary:
Women and girls in Nepal have been most affected by the long-standing armed confict that took place between the state and the then Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) from 1996-2006, and the transition period after that. Many of those who experienced gender based violence are still suffering from social stigma. The country has yet to implement robust transitional justice mechanisms, and therefore a key part of its response to the WPS agenda has been to create post-conflict truth-telling and prosecutorial processes. Within these, a gender-sensitive approach has been included as one aspect of the broader peace process. While post-conflict reconciliation has been a slow process, Nepal’s NAP has also been positively influenced by the country’s experience with conflict.
Civil Society:
Civil society organizations played an important role in drafting Nepal’s NAPs. In fact, the 2022-2025 NAP states the document is a result of coordination among the Government of Nepal, Province Governments, Local Levels, international development partners, civil society, affected groups, women’s networks and organizations.
Civil society has also been key in the post-conflict peace-building process, and their voices are regarded as an essential and natural component of any effort to gender-mainstream Nepal’s peace-building process. This is especially true in the Relief and Recovery section of the NAP, which recognizes where civil society already has the capacity to respond to the gendered needs of women in conflict.
UN Peacekeeping statistics:
Nepal has been a major contributor to UN peacekeeping personnel. In May 2023 Nepal contributed the following military and police:
Women’s Role in Peacekeeping:
As can be seen from the above table, women were well represented at senior levels of experts, police and staff officers, but less well represented among UN peacekeeping troops.
References:
Nepal WPS National Action Plan 2011-2016: Nepal-NAP-2011-2016.pdf (gnwp.org)
Nepal WPS National Action Plan 2022-2025: Nepal-NAP-202202025.pdf
United Nations Peacekeeping. (May 2023): Troop and police contributors | United Nations Peacekeeping
Contribution of Uniformed Personnel to UN by Country, Mission, and Personnel Type (May 2023): 05-Missions Detailed By Country
