Tufts: Development/Conflict Nexus in Nepal

The Feinstein International Center released a new report in June on the connection between aid and violence in Nepal and how they interacted in the last decade. The study was made by Francesca Bonino and Antonio Donini and is part of a wider ongoing research program in Nepal that tackles social transformation, gender and migration issues in a post-conflict environment.

The report explores this question through a retrospective analysis of the development/conflict nexus in Nepal. It looks at the underlying causes of the Maoist success story, in relation to the conditions of structural underdevelopment and violence, and at donors’ policies and activities in Nepal and at their interplay with the conflict environment. The report focuses on the last decade (1996-2008), the period of the Maoist insurgency and of the subsequent largely successful peace process. It looks at the way in which aid actors in Nepal framed their understanding of the Maoist insurgency and how they adapted their responses. It shows that, because the aid community was Kathmandu-centric, it did not fully grasp the nature of caste, class and ethnic discrimination in rural Nepal nor that “development” was not benefiting the most disadvantaged groups. Development failure can thus be construed as a contributing factor to the insurgency.