Nepal Dialogues Summit 2024 Concludes

Background

Nepal’s transition to a federal, secular republic underlines the need for effective dialogue to navigate its diverse social, cultural, and political complexities arise. The inevitable differences must be celebrated and conflicts that arise thereof, must be dealt pragmatically. The difference and divergences, and multiplied expectations of people can arise at the national, provincial and local community levels, therefore necessitating the proliferation of dialogue as a peacebuilding tool. As an established cultural practice in Nepal, dialogue nurtures the open exchange of ideas, offering equitable solutions to disputes. This process provides practical suggestions, helping Nepalis from differed backgrounds adapt to the changing state. In this context, dialogue has become effective tools in peacebuilding collectively.

Thus, takes birth of Nepal Dialogue Nepal Initiatives (NDI) for which Nepal Forum for Restorative Justice is a Co-Founder and Secretariat. NDI is a collective effort by dialogue practitioners to promote the culture of dialogue in Nepal. In the context of encouraging recognition of diversity and the need to address conflicts that may arise from these differences, NDI caters as a loose forum where organizations and individuals converge to practice dialogue collaboratively. They come together to exchange their knowledge, skills, and resources, employing the power of dialogue for peacebuilding in Nepal.

Nepal Dialogues Summit 2024

Stepping on the legacy of the previous summit, the Nepal Dialogues Initiative hosted the Third Nepal Dialogue Summit on 20-21 November 2024, celebrating the anniversary of Nepal’s Comprehensive Peace Accord (CPA). The summit emphasized on expanding the integration of dialogue practices across Nepal’s various sectors—government, civil society, and private sectors; promoting the understanding and application of intercultural dialogue, with a particular focus on enhancing peace and social cohesion in Nepal; and strengthening networks among dialogue practitioners and peacebuilders in the country. This historic event was the result of continuous and collaborative effort of all members affiliated with Nepal Dialogues Initiative. The summit provided a platform to deepen the commitment to peacebuilding and foster greater cooperation among diverse stakeholders. 

More than 75 individuals attended the two-day summit representing various non-governmental and governmental organizations. Participations were from 32 social organizations working at national and international levels. Out of 75 participants, 44 of them were female and 31 of them were males. 

The Summit Flow: During this summit, participants were encouraged to delve into their lived experience of dialogue making, sharing ideas and gain the ideas about dialogues, and various sessions such as the role of government on dialogue, advocacy pathways for inclusion and social change, a dialogue showcasing and celebrating Nepali Peacemaking, workshop on dialogue in Nepal’s post-conflict context, etc.

The summit was composed of several layers of activity, information gathering in circle session and events:

• Inauguration, welcome and introduction, commemorating CPA, remarks from guests and supporters about dialogues, a keynote speech, and panel discussions.
• Four sessions on the first day that engaged participants in active discussions on knowledge sharing, excavating into multidimensional layers of dialogues per se dialogue showcasing and celebrating Nepali peacebuilding, workshop on Dialogue in Nepal’s Post-conflict context, dialogue in interfaith conflicts using intercultural approaches, dialogue in governance conflicts and expanding civil spaces leading to closing circle were equally enthusiastic attraction of the events.
• Four interaction sessions including panel discussions and group works on day two which brought the participants together as small group and large group divided into peacebuilding approaches leading to seeking and utilizing support systems via knowledge gained from panel discussion on how international agencies (GPF, UMN, KW, GIZ, TAF, PBI) can support NDI and dialogue movement in Nepal, highlighting on organizational pathways, NDC, membership reflections on the NDI structures, seeking road ahead in 2025 and beyond by Group-brainstorming including Declaration for NDS 2024.
• NDS declaration for 2025 and beyond. 

On the first day, the inauguration ceremony was conducted followed by the introduction of 34 co-organizers. After this the event turned into serious commemoration of two Nepali peacemakers late Padma Ratna Tuladhar and late Damannath Dhungana remembering CPA. Stalwart lifelong peacemaker cum guardian of Nepal Dialogues Initiative, Stella Tamang felicitated honourable member of Nepal Human Rights Commission, Dr. Lily Thapa for her remarkable contribution in peacebuilding in Nepal. 

In the first thematic session, Session A: Dialogue showcasing and celebrating Nepali peacebuilding was conducted by Ms. Upasana Rana from WHR. The session B, called Dialogue workshop 1: Dialogue in Nepal’s post-conflict context led by NFRJ, ProPublic, Nagarik Aawaz, WHR. This event turned to be soul of the event by engaging all the participants in creative expressive mode. The third session of the day was on “Dialogue workshop 2: Dialogue in interfaith conflicts using intercultural approaches”. this workshop was facilitated by Samagra, IPFN and UMN. The fourth concluding session was Dialogue workshop 2: Dialogue in interfaith conflicts using intercultural approaches. It was part of the IGD, COCAP, CSC, TAF, Sahakarmi Samaj. 

Day two of the summit had overall four sessions. The Session E: NDI and the dialogue movement in Nepal Reflections and Deflections was conducted by Sadhu Ram Tamang, Peace Advisor, GIZ-CPS and Kishor Chaudhari from PBI shared their invaluable learnings on peacebuilding. Afte this event, Ram Tiwari (Executive Director of Nepal Forum for Restorative Justice) unpacked NDI support systems Panel discussion on how international agencies (GPF, UMN, KW, GIZ, TAF, PBI) can support NDI and dialogue movement in Nepal. The next session, Session G was Organizational pathways: NDC, membership Reflections on the NDI structures. Dichhya from NFRJ and Sharad Neupane (Executive Director, Asian Academy of peace, research and development) facilitated the session. The summit concluded with Plan for 2025 and Beyond by Group-brainstorming including Declaration for NDS 2024, Certificate distributions to the co-organizers and lastly the closing remarks from Ms. Stella Tamang.