Final performance evaluation of the monitoring Nepal's peace process and constitution drafting process project : final report

The MNPPCDP project initially conducted district-based monitoring of selected aspects of the political transition in Nepal, and then grew to include monitoring of voter registration in advance of the November 2013 Constituent Assembly (CA) elections and fielding an international mission to observe the CA elections. Over the span of the project, program documents associated with this project make it clear that the project was much more concerned with generating information to inform elite ("key stakeholder") decision-making than with the wide dissemination of information to "Nepali citizens." This evaluation seeks to assess the veracity of the following inter-connected hypotheses: (1) information generated by The Carter Center's (TCC's) monitoring reached and was consumed by the intended "key stakeholders" (and perhaps also citizens more generally); and (2) TCC-generated information, analysis and suasion influenced the decision-making of key stakeholders in ways that contributed to sustaining the peace process. More specifically, the main research questions include: (1) how effective was the program in engaging women, youth, dalits, differently abled and other marginalized groups during the monitoring of peace and constitution drafting processes and in bringing their issues to influence these processes [and] do citizens feel that their voices have been heard through this program; (2) how have the findings of TCC's analytical work such as field visit reports and press releases contributed to policy level decisions and to help shape programs and strategies of stakeholders such as CSOs, USAID projects, Election Commission of Nepal (ECN), Government of Nepal and donor communities [and] what other information would have been more helpful for the stakeholders; (3) in what ways have the report on "limited observation of the ECN's voter registration program" contributed to strengthening Election Commission's voter registration process [and] what recommendations from TCC's 2013 CA election observation report and/or other reports are being implemented for the June 2014 by-election and future local elections; and (4) what are further opportunities and challenges for making the long-term observation process more efficient and effective? Evaluation conclusions were that given the political context in Nepal circa 2009-2013, a case can be made that long-term monitoring of the peace process by the Carter Center was valuable for the following reasons: (1) it addressed the lack of credible information coming from the regions; (2) given the multi-faceted nature of the peace process, there was value in having a single organization that could deal holistically with all the elements of the peace process: local level peace and security, the constitutional process and the electoral process; (3) there was an openness -- perhaps even a desire -- on the part of most key political actors to have a neutral international actor that could, in the name of the CPA, help to resolve political impasses and also help keep any one group from behaving in ways that would cause the peace process to collapse; and (4) President Carter had experience and credibility with most key actors and wasn't too threatening to the Indian government. Specific evaluation findings, conclusions and recommendations are provided with detailed analysis for each evaluation question. (Excerpt, modified)