The Government of Nepal has signed numerous peace agreements with the then Communist Party of Nepal (Maoists), a rebel group, and identity groups, which form a core base of the ongoing peace process. These agreements relate to cease-fire, federal structures of the state, security sector governance, and inclusive structures of the state. . While some provisions of the peace agreements have been implemented, many provisions remain either incomplete or not even begun.  These have to be reflected in the new constitutions and its institutional framework, the failure of which would not render justice, mainly to the marginalized sections and those affected by the conflict.  Nevertheless, there are certain provisions in the peace agreements that will have to be implemented outside of the new constitutional domain. For example, there are agreements to grant justice to the victims of conflict through the formation of Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). Unfortunately, non-implementation of peace agreements relevant to providing justice to the victims of conflict has created the situation of impunity in the country which is fostering further insecurity.

The situation of lawlessness affects not only the peace process, it seriously affects peoples' livelihood. In the current fragile political situation, chain of command between the government and its line agencies has been badly disrupted that has created the situation of lack of coordination among the line agencies holding responsibility of delivering the requisite minimum state services to the people.  Furthermore, due to lack of elected bodies, e.g. Villages Committee, Municipal Committee and District Development Committees, the state has been dysfunctional. In the absence of these bodies, planning, monitoring and implementing of all development related activities have been badly affected. The resulting people’s frustration is a bad omen for a nation in the sense that this could trigger further rounds of conflict which, if happened, will likely be more serious than before. The state of lawlessness would obviously imply that there is no justice, no security, no development and no lasting peace.

Because of the serious mistrust and suspicion among major political parties more important agenda of “security” has been fallen in oblivion. A little discourse that is emerging in the security concern in Nepal is also limited within the narrow bounds of the capital city of Kathmandu with a large remaining population being completely unaware of it. Since security (human security, societal security and state security), is the concern of all citizens, the discourse on this must be expanded both vertically and horizontally throughout the country. Hence, this proposal seeks to expand the discourse on security in the regional centres of Nepal which are going to be the major provincial headquarters in the proposed federal set up.

In security discourse, there are several practical and conceptual issues. Among these, there are two key issues which need to be discussed with and disseminated to the people in the regional centres. These are - i) federalization of political administration, and ii) federalization of security institutions in the changed context of the country. As said earlier, the little discourse on security issues are only focused in an existing institutional set up but when the country attains the federal structure, there will be big vacuum as to how these practical and conceptual issues can be addressed. Without addressing these issues, country’s federalization process may be derailed or failed.

Against the above backdrop, this program has adopted three-pronged  strategies for intervention – i) awareness raising among the set of stakeholders;  ii) capacity building to confront the reality; and iii) pro-active action in favour of the marginalized people such as media campaigning.