Nepal ended more than a decade of internal conflict on 21 November 2006 with the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement. In March 2007, the United Nations Peace Fund for Nepal (UNPFN) was created to complement the Government of Nepal’s Peace Trust Fund and coordinate UN peace building in Nepal. The Peacebuilding Fund (PBF) support to peacebuilding in Nepal is coordinated by the UNPFN Executive Committee and channelled through the UNPFN to which it also served as the start-up contribution. The key features of the UNPFN-PBF arrangement are:
- Delivering focused, time-limited support for urgent peace process and needs in a rapid, flexible and sensitive manner;
- Complementing the Government’s Nepal Peace Trust Fund and other existing mechanisms for peacebuilding by focusing and catalysing only those tasks that cannot be funded or implemented through existing mechanisms;
- Ensuring coherence in governance arrangements common with Nepal Peace Trust Fund governance;
- Encouraging catalytic early investments in some key areas considered inherently risky but critical to a successful peace process;
- Promoting UN coherence with steady progress towards coordination and reform which is essential for transition to “UN Delivering as One”;
PBF Priority Plan and institutional arrangements
Nepal was declared eligible to receive PBF assistance in December 2007. A peacebuilding Priority Plan with a funding envelope of $10 million was approved by PBSO in July 2008 covering the following priority areas:
- i) Strengthening State capacity for sustaining peace,
- ii) Community recovery, and
- iii) Conflict prevention and reconciliation.
For PBF funding the approving body is an Executive Committee, which also serves the UN Peace Fund for Nepal, and is chaired by the Resident Coordinator/Humanitarian Coordinator with three other members representing the Government, former UN Mission in Nepal (UNMIN), and a donor representative. The resultant PBF support projects complement the UN wider peacebuilding efforts in conflict monitoring, elections, mine action; registration/verification process in the Maoist army cantonments, transitional justice, etc. Targeted PBF support has and is being provided through the following interventions:
- Support for the discharge of minors associated with combat ($1.1m)
- Support to female members of the Maoist army ($1.0m);
- Efforts to combat child rights violations (Security Council resolutions 1612 (2005) and 1882 (2009));
- Approved PBF project “Jobs for peace” of $2.7 million will target 12,500 youth at risk for training;
- Support is being provided to fight sexual violence against women through a project of $2.1 million, and
- A reparations support programme $2 million;
- A transitional justice project of $1 million to help develop supportive legislation;
- Assistance to develop the “Truth and Reconciliation Commission” and the “Disappearance” bills.
The Nepalese peace process has made significant progress but challenges still lie ahead in guaranteeing a lasting peace and a flourishing environment for development. An evaluation of the UNPFN and hence of the PBF support to Nepal was conducted in 2011 and confirms this position and highlights the importance of the Fund’s interventions in advancing and sustaining the momentum of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement.
Quarterly reports for each project are available on the MPTF-O Gateway site
