Plan International is working in different countries of the Region. How do you find working in Nepal different from other countries?

Every country is different. However, there are also lots of similarities. I think one of the main differences here is in terms of post-conflict situation, which other countries in the Asia region don't have. Other important aspects are in terms of disaster risk reduction and climate change.  I have worked in many countries of Asia and found that Nepal's civil society and government has tremendous capacity that we can engage in our development programmes. Also, this country has higher willingness to work together for improving situation for children.

 

Plan Nepal adheres to 'child-centred community development' (CCCD) approach. How does it work?

The CCCD approach is all about the realisation of rights of children. We put children at the centre of our programmes. We start by analysing the situation of the children, then look at the support provided to them by their caregivers, community and the government. We then move forward to strengthen the environment for securing children rights and to get better support towards that end. The most important aspect of the CCCD approach is participation. Our projects are based on the participation of children, young people, parents and communities. It is not a service-oriented approach but is more about holding joint discussions with children and communities on common issues, reaching consensual course of actions and taking joint action. It is the strongest element of the approach. It is also important to mention that it is right-based approach. For that, we start our work by analysing the root causes of the problems faced by the deprived or excluded groups and how we can assist in addressing those issues. We then link the problem to international human right instruments starting from convention on the rights of child, convention on elimination of discrimination of women and convention on rights of persons with disabilities. We use nine international human right instruments as basis for Plan's mandate that keeps the child rights convention at its centre.  

 

How are the rights of children linked to the community development efforts?

We analyse the situation in context to the access or denial of rights.  A child may be denied with the access to education or health services. In terms of development, there is a very strong role of families, communities as well as that of the government at different levels in actualizing these rights. I think most of the changes happen at family and community levels with the government’s support. It is very important to link the development of communities to socio-economic and other kinds of changes. For instance lack of sanitation can affect the health of a child by communicating waterborne diseases. Active community engagement is essential to address this concern. It can't be done only through government services or through individual household approach. 

 

School dropout rate is quite high in rural areas. How is Plan Nepal working in this regard?

This is a serious issue in Nepal and other countries. A lot of children are dropping out from schools without completing their basic education. We do different things in our education programme. We look into three areas; first one is the access to education. We identify likely cause of dropouts such as the distance to school from a child’s home, especially in the remote areas. To solve this issue, we provide support to communities and work together with the government to build schools in closer distances. Another is the cost of education. Many poor families can't afford the cost of uniforms, supplies and transport to send their children to school. So, we provide support for the needy families to send their children to schools. We also help children with disabilities to get education from special education institutions. 

 

Quality of education is also another factor. Many children dropout of schools because of the poor quality of schooling. Parents may take their children out of the schools due to the absence of teachers, imperfect learning environment and poor education materials. In this regard, we work close with the government to improve the quality of education by providing training to the teachers, upgrading education environment of the schools and providing inclusive education to different groups. 

 

Another major part of our education programme is 'learn without fear.' In this, we work to raise awareness to prevent bullying and violence in the schools, which in many occasion lead to dropout of students. And the final one is the governance of education. As children are more likely to stay in better-managed educational institutions, we support communities in managing schools especially in terms of proper utilisation of available resources, monitoring resource usages and increasing parent’s participation in management and academic activities. 

 

How do you see the relationship between household economic security and ensuring child rights?

These two issues have very close correlation. Even poor families and communities also can do many things to protect child rights. So, it is not about economic situation as we have seen abuse of children or denial of their rights in wealthy families and communities. During the course of our action, we have found that if women are empowered economically (if they have livelihood opportunities and access to loans), they can provide better support to their children. Hence, from our global experience we can say that economical empowerment of women has direct impact on children. For this, we are focusing on economic security programme exclusively for Nepal.

 

How is Plan Nepal helping communities to gain access to microfinance services?

Access to capital is often seen as a constraint in enterprise development and our programmes help them to overcome this problem. Access to loans and financial services enhance the capacity of communities in terms of investments to strengthen their livelihood. Our approach is to form organized saving groups of marginalised and Dalit women. These groups are then brought together under co-operatives. We currently have 83,000 women across Nepal that are involved in organised in self reliant groups and co-operatives. They have access to loans for businesses as well as their household purposes. We also provide business development trainings such as vegetable farming, livestock and other feasible business activities to marginalised women. Similarly, we provide vocational training to older children, who were deprived of formal education, to support their livelihood. 

 

Bonded labour is still one of the major problems in Nepal. It exists not only in village but also in educated communities of urban areas. How can we break the chains of bonded labour?

It is one of the most difficult areas to work in. We have a project on ‘Kamlahari Practice Abolition Project’ that is quite successful in rescuing girls from bonded labour and domestic works through the help of local government authorities and our partners. The project is more important in terms of helping Tharu girls in organising them, taking action and speaking out to government authorities on these issue. We have provided freed girls with various vocational trainings as well. 

 

Even though many efforts have been made to put an end to such exploitation, it still exists in many parts of the country. I think awareness among families and communities is needed to stop the practices of bonded labour.