Look To The West
APART from the violence, the Maoist insurgency has exacted a
heavy toll on the development works across the country. The hardest hit have been the two
regions in the west where the conditions for any meaningful development work are missing
because of violence, destruction of infrastructure, the general air of extreme uncertainty
and hopelessness all around. Even regular official works have been affected by the ongoing
violence, let alone specific development projects that require social mobilisation, local
people’s participation and so on. Many non-governmental organisations, for instance,
have had to withdraw from many districts when the going got tough on account of increasing
violence. Some still hang around, but at a greatly reduced scale. Against this background,
it comes as good news that officials of various international development agencies, who
are just back after a visit to the Far-western and Mid-western regions have promised to
continue supporting the people hardest hit by the Maoist insurgency. High level
representatives from CIDA, DFID,GTZ, NORAD, USAID and World Food Programme, just back in
the capital after a week-long visit to some districts in these regions, declared their
conviction that any attempt at stopping the development efforts would result in immense
human sufferings in those regions.
Far-western and Mid-western regions, compared to the other
three regions of Nepal, were disadvantaged regions in many ways over the decades. Though
they needed to be high on the list of priorities, be it development interventions or
essential services, Nepal’s planning and implementation mechanisms did not
sufficiently took that into account. As a result, people in these regions continued to be
the most marginalised in the country. Now, with all the violence and destruction amidst
them, their socio-economic conditions have further spiralled down. All the greater, thus,
is the urgency to bring at least some succour to these people. Head of British aid agency,
DFID, David Wood, hit it on the nail when he said that should the Maoist insurgency in
these regions continue, delivering direct results by the donor agencies becomes all the
more stronger, especially to the poor and the marginalised who are the worst victims of
the deteriorating security situation. Taking this observation positively, the government
must work with donors to deliver, as Mr. Wood said, visible and tangible products that
directly benefit the poorest and the most marginalised in these regions. The government
must look to the west with priority.
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