Dal Nepal: buon anno ai Sostenitori italiani di CCS Italia

Before Chisthmas 2009, CCS Nepal expressed criticism on some methods and practices of the italian INGO which they were collaborating since 2003. New management and people have been appointed both in Nepal and Italy from the middle of 2007 so many activities have been reduced or cutted. We give an abstract of the letter and a table which compare the activities done in 2006 and those in 2008.

Cari Amici
Prima di tutto, ringraziamo I sostenitori italiani che dal 2003 stanno aiutando I nostri bambini e comunità nel Distretto di Kavre, I migliori auguri per le festività di Natale e del nuovo anno.
CCS Nepal, formata da gente di Kavre, iniziò nel 2003 tutte le attività per contribuire a educazione e salute in Nepal, grazie a migliaia di Sostenitori italiani.
Come abbiamo scritto nei posts precedenti stiamo ancora discutendo con I responsabili di CCS Italia INGO il budget per il 2009 e come far proseguire I nostri progetti.
Dal 2007 I fondi sono costantemente diminuiti e così l’aiuto e le opportunità che eravamo in grado di dare ai bambini e alle comunità di Kavre, come si vede dalla tavola che compara le attività nel 2006 e nel 2008.
Come siamo preoccupati per l’elevato aumento delle spese di gestione dell’ufficio di Kathmandu di CCS Italia che è passato da 4 a 22 funzionari per gestire meno attività rispetto al 2006. Ciò significa che le spese di gestione (stipendi, rents, attrezzature, macchine, etc.) sono cresciute da euro 43.000 in 2006 a 153.000 in 2008. Ciò ha gravemente ridotto I fondi per I progetti e I beneficiari.
Vogliamo estendere queste preoccupazioni ai Sostenitori italiani.
Thanks for all
The Staff of CCS Nepal NGO

activitiescompare TABLE ACTIVITIES 2006 COMPARED TO 2008 (tAVOLA DI COMPARAZIONE ATTIVITA’ 2006 e 2008)

Dear Friends
First of all we thank a lot the Italian sponsors which since 2003 are helping our children and community in Kavre District and best wishes for your for Christmas and the End of the year holidays.
CCS Nepal, formed by local people of Kavre, established 5 years ago all activities related to education and health in Nepal thanks to the help of thousand Italian sponsors.
From 2007 our budget and activities were severely reduced as well as the help and opportunities we were able to give to children and community in Kavre as appears in the comparing the activities in the table below which resume the documents already published.
As well as we are worried about the huge increase of running expenditures in CCS Italy office in Kathmandu which passed from 4 people to 22 managing less activities. It means that the running expenditures (salaries, equipments, cars, rents, etc.) raised from Euro 43.000 in 2006 to 153.000 in 2008, this has severely reduced the fund for the projects and beneficiaries.
We extend our concern to Italian sponsors.
CCS Nepal NGO staff

Trainings, reports and workshops development

In a recent article it has been pointed out the paradox of local level governance in Nepal is that much money and effort have been poured into it over the decades but with no visible improvement.
In 1996 UNDP and DANIDA pushed on the government to introduce the Local Self-Governance Act 1999 which failed to include the vital provisions regarding the user groups which showed good performances in managing the forestry community development which has been fully domestically managed by local community.
With no provisions regarding the formation of local groups, the enormous fund to decentralization has been managed by, as the article points, local bodies were invariably composed of the hand-picked favourites of the village elites.
As a result, the billions of rupees that went through the DDCs (District Dev. Office) and VDCs (Village Dev. Office) in various tied and untied grants over the years made little dent on the problems of poverty and deprivation that continue to remain rampant in Nepal’s villages. The same seems happened for other local authorities as DHO (health) and DEO (education).
The misuse of huge funds and the needs of a serious reforms of local body, most of them not working or bad working due to that lack of elected officials and good mnagement should suggest to international donors to go directly to the primary stakeholders: it means community through local user groups (for specific projects), community schools, etc.
This work should be a priority for INGOs and NGOs which must operate gross route level as their guiding principles should require. Unfortunately this is not happening for some of them. It is the case of Centro Cooperazione Sviluppo INGO (CCS Italia) which during the last two years left good community tied projects in Kavre moving towards funding the local DEO (district education office) and DHO (district health office). This negative attitude seems directed to void the role and capacity of the local NGO working in Kavre since many years. The reasons could be the strong critics  the local NGO moved regarding the ineffective use of Italian fund and donation made by the officers of the INGO and their incapacity to operate directly with the community. Maybe also their laziness and high salaries.
The same misadventure which is running, in a great scale, DANIDA. They decided to support a 10 million rupies project (19 months) project entitled “Promoting Local Governance for Effective Service Delivery” in six selected districts.
It was said to be “supply-side” governance strengthening initiative and comprised workshops for government officials, local politicians, NGO/CBO officials, and “service receivers”. The project developed training manuals, formed coordination committees and “good governance pressure groups”, and held public hearings with government officials including the CDOs in attendance.
It seems the same trend followed by Centro Cooperazione Sviluppo (CCS Italy) in which instead to work in the community, it is easier to work through local bureaucrats. It is the training and workshop development which is the main activity wide spreading among INGOs and institutional donors.
This kind of “projects” doesn’t need many activities, fieldwork, and accountability of service given.
The single most important contribution that the government and donors could make to promote good governance and development in the villages is to empower the stakeholders and assuring effective service delivery and the only way is to go in the villages working with people. 

Guna Dhakal- Social Worker-Kathmandu

Fighting Aids, but alcoholism…

The celebration of World Aids Day at Tundikhel (on 1st december) has been a public and political event reinforcing the role of various organizations and funds engaged on this issue.
From a recent World Bank Report by the middle of 2008, more than 1750 cases of AIDS and over 11,000 cases of HIV infection were officially reported, with two times as many men reported to be infected as women.
In the last days, a Report issued by Patan Hospital revealed that almost half of Nepal’s 25 million population consumes alcohol thus not only straining the country’s health budget but giving rise to social tension. And Increasing number of youths giving to alcoholism which is comparatively more serious a problem than drug abuse affecting the life of the alcohol-addicted’s entire family.
A standard three-month recovery program costs between Rs 3,000- 5,000 a month. Those who can afford to, go abroad for confidentiality
No organizations have never been done a study in Nepal about the social and economic cost of alcohol abuse. Neither is there any reliable statistics regarding alcohol consumption.
The new rule set by the Government regarding limitation of alcohol selling could be a first step if it will be seriously implemented.
Despite the enormous social problem of alcohol in Nepal, nor NGOs or INGOs or other development agencies have specific projects on the matter. Nepal face the worst alcohol problems in South Asia and the social costs of alcohol abuse is far higher than the combined ravages of drugs and Aids. But this issues overshadowed other health problems in funding and in public recognition.
Probably due to the officialdom, liquor lobby and media the voices, especially coming from village women have been denied. But because of its cultural acceptability, experts say, alcoholism has become the single biggest medical and social problem in Nepali society today
As wrote by some scholars, the initiatives against the abuse of tobacco, liquor and such other injuries of capital and market that complicate gender, class and ideological positioning tend to be either deferred or altogether discredited.

Nina Tamang-Kathmandu