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Partnership Actions (PAMS) South Asia
Current PAMS Projects
Meeting the challenges of Peace-building in Tourism in Pokhara – Strengthening the Corporate Social Responsibility and Ethical Business Operation
Start: August 2011
Executing Agency: Pokhara Tourism Council
Partners: Swisspeace
Due to political instability, the tourism industry in Pokhara, Nepal, contends with a very conflict-sensitive environment. This PAMS seeks to strengthen tourism’s potential for peace promotion. The project will involve a local tourism umbrella organisation and individual associations within it. The project’s aim is to formulate guidelines for conflict sensitivity and a code of conduct for ethical business operation. These activities will support holistic development of the local tourism sector and contribute to Nepal’s overall peacebuilding process.
Integrated improvement of urban environmental sanitation services in Nala VDC, Nepal
Duration: February 2011 to present
Executing Agency: CIUD Kathmandu
Partners: Sandec/Eawag
The purpose of this PAMS is to improve sanitation in Nala. Two arrangements will help achieve this goal in an integrated manner. First, a microfinance scheme will help increase sanitation coverage. Second, health and hygiene conditions will be enhanced through social intervention campaigns involving children, women’s groups, and community health volunteers. The project will be conducted in cooperation with local authorities and other local stakeholders.
Completed PAMS Projects
Hemp Production for Livelihood Security in Dhabang and Mirul VDCs of Rolpa District
Duration: February 2010 to June 2011
Executing Agency: Research and Advocacy for Social Transformation (RAST), Kathmandu
Partners: DSGZ
In this project, 30 hemp-producing farmers in Nepal were trained in manufacturing and selling handicraft from hemp. The project aim was to improve farmers’ livelihoods via improved technology and skill-development trainings on cultivation of the cannabis plant as well as production and marketing of hemp products (Bhangro). Collaboration with a local cooperative helped ensure the project’s sustainability.
Research-Based Policy Dialogues and Advocacy for Sustainable Forest Governance in Northwest Pakistan
Duration: February 2010 to June 2011
Executing Agency: Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI), Islamabad
Partners: DSGZ
Over the last decade, Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province (NWFP) has launched forest-management reforms that aim at more participatory forest management. So far, the reforms have produced few results. This PAMS initiated research-informed dialogues on forestry issues between policymakers and important stakeholders. Project findings and policy messages on forest management were disseminated via policy briefs. The project contributed to raising local stakeholders’ and communities’ awareness of forest governance issues.
Download policy brief (English / PDF 887 KB)
Bridging the Gap between Research, Policy and Practice on Land Issues
Duration: January 2009 to January 2011
Executing Agency: NCCR North-South Regional Coordination Office, Kathmandu
Partners: DSGZ
In this PAMS, a Consortium for Land Research and Policy Dialogue (COLARP) was established in association with Nepali academic institutions, policymakers, NGOs, and activists. The COLARP is a unique combination of academic and non-academic institutions that formulates responses to land-related issues. Its recommendations are highly sought after by policymakers active in land reforms. This Nepali think tank builds on the achievements of earlier NCCR North-South research activities and partnership actions. For example, it has adopted lessons from an earlier project on landless people’s access to land resources in Nepal. Based on the project’s research and advocacy activities, local political leaders took up the cause of the landless and discriminatory norms were abolished.
Strengthening migrants' wives in rural north-west Pakistan
Duration: September 2008 to March 2010
Executing Agency: Dir Area Development Organization (DADO), Dir
Sustainable Development Policy Institute, Islamabad
Partners: DSGZ
This project contributed to women's empowerment in rural north-west Pakistan. In this region, male migration has negative effects on women’s lives: due to their husband’s absence, their workload increases, as does their dependence on in-laws. They are exposed to discrimination and family conflicts. Remittances were often intercepted by in-laws and spent on luxuries. In this PAMS, village organisations were built to discuss the situation of migrant wives among the community members. Use of the remittances was negotiated among family members, with the result that more is now invested in the health and education of migrants’ children.
Developing a community-based tourism model in Kaski district in Western Nepal
Duration: January to December 2009
Executing Agency: Trekking Agencies’ Association of Nepal (TAAN), Western Regional Chapter, Pokhara
Partners: swisspeace
A PhD study looked at the role of tourism for the process of peace-building after the civil war in Nepal. The insights from this study were validated and further extended in a PAMS project. A model trek route was built in the Pokhara valley in Western Nepal, with campsites and shelters for trekkers and porters. Along the route, villages were trained in home-stay operation and management. The PAMS provided local people with an important livelihood opportunity and substantially contributed to their recovering from the civil war.
Download policy brief (English / PDF 1.2 MB)
Strengthening communication and trust between actors for sustainable forest governance in the North-West Frontier Province of Pakistan
Duration: August 2007 to March 2009
Executing Agency: Sustainable Development Alternatives (SDA), Islamabad
Partners: DSGZ
This project on forest management in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) of Pakistan fostered dialogue and negotiation between the forest department and local communities. Related research in the region had shown that mistrust and a lack of state legitimacy at the local level was one of the main reasons that local communities refused to collaborate with state bodies. The most important outcome of this PAMS was that stakeholders with different backgrounds met to hold round table discussions and started negotiating their diverging interests. Moreover, among the villagers, the PAMS resulted in increased awareness regarding forest-related laws and rules, as well as of the respective responsibilities of the forest department and community.
Facilitating access of Dalit people to land resources in Nepal
Duration: November 2006 to March 2008
Executing Agency: Community Self-Reliance Centre (CSRC), Kathmandu
Partners: DSGZ
The Dalits of Nepal are a marginalised group of people who have suffered systematic discrimination within the hierarchical social system; they were formerly regarded as “untouchable”. Research revealed that many Dalits have no rights to land or other productive resources and are forced into bonded labour – a practice that, while illegal, is still widespread in remote rural areas of Nepal. A PAMS project was launched aimed at mobilising the Dalits, providing capacity building and leadership formation, and raising societal awareness. Its long-term goal was to establish a dialogue between Dalits and government representatives, with a view to enacting changes in land-related policies. This PAMS project played a crucial role in anchoring the rights of landless Dalits in the Nepalese government’s interim constitution.
Download Outcome Highlights (PDF / 924 KB)
For regional PAMS information:
Bishnu Raj Upreti, Regional Coordinator, South Asia
For general PAMS information:
Eva Maria Heim, Coordinator of Partnership Actions
| Outcome HighlightsPolicy briefs |
