YPARD Nepal- Steps in Capacity Building Process

In the year of 2001, the stunting rate in Nepal was 57.1% and ten years later, it was reduced to 40.5% with the average change of 1.66 per year which was the fastest reduction in child stunting in the world. But achieving this target was not easy and Non-Profit Organizations (NGOs) had the greatest contribution.

Nepal is a geographically diverse country and it’s true to say that the government has not been able to reach to the people at grass root level completely and as a result, the NGOs are flourishing extensively. There are roughly 50, 000 NGOs registered in the Social Welfare Council Nepal with diversified objectives including agricultural development, women empowerment, nutritional awareness, child care, health, disaster management, youth empowerment, human/ children’s rights, etc.

Taking into consideration of need for building an organizational capacity of Integrating Gender and Nutrition within Agricultural Extension Services , INGENAES -a partner organization/NGOs in Nepal- held a workshop from 18^th-21^st July 2016 titled “Organizational Capacity Building Training for INGENAES partner NGOs” at Shangri-la Hotel, Kathmandu, Nepal. The workshop was funded by USAID, supported by University of Illinois at Urbana Campaign and coordinated by INGENAES.

The virtual introduction of INGENAES and YPARD Nepal led to an informal meeting in the Food Fair. Afterwards, with a purpose of developing INGENAES-YPARD Nepal relationship, the coordination team of INGENAES decided to provide five slots for YPARD Nepal members to participate in the workshop. Abhishek Khadka, Ishwora Dhungana, Kshitiz Dhakal, Anil Bastola and I were in immense pleasure to represent YPARD Nepal. 

The three-and-a-half-day workshop was facilitated by Dr. Muthusami Kumaran (aka Dr. K), University of Florida with the coordination of Mrs. Kabita Devkota, in-coordinator of INGENAES Nepal. The workshop was even more captivating with such a proficient  and welcoming facilitator.

The first day of the workshop started with the introduction, pre-workshop survey and overview of NGOs sector in Nepal. On the same day, Abhishek Khadka and I were interviewed by Dr. Lulu Rodriguez of the University of Illinois. The interview was composed of questions related to NGO’s activities with a focus on YPARD Nepal Gender and Nutrition activities via agricultural extension services.

The sessions including classroom activities lasted for 3 days and the final fourth day was focused more on several hands-on activities, workshop evaluation and conclusion to bring closure to the workshops. The major outcomes of the workshop were to develop organizational structure, planning a projects and programs, build collaborative partnership with governmental agricultural extension services and building a strong network among the NGOs working in Nepal.

In the concluding sessions, YPARD Nepal shared more about YPARD and its activities which impressed the participants and our mentor, Dr. K  that he announced some slots for next five YPARDians for the future workshop in December 2016.

 For YPARD Nepal, I must say it was a great exposure to get connected with the different operational NGOs and getting to know more about agricultural extension service in Nepal. Its high time YPARD collaborated  with the Ministry of Youth and Sports (MoYS) in converging national youth policies and agricultural policies.

The benefits of workshop brings a smile to my face when there is a good implementation of learnt skills. Through this workshop INGENAES and YPARD Nepal got to know each other in better ways and YPARD Nepal is  planning for future collaborations with INGENAES as well as other organization who were also present in days to come.