Organizations In Nepal Research Articles

Emerging E-Threats and Data Security Model for Organizations in Nepal

Emerging E-Threats and Data Security Model for Organizations in Nepal

Does International Aid Help Women Peacebuilders in Nepal?

The inclusion and empowerment of women is a primary target or entrance point into post-conflict societies across the Global South, usually pinned from the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security. In Nepal, this has contributed to the belief that a foreign agenda is driving societal change. In this working paper we illustrate the tensions that exist within the operational frameworks of many women’s organizations in Nepal, as directors and staff are torn between public support for the programs that ensure their financial viability, while privately expressing concern that the projects do not take into account local needs, wishes, or realities. Despite the need for resources, some organizations have elected to forego international aid precisely because of the risk that their agendas are subverted by International Non-Governmental Organizations (INGOs) with their own wishes and mandates to ‘help’. We examine how these relationships have influenced public perceptions of the women’s movement in post-conflict Nepal, and how insider/outsider relationships influence the capacity and functionality of women’s organizations in determining domestic agendas for and of social change. Finally, we argue that tensions and complexities between local women’s organizations and international funders have become so negatively perceived in Nepali society that some local organizations choose to forego this massive funding source altogether for fear that it is now counter-productive to positive societal change.

Fighting Human Trafficking Through Transit Monitoring: A Data-Driven Model Developed in Nepal

Transit monitoring is an innovative approach to fighting human trafficking that involves identifying and intercepting potential victims of human trafficking before they are exploited. In doing so, it relies upon established indicators of trafficking, local staff with special training, and data from a customized human-trafficking fusion center. As an anti-trafficking strategy, it provides tangible impact on the dollar, and, by focusing on trafficking as it is occurring, it creates otherwise rare opportunities for engagement. Among these is the opportunity for gathering actionable intelligence on traffickers, which can then be used in proactive investigations. Intervening prior to the exploitation phase of trafficking also presents a number of exceptional challenges from navigating situations with inconclusive evidence to ensuring that interceptions do not infringe upon the human rights of migrants. Transit monitoring has developed as an anti-trafficking strategy through the work of nongovernmental organizations in Nepal, where a unique combination of factors created an urgent need for such an approach. Initial efforts have been made to replicate the model in India and Bangladesh, and there is reason to believe that transit monitoring could be an effective strategy for fighting human trafficking in many other countries as well.

Window-Dressing Objectives of Nepalese Non-Government Organizations: Reasons and Implications

Non-government organizations in Nepal upped their profile significantly during the deepening armed socio-political conflict in Nepal from 1996 to 2006. New non-government organizations came into being at an increasable speed and the established ones expanded their working profile. As stipulated in Nepalese law, the NGOs are supposed to be purely social organization with not-for-profit motive. This study, however, finds out most of the non-government organizations in Nepal are working to meet vested interest, mainly to satisfy livelihood needs of the non-government organization operators. The window-dressing objectives of Nepalese non-government organization workers have manifold forms ranging from seeking employment to satisfying political interests. The Nepalese government is suggested to tighten up the manipulative operations of non-government organizations by implementing rigid monitoring of non-government organizations operations or open up a policy gateway to register non-government organizations with “earn, survive and serve” objectives.Journal of Advanced Academic Research Vol.1(1) 2014: 36-42

A holistic, learning-centred approach to building evaluation capacity in development organizations

There is growing pressure on development organizations to improve their evaluation systems and capacities. This presents considerable challenges for time- and resource-poor organizations in developing countries. Evaluation capacity development (ECD) approaches are needed that are appropriate and effective for such organizations. We argue that this requires a long-term, holistic, participatory, learning-centred approach that aims to develop learning organizations and build the capacity of whole organizations and their stakeholders. It also needs to incorporate local knowledge and ideas and ongoing meta-evaluation of ECD activities. We describe this approach and how it was applied in a four-year action research project with a non-governmental organization in Nepal. Drawing on findings from this project and various follow up activities, we suggest some principles and strategies for designing and implementing an effective and sustainable approach to ECD that can help to address the many challenges and issues we have identified.

Gender, Agrobiodiversity, and Climate Change: A Study of Adaptation Practices in the Nepal Himalayas

Summary Gender is seminal to agrobiodiversity management, and inequities are likely to be exacerbated under a changing climate. Using in-depth interviews with farmers and officials from government and non-government organizations in Nepal, we explore how gender relations are influenced by wider socio-economic changes, and how alterations in gender relations shape responses to climate change. Combining feminist political ecology and critical social-ecological systems thinking, we analyze how gender and adaptation interact as households abandon certain crops, adopt high-yielding varieties and shift to cash crops. We argue that the prevailing development paradigm reinforces inequitable gender structures in agrobiodiversity management, undermining adaptation to the changing climate.

Study of Organizational Crisis Preparedness in Nepal

The research involves studying the trend of Nepalese organizations practicing crisis management. The recurrence of various types of crisis in different organizations of Nepal indicate that many organizations in Nepal do not practice proper crisis management, due to which they have had to bear devastating consequences and are yet vulnerable to many in coming days. To lessen the impacts of both natural and man-made crisis, organizations need to prepare themselves in order to practice crisis management in order to survive the crisis effectively and efficiently. The primary data in this study was gathered by distributing questionnaires to 55 participants who were selected from a simple random sampling procedure.The results obtained from the study indicate that, many of the participants are ill prepared which lead to inappropriate practice of crisis management, and they are facing consequences like; drop in revenue, cutbacks, dilution of their reputation and others.However, most of the organizations do have some amount of fire extinguishers and emergency exit in the building that have been instilled not because of awarenesstowards likely crisis but because doing so is a part of general trend and practice. From this study we can conclude that the organizations in Nepal are very far from making crisis crisis management their priority. Although, no organizations can prepare themselves for all types of crisis in the world, but practicing crisis management definitely will help the organizations to combat common recurring and possible crises their organizations can face depending on the kind of organization.

Is There New Public Health Management (NPM) in Nepal? Arguments for and against NPM in Nepal

This article is a reflection about whether new public management (NPM) styles of reforms seen in other developing countries are also seen in Nepal, and to substantiate these facts with the available evidence and findings. The author saw the emergence of NPM ideas in Western industrialized countries like the United Kingdom and New Zealand. Now it exists in several developing countries of Africa and Asia; but it is very hard to generalize the degree and scope of NPM elements' existence. In Southeast Asia, there is still a mix of the old bureaucratic system with new NPM-oriented reform initiatives. Series of administrative reforms, donor conditionality, and the reestablishment of democracy in the country after 1991 have influenced an orientation toward an efficient, people-oriented, mixed-economy model with increasing partnership of private agencies and nongovernmental organizations in Nepal. The political movement of the last 15 years in the country has strongly called for a new, efficient, and performance-oriented administration and management culture in the country. There are several initiatives already introduced (public–private partnership, decentralization, good governance, accountability/public auditing, performance-based outcome/results-oriented financing and reporting systems). However, to take this momentum up, it still requires strong willingness of political leaders and senior administrators. At the moment, peace and stability of turmoil, political stability, state-of-the-art management skills, and supportive organizational culture are the fundamental requirements for increasing the realization of, and sustaining the NPM-oriented reforms in Nepal.

Sharing Science: Enabling Global Access to the Scientific Literature

Peer-reviewed literature is the formal channel of communication for the scientific community. Through it, scientists convey their discoveries to one another across distance and time. Providing both a broadcast system and an archive, it is pivotal to the collaborative effort that is modern science. Without access to it, a scientist cannot keep up with develop-ments, has nowhere to contribute findings, and is pretty much out of the loop. One traditional problem of access to the literature faced by researchers and academics in developing countries has been the inability of their institutions to afford journal subscriptions, which can run into the thousands of dollars per publication. But things have been changing, with the last 10 years having seen important efforts to make the world’s peer-reviewed scientific journals available to these members of the research community either free or at a much-reduced price. Top-flight open-access journals have also come into being, theoretically making the papers they contain free for all to use. But is purchase price the only obstacle hindering the entry of the developing world’s researchers into international scientific dialogue?

Muslims in Nepal: The Local and Global Dimensions of a Changing Religious Minority

AbstractThe study of South Asian Islam has expanded in recent decades to include communities and traditions on the margins of the political, cultural and religious centers of South Asia. However, only a small body of scholarship yet exists on the topic of Islam and Muslims in Nepal. In this Hindu majority country, the Muslim population is one of diversity and growing national visibility, and it is increasingly looking toward the global umma. This essay provides an overview of the history of Islam in Nepal and Nepal’s Muslim population, followed by a brief review of recent changes in Nepal’s religious and political identity that have created unprecedented opportunities and responsibilities for its minorities, including Muslims. It then reviews the main areas of inquiry undertaken by the few studies on Muslims in Nepal, particularly Muslim identity, Hindu–Muslim conflict, and Islamic revivalism. This is followed by a discussion of contemporary Muslim organizations in Nepal. The essay concludes with thoughts on directions for future research in this rich, but underexplored, area.

Sex Trafficking or Sex Work? Conceptions of Trafficking Among Anti-Trafficking Organizations in Nepal

Trafficking for sexual purposes is widely recognized as a violation of human rights. Trafficking of women and girls within Nepal and from Nepal to India’s red light districts is thought to be extremely common. There is sharp debate within the anti-trafficking community, both within Nepal and globally, about why trafficking occurs and how to prevent it. I argue that this disagreement is rooted in two distinct underlying frameworks employed by anti-trafficking advocates to understand trafficking, which I identify as the “Prostitution Framework” and the “Labour Exploitation Framework.” This article introduces these frameworks and investigates where the anti-trafficking community in Nepal is situated. I find that this community is primarily rooted within the Prostitution Framework, and that this position has implications for how anti-trafficking programming is conducted. Recent changes in Nepal have begun to expose some of the shortcomings of this framework, and I conclude that there are strong reasons that anti-trafficking advocates in Nepal should examine their assumptions, as perhaps programmes situated within the Labour Framework may be more appropriate. More empirical research is required in order to demonstrate whether programming informed by the Labour Exploitation Framework would be more successful at preventing trafficking and limiting the harm that women experience in the sex industry.

Social Capital and its “Downside”: The Impact on Sustainability of Induced Community-Based Organizations in Nepal

Summary This paper examines the role of social capital in the sustainability of induced community-based organizations (CBOs). Quantitative and qualitative data were collected from 14 villages and 129 CBOs in Southern Nepal. This paper argues that social capital can be both positive and negative, affecting collective action and the sustainability of CBOs. Major problems include rule breaking with impunity and elite capture of resources, especially during the transition phase from external to internal management. While external agencies play an important role in inducing and sustaining CBOs, they should also address the complex issue of social capital and its downside.

Fair Trade and Organizational Innovation in Nepal: Lessons from 25 Years of Growth of the Association of Craft Producers (ACP)

The history of the Association of Craft Producers, a fair trade organization in Nepal, illustrates an important point often ignored during research on development organizations: that each will evolve along unique lines, not easily fitting into standard categories of ‘for-profit’ business, ‘non-profit’ organization, ‘charity’ or ‘development non-governmental organization’ used in the literature. Instead, organizational structures, ideas and cultures are constructed by practice as highly contingent processes and based on diverse logics. We argue against the managerialist idea that such organizations can be viewed simply as variants or ‘hybrids’, and we challenge conventional emphases on organizations as unitary structures or systems within an environment in favour of a more interactive, dynamic perspective in which actors in organizations are seen to change the environments in which they are located. Such an approach also provides support to ideas about ‘positive deviance’ as a method of learning that can potentially avoid formulaic thinking.

Success indicators for integrating mental health interventions with community-based rehabilitation projects

Community interventions for people with physical disabilities and for people with mental illness have evolved following similar trajectories, although at different periods of time. This study develops and tests indicators for successful integration of community-based rehabilitation (CBR)-mental health and development (MHD) services. An in-depth study was conducted of two organizations in Sri Lanka and India that successfully integrated CBR and MHD services as well as two organizations in Nepal and Bangladesh, which were planning integration. Interviews and focus groups were used to gather nonconfidential information. The study suggests many benefits of integration and several indicators of readiness: willingness to work with mentally ill people, a basic understanding of the mental health concept and mental illness problems, a match of context and strategy between current CBR activities and proposed MHD activities, stability of basic resources and infrastructure in the organization. A second set of indicators determined the long-term viability of an integrated CBR-MHD approach: ability to strategize and plan a mental health programme, ability to network with stakeholders effectively, ability to make use of resources efficiently. A major finding of the study was the need for training in the practical aspects of integration of mental health interventions with CBR. Tool sets are available that can be used by donors and by local organizations for assessing needs and readiness as well as developing viable strategies for the integration of community-based mental health interventions into existing CBR work.

Peace-Building - A Powerful Deterrent to Conflict

Notions of democracy, human rights, justice and peace have lost its identity and Nepal is facing ever-increasing violence, unrest and conflict. The Maoist insurgency, the royal family massacre, political instability, and the gradual collapse of the economy have been the major setbacks Nepal has faced in the last decade. Failures to contain a nearly decade old insurgency have destroyed infrastructure and resulted in the loss of thousands of lives. In the present situation of aggression and violence reigning in the country, there was a pressing need to make the civil society aware of the urgency in ensuring peace and working towards it. It provided an opportunity to Ashoka Fellow Rita Thapa to initiate citizen-based activities. The year was 2001, when Nagarik Aawaz was born. Earlier, Rita Thapa had conceptualized and spearheaded TEWA, the first indigenous fund raising organization in Nepal. Nagarik Aawaz or 'voice of the citizen', started as an attempt to garner support amongst concerned citizens to combat the dramatic effect the Maoist insurgency was having on the everyday lives of people of Nepal. Nagarik Aawaz started with 5 members who facilitated informal interactions and brain storming between individuals, in borrowed premises on possible ways of conflict resolution and peace building within the country. Today it is a formal registered NGO, having an executive board of 11 people, with programs designed to sensitize and create awareness in conflict resolution and peace-building efforts through networking and advocacy.

Organizational identification and organizational commitment: Distinct aspects of two related concepts

The conceptual differences between organizational commitment and identification are discussed theoretically and examined empirically. The present study is based on data of 450 employees of five different organizations in Nepal. A revised eight‐item scale was designed out of Cheney’s Organizational Identification Questionnaire to assess the core aspects of organizational identification. In confirmatory factor analyses, identification was found to be distinguishable from four related commitment concepts (i.e. affective, continuance, normative, and attitudinal commitment).