Nepal

In 1997, the Women’s Empowerment Program (WEP) began delivering a package of literacy, savings, credit, microenterprise, and microfinance to a target population of over 120,000 rural women in 21 Nepal’s Terai districts. The project was carried out by Pact, its NGO partner ECTA, The Asia Foundation, and a network of local NGOs at the district level. By 1999 Pact introduced its new action-oriented curriculum, Women in Business, to 125,000 women through over 100 field staff and 245 indigenous organizations. By the end of USAID’s funding for WEP in September 2001, the program had achieved some remarkable results, including more than doubling the women’s savings from USD 720,000 to USD 1,800,000, tripling the number of women who can read and write and quadrupling the number of women in business from 19,000 to 86,000.

In the fall of 2001 Pact's WEP program was localized with the official registration of Pact Nepal as a local organization, Samjhauta Nepal. The newly registered NGO's mission was to educate and empower the rural community, especially women, in the belief that illiteracy is among one of the root causes of poverty, and 42% of the population in Nepal was still below poverty line. Building on newly acquired literacy skills, women were linked to other development activities including health, agriculture, natural resource management, and democracy and good governance.

In April 2002 Pact and Samjhauta Nepal partnered to implement a World Bank Development Marketplace project running until June 2003, geared toward piloting HIV/AIDS post-literacy materials with WEP groups. In September 2002 Pact and Samjhauta Nepal entered into a second partnership to implement a three-year project as a subgrantee to CARE Nepal (the prime organization for the USAID contract), in collaboration with CEDPA and Winrock, to strengthen the role of civil society and women in democracy and governance.

Most recently, the Economic Empowerment, Dispute Resolution and Peace Building program has built on Pact’s successful Women’s Empowerment Program. With funding from USAID and support from local partner, Samjhauta Nepal these banks, many of which are still operating today, link horizontally and vertically to ensure that the voice for peace is heard by higher level authorities involved in the conflict.

Through this program, women in conflict affected areas have increased economic opportunities, implemented conflict-mitigating community actions and have increased participation in local level decision making. Women’s participation is part of Nepal’s solution for durable peace and represen