The year 2006 saw the end of a decade long conflict in Nepal with the Maoist insurgents becoming part of the mainstream politics and many parts of the land gradually returning back to peace. However, the consequences of this armed conflict are far-reaching, affecting all the sections of the society. In particular, women, adolescent girls, children, youths, internally displaced communities and the poorest of the poor groups are facing the ill-effects of the conflict while reinventing their livelihoods. The major constraints faced by them can be summarized as follows:
– Conflict-affected communities who have been returning back or who have stayed in their homelands are faced with reinventing livelihoods without relevant skills. An intervention is necessary to support their efforts in order to achieve long-term livelihood sustainability.
– In spite of low or inappropriate skills, these communities have strong faith in local resources to help them seek a living. However, management of local resources is a sensitive issue and may lead to unsustainable use. An external action to organize this process is necessary to ensure that local resources are optimally and equitably utilized for a longer period of time.
– Post-conflict situation has also led to a reversal of traditional gender roles where women have taken the lead roles in managing the household economy while men have migrated to other places. However, women are often forced into seasonal work and subsistence farming, leading to further vulnerability and disengagement from potential market-led economic opportunities. Therefore, there is a need to address women’s role as entrepreneurs in taking up profitable enterprises for economic empowerment and sustainability.
– Conflict-affected communities re-building their livelihoods face the additional challenge of a breakdown in infrastructure. Communication networks, public facilities and supply linkages are not functional to the expected levels. Hence, there is also this need of building basic economic infrastructure and promoting participatory management among the communities.
– Access to capital is a serious challenge for these communities. With the fall of social and financial institutions during the conflict, rural people are finding it increasingly difficult to arrange financial resources crucial for performing market-oriented activities. So the immediate need is to institutionalize savings and credit facilities through cooperatives for these to enable communities to access much-need finances for operating economic activities.
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