English - Support to Participatory Constitution Building in Nepal ...
English - Support to Participatory Constitution Building in Nepal ...
English - Support to Participatory Constitution Building in Nepal ...
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Private sec<strong>to</strong>r <strong>in</strong> post-conflict state build<strong>in</strong>gwith clear political goals, while others may be more usually <strong>in</strong>cl<strong>in</strong>ed <strong>to</strong>partner with the public, rather than private sec<strong>to</strong>r.In case of <strong>Nepal</strong>, although <strong>in</strong> the recent years this relationship looks <strong>to</strong>have improved somewhat, there is still much space for improvement –especially <strong>in</strong> the context of post-conflict situation. There have been some<strong>in</strong>itiatives from bodies such as the National Bus<strong>in</strong>ess Initiative (NBI), butprivate sec<strong>to</strong>r needs <strong>to</strong> do more than just try <strong>to</strong> shake hands with thedonors. While the donors have their own problems as discussed earlier,the private sec<strong>to</strong>r <strong>in</strong> general suffers with the image of not car<strong>in</strong>g enoughfor the overall welfare of the society. It is often perceived that the bus<strong>in</strong>esscommunity lacks transparency and good bus<strong>in</strong>ess practices. The privatesec<strong>to</strong>r ac<strong>to</strong>rs, it seems, always f<strong>in</strong>d the blame <strong>in</strong> the government for notbe<strong>in</strong>g supportive enough, but they do not f<strong>in</strong>d time <strong>to</strong> look <strong>in</strong><strong>to</strong> their ownshortcom<strong>in</strong>gs. In order <strong>to</strong> improve their own image, they need <strong>to</strong> promotegreater transparency, get <strong>in</strong>volved <strong>in</strong> more visible and mean<strong>in</strong>gful socialresponsibilities, and practise more <strong>in</strong>clusive and ethical bus<strong>in</strong>ess. Despitechalleng<strong>in</strong>g times, the private sec<strong>to</strong>r has not only the bus<strong>in</strong>ess <strong>in</strong>terest butalso the social responsibility <strong>to</strong> come forward and take the lead, ratherthan the other way round. We have seen around the world that privatesec<strong>to</strong>r <strong>in</strong>itiatives have played mean<strong>in</strong>gful and constructive roles <strong>in</strong> postconflictcountries.8. Examples of Sri-Lanka and South AfricaIt is worth, at this po<strong>in</strong>t, tak<strong>in</strong>g up some examples of the roles the privatesec<strong>to</strong>r has played <strong>in</strong> other conflict affected countries, namely Sri Lanka andSouth Africa. Despite a conflict that lasted for more than three decades,Sri Lanka has long been seen as a country with steady economic growth.As a result, for most of those conflict affected years, big bus<strong>in</strong>ess had littlemotivation <strong>to</strong> support peace build<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong>itiatives. However, this attitude of<strong>in</strong>difference among big bus<strong>in</strong>esses changed with the bomb<strong>in</strong>g of ColomboInternational Airport <strong>in</strong> 2001 which, <strong>to</strong>gether with a devastat<strong>in</strong>g powercrisis <strong>in</strong> the same year, exposed the vulnerability of key bus<strong>in</strong>ess sec<strong>to</strong>rs <strong>to</strong>the violence. The comb<strong>in</strong>ed impact of the two events pushed the economy<strong>in</strong><strong>to</strong> negative GDP growth, the first time this had occurred <strong>in</strong> all the yearsof war. Pressure mounted on bus<strong>in</strong>ess <strong>to</strong> do someth<strong>in</strong>g, as the economiccosts of conflict became more evident. For the first time, members of theColombo corporate community jo<strong>in</strong>ed <strong>in</strong> alliances <strong>to</strong> lobby for peace. Themost prom<strong>in</strong>ent of these ventures was Sri Lanka First (SLF) (Mayer andSalih 2006).56