Aid agencies resume key project

Aid agencies are to resume one of Nepal’s most successful poverty-alleviation projects, which was suspended in May in protest against assaults on female staff by Maoist rebels. The worst case seen at the Rural Community Infrastructure Works (RCIW) project, located in Kalikot district, nearly 700 northwest of the capital, Kathmandu, was that of Debkala Acharya. She was seriously injured in February after she was badly beaten by the insurgents, who have been waging an armed campaign against the state for the last nine years and control most of the rural Nepal, including Kalikot. In response, the project’s donors, the German Development Agency (GTZ), the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID), the Dutch Cooperation Agency (SNV) and the United Nation’s World Food Programme (WFP) called for a suspension until they obtained a formal apology and serious commitment from the Maoists to assure security of the staff. The aid agencies have assured IRIN that the Maoists have apologised and guaranteed the total security of RCIW staff. “We have received assurances from the Maoists that they will abide by the Basic Operating Guidelines (BOGs),” said DFID’s deputy head of operations in Nepal, Robert Smith. The BOGs provide a framework of good practice for development programmes and state that the agencies have the right to suspend or terminate their programmes in the absence of a safe working environment. Aid agencies are hopeful that the Maoists will keep their word and are expecting to start work in a couple of weeks - after Nepal’s most significant Hindu festival. The suspension of the programme means road construction work is now far behind schedule. Many of those local people who were dependent on the RCIW for work have been forced to leave their villages to find alternative sources of income. Based in the country’s poorest districts, RCIW helps to improve the livelihood of families through its food for road construction scheme. Nearly 100,000 villagers benefit from the project in Kalikot, regarded as one of the country’s most impoverished districts where insufficient food leads to widespread malnutrition and high mortality levels. “The news of the project resumption’s has already made the beneficiaries in the villages very happy,” said JP Demargerie, deputy country director of WFP. Observers say the apology by the Maoists is part of a bridge-building exercise by the group, linked to their unilateral ceasefire announced on 3 September. But aid agencies said they would still continue to monitor the security situation in the districts where RCIW projects are based. “We are happy to resume our work, but the safety of our personnel remains centrally important,” explained Smith.