Social Welfare Council conducted Monitoring and Evaluation of FIAN Nepal Projects

Social Welfare Council (SWC) is a regulating body of Nepal Government to regulate and monitor Non-Government Organizations (NGO) activities in Nepal and thus has the mandate to monitor and evaluate projects implemented in Nepal by NGOs. FIAN Nepal has recently accomplished “Facilitating a process towards the implementation of Human Rights to Food in Nepal” supported by Bread for the World and Miserreor and “Right to Food of Indo-Nepal Border area” supported by NORAD respectively in December 2017 and October 2017. Following the rules of SWC and Nepal Government, these two phased out projects were monitored and evaluated on 10-15 June 2018 through visiting FIAN Nepal Central Office with necessary documents including Rules, regulation (Bidhan), different reports related to the project, annual progress report, auditing report, financial documents, project proposal, achievement and output, physical property and other necessary documents. Besides official meetings, the team has also carried out field monitoring, observation and inspection in four working districts as Dang, Banke, Bardiya and Kanchanpur where the team had interaction, discussion with the communities FIAN Nepal is working for, civil society organizations and local government along with concerned government line agencies and institutions like National Human Rights Commission. The monitoring team of SWC was accompanied by FIAN Nepal Executive Committee and facilitated by staff.

The main objectives of the evaluation are to:

• review the progress of the projects.
• asses changes, effectiveness, and achievements obtained after the implementation of the project.
• analyze the partnership and coordination within NGOs, institutions, offices and local authorities.
• make discussion, study and present the facts about the following.
• recommend for the necessity of FIAN Nepal renewal process

The evaluation and monitoring team comprised on behalf of SWC are Mr. Narayan Prasad Kafle as Team Leader, Mr. Sanjya Kumar Mallik, member and Mr. Bhawanath  Khatiwada, member whom FIAN Nepal Executive Committee members accompanied as Mr. Satya Twayna, General Secretary and Mr. Jhabendra Bhattarai Treasure throughout the field visits.

Community visit and interaction with:

• Dang -Tharukumal community and Ghorahi Cement affected community
• Banke – Laxmanpur Dam affected community and Boarder Road affected community
• Bardiya – Gandharba Community
• Kanchanpur – Dudhwa National Park affected community

Meeting with Civil Society organizations like Right to Food Network, HR Alliance, NGOs of Dang, Banke, and Kanchanpur.

Meeting with local government:

• Mr. Jeevan Thapa, Mayor Punarwas Municipality, Kanchanpur,
• Mr. Naru Lal Chaudhary, Mayor Ghorahi Sub-Metropolitan City, Dang
• Ms. Uma Thapa, Vice Mayor Nepalgunj Sub-Metropolitan City, Banke
• Mr. Lal Bahadur Shrestha, Chairperson Badiya Tal Rural Municipality, Bardiya,
• Ward Chairpersons, etc.

Government Stakeholder and line agencies:  Chief District Officer, Chief of District Coordination Committee, District Agriculture Development Office, NHRC, People Embankment Office.

After the all documents review and interaction with target communities and concerned agencies, the team has prepared a report of the evaluation/monitoring and appreciated the working approach of FIAN Nepal along with provided encouraging recommendations as follows:

• In the present context, coordination of FIAN Nepal with local levels/governments should be strengthened more.
• FIAN Nepal should try to identify more RtF related issues and facilitate to solve them.
• The scope and activities of FIAN should be extended. It would be better if FIAN could do some hardware activities too.
• Awareness and Monitoring part should be more focused. Monitoring mechanism of Civil Society should be made more active and functional.
• Public awareness and Social Audit are the major tools of Good Governance. So FIAN should have a practice of these tools in future.

On the top of the recommendations, the evaluation team strongly recommended that FIAN Nepal should extend its scope and activities on the coming days. Issues of community living in the border side of India should be more concentrated. According to the suggestion of community and concerning stakeholders, FIAN Nepal should continue its activities. Having the experience of past, it should work more efficiently and effectively in future.

From the recommendations and suggestions received by evaluation and monitoring team of SWC, FIAN Nepal is extremely encouraged to further continue the Right to Food Movement in Nepal in future.