Meet Nepal’s Democracy Defender
Nepal’s reconstruction efforts are building the country physically as well as socially, as it works to align with a more democratic and inclusive vision.
Archana Tamang is a strong advocate for equality and inclusion of all Nepalis in the governance process. That’s why when the opportunity working for the Government of Nepal presented itself — the job was to encourage people to get involved in the decision-making process and give everyone a voice — she applied right away.
“I really wanted to work with the National Reconstruction Authority…This was an opportunity for me to contribute to doing away with discrimination, inequality, and exclusion…I really want to kind of be involved in the social transformation part of the reconstruction.” — Archana Tamanag
Archana Tamang is now the gender equality and social inclusion advisor at the Government of Nepal’s National Reconstruction Authority.
After the 2015 earthquake, the country mobilized one of the largest homeowner driven housing reconstruction programs in the world. USAID supports Nepal to fulfill post-earthquake reconstruction commitments and mitigate and respond to possible future disasters. As a direct result of USAID support, 23,000 local masons have been trained on disaster-safe construction; more than 250,000 Nepalis now reside in earthquake safe homes; and 112,000 are accessing quality health and education services from hospitals and schools built with USAID assistance.
USAID also aims to ensure that women and marginalized communities have equal access to reconstruction resources and are included in the governance process.
That’s where Archana comes in. From day one at her job, she started developing a robust action plan to ensure the inclusion of women and vulnerable populations in the reconstruction governance process. She organized workshops with government officials, local leaders, and civil society organizations to discuss the plan and its implementation. She has made it a priority to visit women and marginalized groups in communities to explain to them their rights and obligations, and to ensure that their voices are heard in the decision making process. She also ensured that women were granted equal pay after learning that male workers in reconstruction were making more money.
Nepal reiterated its commitment to a more inclusive and transparent governance system by adopting a new constitution in 2015, and in 2017 successfully completing the first local elections in 20 years.
With USAID assistance, more than 1.7 million Nepalis — more than 10 percent of total eligible voters, most of whom are women or members of marginalized groups — registered to vote for the first time in the last election, which saw a record 75 percent voter turnout.
At the national level, USAID supports government and political systems by assisting key institutions such as the Election Commission, the earlier Constituent Assembly and now to legislative parliament, and political parties to become more democratic, inclusive, and effective. At the local level, USAID helps communities participate in development decision-making and foster linkages between citizens and their municipalities and district coordination committees, as well as other local government entities.
Archana also makes sure that all the representatives within the government system abide by the constitution.
“The constitution talks about people living in geographically remote places as being marginalized in terms of access to resources, access to social services,” Archana says. “There are communities that have been excluded from the political, economic, and social processes.”
The local elections in 2017 reserved two seats in each ward committee for women. In addition, one of the two candidates running for mayor or deputy mayor in each municipality was required to be a woman. Newly elected women and representatives of socially excluded groups now have the opportunity to ensure that those they represent are heard.
Archana noted that there have been noticeable changes: 40 percent of the elected representatives are women, and more girls are being educated.
“We also hope that there will be a time when…there will be more women running for different official government positions and there will be more women elected based on their own grit, based on their own strengths, and not based on reservations,” Archana says.
In partnership with the Nepal Election Commission and the United Nations, USAID has conducted ongoing voter and civic education and voter registration for upcoming elections, and has already registered more than 10 million voters and trained about 2,000 voter education trainers.
Nepal’s reconstruction efforts are building the country physically as well as socially. USAID is proud to support Nepal as it works to align with a more democratic and inclusive vision.
Watch Archana’s story here:
Check out more video portraits at USAID’s storytelling hub. Learn more about USAID on @USAIDNepal, @USAIDAsia @USAID/DRG and @USAID.
About the Author
Sahar Kalifa is a Senior Communications Advisor at the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Bureau for Legislative and Public Affairs.
