Youth Advocacy and Action for Accountability and Responsibility

DINESH KARKI(via-  myrepublica.com.np) KATHMANDU, Aug 11: Youth Initiative, in association with USAID Nepal and Microsoft Innovation Center Nepal, organized ‘Youth Advocacy and Action for Accountability and Responsibility’ on August 9 and 10 at Malla Hotel, Lainchaur. The two day workshop for Nepali youth leaders and other interested youth covered the impending issues of the country’s development, peace process and constitution making. The workshop also held discussions on tentative solutions to those issues, and designing innovative programs for youth-led organizations and movements. The workshop started with opening remarks from David C Atteberry, USAID’s Mission Director to Nepal. Rajendra Mulmi, director of program at Search for Common Ground, who is active in peace building initiatives, began his presentation describing youth as incentive seeking, opportunity seeking and change seeking. With a picture showing a cartoon of man carrying a snake and woman carrying a ladder, symbolizing the game Snakes and Ladder, he explained that youth can play the role of both spoilers as well as agents of change. He also tried to show how youth are being used as mere puppets for political, national, commercial and social interests. In his concluding remarks, he shared his personal experience that he learnt from his years of involvement in youth activism. “Hating politics is not the answer, let’s talk about it,” said Mulmi, and added, “One of the most important lesson I have learnt is: Together we can.” After Mulmi, Rabindra Mishra, the head of BBC World Nepali Service, talked about the need of youth’s participation for raising voice on issues obstructing the country’s development, particularly corruption and impunity. Emphasizing on people’s attitude, Mishra said, “There is no harmony between what we say and how we act. We are indifferent to our responsibilities.” He pointed out hypocrisy and escapism as the problems of our society. “It’s time that we all transcend personal boundaries and do something for the country and people. Politics has immense possibilities, but unfortunately capable people from good families don’t enter politics,” he said. Program Advisor of The Asia Foundation, Bishnu Sapkota, spoke about the key issues impeding the peace process and constitution writing. He pointed out ideological differences among parties as the main obstacle. He also talked about how youth can contribute to the process. Sapkota said that we are unclear about how the history of modern Nepal is to be written. The next speaker at the workshop, Anil Chitrakar, a social entrepreneur, talked during an interactive session about youth’s role in the affairs of the country. “Nepali people are excellent individually but collectively, we are a failure,” said Chitrakar using pictures from recent newspaper articles to interconnect things he wanted to explain during his presentation. “We need to work smart rather than working hard,” he said. While talking about ways to minimize corruption, Chitrakar said, “One way to end corruption is to introduce information technology in all government offices. The less human interaction there is, the less corruption there will be.” The participants at the workshop had an informative and enlightening session with Dr Bhimarjun Acharya, a constitutional lawyer, who spoke on the constitution drafting process and the importance of timely constitution. Acharya introduced the participants to a ‘content driven constitution’ and ‘process driven constitution.’ He also talked about different constitution models practiced around the world and informed that Nepal has a hybrid model. Acharya was of the view that it is unscientific to talk about ethnic states as it can divide the nation. He wrapped up his presentation saying, “I’m proud that Nepal’s constituent assembly is one of the most inclusive, but it can be proven that federalism is the opposite of inclusive, and we don’t need to go to federalism.” After an informative session from Acharya, Allen Bailochan Tuladhar, country director of Microsoft Innovation Center Nepal, discussed how youth can effectively use freely available IT and social media networks for innovative youth-led social movements. “We can get our voices heard among leaders and other people without having to cross the physical barriers, when we use IT,” he said. Summing up the workshop, Anita Thapa, president of Youth Initiative, said, “The program was organized with a view to share expert insights on contemporary issues and to help develop different skills like public speaking among the youth.”