E-Kantipur

For UNICEF in Nepal , today, Friday 20 November 2009, marks a double milestone — the timeless Convention on the Rights of the Child turns 20 and UNICEF Nepal celebrates 40 memorable years through good times and tough times in the country’s history.

While embodying all the wisdom gleaned from its 40 years of experience in Nepal, UNICEF holds the humble belief that irrespective of how long it has worked towards the survival, protection and development of children, or the achievements it has made thus far, the organisation will retain a youthful enthusiasm in its approach to children’s rights. It will remain flexible to move with Nepal’s many ebbs and flows, and it will keep learning.

UNICEF’s Liaison Office in Nepal was established on 14 August 1968, with just two staff, including Mr Keshab Bhakta Mathema, who recently retired as UNICEF’s Representative in China. The First Representative of UNICEF Nepal and Bhutan was Mr Hal Kuloy, a Norwegian with a passion for the peoples of the Himalaya, who arrived in Nepal in 1972.

Since then, UNICEF has seen Nepal, a country whose people embody tremendous courage and spirit, achieve significant results for its children. The last decade especially, of  the past 40 years in Nepal have been fraught with political instability, conflict, civil unrest, economic downturns, natural disasters and climate change. And each of these factors dramatically affects the country’s most precious resource — the children.

Summing up the extensive work UNICEF has undertaken since its 1968 inception in a few paragraphs presents a difficult task. Each decade marked substantial changes and represented different challenges, approaches and focuses for the organisation in line with the political, economic, environmental and social climate at the time.

In the 1960s, for example, UNICEF was instrumental in promoting education for girls with the establishment of girls’ hostels. The 1970s were a decade in which innovative gravity-fed water systems were implemented, setting a new standard across the world.

UNICEF’s focus shifted to child survival and development in the 1980s, with the roll out of the Expanded Immunisation Programme and the Oral Rehydration Solution campaign — Noon, Chini, Paani (Salt, Sugar, Water), in partnership with the Ministry of Health, which contributed to a reduction of deaths from diarrhoea.

Women’s empowerment marked the 80s through the UNICEF-supported Production Credit for Rural Women programme implemented by the Women’s Development Section at the Ministry of Local Development and in the 90s the Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare. UNICEF worked with numerous community-based women’s organisations to empower people at the grassroots level; Paralegal committees proving highly effective in the mission to address and eradicate violence against women and children.

The 90s were turbulent times for Nepal. The 1990 Jana Andolan movement brought in a multiparty democracy. While 1990 also marked the year the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) was ratified by 189 countries throughout the world, including Nepal, a significant leap forward in the pursuit for children’s rights.

The CRC also paved the way for the 1998 launch of the Decentralised Planning for the Child Program (DPCP), a precursor to the Decentralised Action for Children and Women (DACAW) approach — UNICEF Nepal’s flagship programme.

Nepal witnessed the turn of the millennium against a backdrop of political instability and societal unrest. UNICEF responded by  mobilizing a coalition of partners to promote the concept of “Children as Zones of Peace “ (CZOP) to protect children from the impact of the conflict.

Building further on the CRC through adopting a Rights-based Programming approach, UNICEF supported campaigns with the Ministry of Education such as Welcome-To-School which significantly increased enrolment numbers and Out-of-School programmes for those deprived of mainstream education.

However regardless of the results for children that Nepal has achieved,  there is still much to be done. Many Nepali children still face poverty and discrimination, are vulnerable to malnutrition and  lack protection; child labour, trafficking and child marriage are key child protection issues which require attention. Gender-based violence remains a major concern, as does the unpredictable effect climate change will have on children.

UNICEF’s four decades of work in Nepal has underlined for us that change for children can only be truly realised and maintained through partnerships  and collaboration.  As such UNICEF places considerable emphasis on partnerships with the Government, community groups, sister UN agencies, civil society, donors, I/NGOs, and, first and foremost, children themselves.

In this regard UNICEF has worked in partnership with two major child rights organizations — CZOP and a Consortium of organisations working on child participation —  to bring the voice of the children to the Constituent Assembly through an expert submission on Child Rights. The Fundamental Rights Committee has incorporated most of the expert submission’s recommendations on child rights in their draft concept paper. If these recommendations are accepted, Nepal’s Constitution will be one of the most child-friendly in the world. However the Constitution’s real value will only be proven when its good intentions are converted into real action for all Nepali children.

A better life for every Nepali child  is what we hope will be enshrined  in the new Constitution. So let us work together to build a peaceful and prosperous country for the present and the future of Nepal — our children.  UNICEF Nepal, just forty years young, will be here as long as it is needed, to continue working along with the government, children and people of Nepal to ensure that every girl and boy in Nepal, from the hills of Humla to the plains of Jhapa, will have an opportunity to live his or her dream.

(Author is UNICEF Nepal country office representative)

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