Nepal Monitor: The National Online Journal

Swiss development cooperation with Nepal over the past fifty years has focused on subjects as diverse as cheese, trail bridges, road building, professional training, seed production, protection of human rights, peace promotion and promotion of democracy. These programmes also reflect the development of the long and close partnership with one of the first priority countries of the SDC, and their results testify to the major changes they have brought to the lives of the most disadvantaged local communities in this Himalayan state.

A Swiss delegation visited the Himalayan kingdom in 1951 at the request of the Nepalese government. Nepal has a number of geographical similarities to Switzerland. It is an enclave wedged between India and Tibet, its mountains and hills cover 80% of its territory. It has an area of 147,000 km2, but only 19% of the land is arable. The visit paved the way for the two main development initiatives launched by pioneers from the government and from non-governmental organisations, notably Helvetas.

Cheese production in Nepal was based on Swiss experience and expertise. It used the milk surpluses of small mountain farmers and generated extra income for the rural population. This project ran from 1956 to 1964. Fifty years later, cheese production is expanding rapidly. As for carpet-making, this was a humanitarian initiative designed to assist Tibetan refugees. The Swiss contribution focused on marketing and the opening up of commercial channels at the international level. A formal cooperation agreement between Switzerland and Nepal was signed in 1959. This was followed by a technical cooperation agreement in 1972.

Disenclavement thanks to bridges and roads
Nepalese communities have always built bridges over the rivers of the Himalaya. But it was only in the mid-sixties that planned and systematic building started, with Swiss support for a programme of trail bridge construction from 1972. This was one of the most successful partnerships in Nepal. More 3,000 pedestrian bridges have been built up to today, enabling about 500,000 persons and 90,000 animals a day to cross rivers safely. This means that children can go to school and people can visit health centres, temples, public services, fields and markets to buy and sell products.

Parallel to this, the training of thousands of persons, including engineers, entrepreneurs, craftsmen and officials, means that Nepal is now able to build more than 200 bridges a year. The government has devolved responsibility for bridge building to the villages and districts. It is worth noting that bridge-building techniques are now on the syllabus of engineering schools.

In a mountainous country where altitude ranges from 80 m to 8848 m (Mount Everest) in the space of a horizontal distance of only 100 km, road access is very difficult. Almost six million people, 23% of the population, live more than four hours' walk from the nearest road. This impedes economic dvelopment and social inclusion. For more than 30 years, Switzerland has helped to improve the living conditions of hundreds of thousands of poor and marginalised villagers by giving them access to roads in rural regions.

The construction of the asphalt Lamosangu-Jiri road in the district of Dolakha which started in 1974 was a major event. As a result, the entire region to the west of Katmandu has been disenclaved. Since the completion of the road in 1987, literacy has trebled and infant mortality has been halved. Work on about 100 kms of other rural roads is continuing. This has provided work for thousands of people and has benefited another 150,000. The SDC programme also includes road maintenance. It applies the "green roads" principles – use of local resources, a participative approach and methods that respect the environment.

The importance of professional training
The lessons learnt from the time of the pioneers fed into the reflections on professional training, an area that is considered central. This led in 1981 to the building of, and subsequent support for, the Jiri Technical School. Schools of this kind have been established in the country's development areas. The activity of the SDC has led to the creation of a national authority for professional training and later to the establishment of the TITI institute for the training of trainers.

Today, efforts focus on the inclusion of persons who do not have access to training because they belong to disadvantaged and marginalised groups. These students can follow shorter, more targeted courses, with a stronger market orientation. This type of professional training benefits a larger number of persons.

Seeds as sources of food and income
Nepal is an essentially agricultural country. About 66% of the population is active in this sector. However, because of the country's mountainous topography, less than a quarter of the land is arable. Switzerland has always been present in the "hill zone", focusing its agricultural support on the cultivation of apples and more recently on seed production. The introduction of commercial horticulture and the national apple programme (1977-96), which improved the selection of varieties and increased the production of tubers, greatly helped to boost the income of small farmers. Parallel to this, the SDC attaches great importance to sustainable soil management.

It also supports the production of seeds for vegetables so as to improve the foood security and the living conditions of poor families in isolated zones. A public-private partnership was launched in the 1980s. Since then, 160 seed production cooperatives have been established. The diverse climate of the country (from high altitudes to tropical plains) means that several kinds of vegetable seeds can be produced – vegetables, beans, onions, marrows, tomatoes. The extra income generated by the commercialisation of seeds enables small farmers for example to send their children to school and to remain on their farms instead of being compelled to try their luck elsewhere. Organised and managed by groups of farmers, this activity is also a model of local democracy.

40% of the country's territory is covered by forests. The Nepalese depend on the forests as a source of wood for building and heating, of medicinal herbs and of fodder for animals. The devastating floods in Bangladesh at the end of the 1970s demonstrated the importance of upstream forests that are well tended and have solid soil. Swiss cooperation, following the principles of agro-forestry, then pressed ahead with the promotion of community forestry. Groups of forest users were formed from the 10090s onwards, mainly in three districts. These local communities protect, use and manage the forests near their homes. The damaged forest areas have been regenerated, and forestry products (wood, paper, resin, etc.) have created employment and income.

Human rights and peace promotion
In 1990, political reforms established a multi-party democracy in the framework of a constitutional monarchy. However, in 1996, the insurrection by the Maoist communist party plunged Nepal into an armed conflict which was to last for ten years. Swiss cooperation gradually revised its approach and in 2002 it decided to adapt its programme to the situation (the insurgents now controlled 80% of the territory) by remaining active in development projects. One reason for this was that it wished to avoid inadvertently fuelling the conflict and to protect the development space to help support the poor and the marginalised.

Following the intensification of the conflict, activities progressively focused on promotion of peace and consolidation of good governance. Together with other donors and with its Nepalese partners, Switzerland strongly advocated respect for human rights, which had suffered severely in the conflict. This activity, which corresponds to one of the goals of Swiss foreign policy, helped to substantially improve the human rights situation in Nepal. In addition, Switzerland backed efforts to find a political solution to the conflict. It supported the National Human Rights Commission, an organism which encourages the inclusion of persons who are victims of discrimination such as women, "janajatis" (indigenous people) and dalits (untouchables).

The Swiss strategy for 2009-2012 produced by diplomats and development specialist, aims to increase the effectiveness of Swiss aid and to support peacebuilding in Nepal. These activities concentrate on the constitutional expertise that Switzerland can provide to the various actors. There is enormous interest in Switzerland sharing its experience of the federal system and supporting the process of drafting a constitution. In 2008, the newly-elected parliament declared Nepal a federal democratic republic.

Originally titled "Switzerland - Nepal: A close partnership lasting more than 50 years". Source: Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC).
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