English - Support to Participatory Constitution Building in Nepal ...

Addressing poverty and promoting good governance5. Contributing to policy change from field-basedexperienceCFUGs contribute not only to change the lives of the economically poorand socially discriminated households, they also seek to bring theirexperiences to a national level.The current drafting of Nepal’s new constitution also provides anexcellent opportunity for incorporating the learning of the best practicesof community forestry that in the long run favours community rights,including common property rights. Currently community forests stillbelong to the State; CFUGs only have use and management rights overthem. Should it one day become possible to legally register communityforests as a common property, this would be a huge step forward. Positiveexperience of community forestry at the grass-root level will be useful tosuch debates.6. Practical challengesThe most important single obstacle to pushing forward change in favourof the disadvantaged is entrenched attitudes. Introducing participatoryprocesses in hierarchical societies is always difficult, but questioningattitudes to caste, class and gender - changing mindsets - is even morechallenging. The barbed comments of one high caste member of a CFUGin Khotang district (where governance coaching and self-monitoringexercise have yet to be fully implicated), as quoted in Box 14.6, indicatesome of the prejudices - that still readily surface - and complexities ofsocial exclusion.Box 4.6 A barbed remark on social exclusion“The Majhis selected as bipanna don’t seem poor – rather, they are living a lavish life,though they do not actually have sustainable source of income. More than 130 peoplefrom that village have gone to gulf countries as migrant workers. So these householdsreceive remittances almost every month. But I do not think they have been saving anymoney nor have they the wit to invest it elsewhere. They just spend lavishly till the moneyis gone, and then get back to collecting firewood. If you visit their households you will seea record player, mobile phone and television but you will not find any normal householdutensils…”A member of Langur Pakha CFUGLamidanda, KhotangThere are also a number of practical or methodological challenges thatthe project faces in trying to systematically support the disadvantagedand generally promote good governance. They are briefly outlined here.78