COLARP, Nepal
April 2013
1. Evidence Based Policy Debate Series on Land Issues was organized by COLARP on 16th April, 2013 at Direction Exhibition & Convention Center, Kathmandu. Dr. Purna Nepali presented on “Evidence based Policy Debate Series on Land Issues in Nepal”. Dr. Bishnu Raj Upreti, Regional Coordinator, NCCR North-South presented discussion paper on “Political Economy of Land Policy Analysis in Nepal”. Similarly, Dr. Ganesh Gurung, Chair, COLARP and Dr. Fraser Sugden, IWMI jointly presented paper on “Absentee Land Lordism and Land Reform in Tarai-Madhesh: Ongoing Trends and Future Challenges.
2. COLARP in collaboration with its partner organizations National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR) North-South and Nepal Centre for Contemporary Research (NCCR) organized the South Asian level symposium “State of Art in Transnational Pressure on Land (TPL) and Food Security in South Asia” in Kathmandu, Nepal on 8 May, 2013. The objectives of symposium were to understand the state of art in Transnational Pressure on Land (TPL) in South Asia, focusing on actors, interest, and mechanisms of land acquisition; creating the common platform for sharing, reflecting and learning the issue of land acquisition and food security nexus; and documenting the current state of art in TPL. The papers were presented from four countries i.e. from Nepal (3), India (2), Pakistan (1) and Bangladesh (1). As an output, Press Release, Brief Symposium Report and Edited Monograph will be published soon.
From Left to Right: Dr. Devendra Chapagain (Land Expert), Dr. Mahesh Banskota (Dean, School of Arts, Kathmandu University), Dipendra Bdr. Cheetri (Former Vice Chair , National Planning Commission & Former Governor, Nepal Rastra Bank), Keshab Badal (Chairman, National Cooperative Federation Ltd. Nepal & Former Chair , High Level Land Reform Commission), Dr. Ganesh Gurung (Chair, COLARP & Former member, National Planning Commission) and Dr. Bishnu Raj Upreti (Regional coordinator, South Asia Regional Office, NCCR) at Transnational Pressure on Land (TPL) and Food Security in South Asia held on 8 May 2013.
3. Community Forestry is a well-known and demonstrated programme in the field of participatory natural resource management in Nepal. At present, COLARP is conducting a project titled “Documentation of Reflection of Actions for Learning (ReAL) on the Inclusion and Develop resiliency of Dalit for Diversifying their Livelihoods in Local Community Forestry Groups in Nepal” to enhance social equity (Dalit, marginalised caste and gender). COLARP is also working on Community Land Tenure which would be innovative in our context. This work is based on best practice of allocating Community Forest Land (CFL) to poor and marginalised community. Since, agricultural land is scarce, CFL would be alternative to it in land reform discourse.
4. Dr. Purna B Nepali, Executive Director (ED) participated and presented a paper on “Land Right from Below in Nepal and the Key Role of Land Monitoring: Civil Society Perspective in Converging Equity and Efficiency” in World Bank Conference ‘Land and Poverty 2013′ from April 8-11, 2013, at Washington DC, USA.
5. Mr. Kabin Maharjan, Research Officer participated in a regional workshop on “Extraterritorial States Obligations and Access to Natural Resources” organized by FIAN Nepal from 16-19 April 2013 in Kathmandu, Nepal. Six countries (Nepal, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Malaysia) participated in the programme. The major issues discussed were on the issue of growing land acquisition and its extra territorial effects.
6. Ms. Shanti Barma Shkha, Admin and Finance Officer, participated in a program “From Fields to Cities: Labour, Mobility and Social Change in Contemporary Nepal” conducted by Social Science Baha on 25th April 2013. Presenters- Antonio Donini (Tufts University) and Jeevan Sharma (University of Edinburgh) presented their research findings on changing nature of labour exploitation and on migration- external and internal in Nepal.
For further information, and publications, please contact COLARP (contact info)
