Tag Archives: Nepal

Chicken, Strikes and Power Cuts: Doing Field Research on Peace and Democracy in Nepal

This a guest post by Yvonne Blos, a young professional in the field of development cooperation. She is currently about to start a position on rule of law and governance issues in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa.

Nepal1

In the context of a postgraduate course in development cooperation at the German Development Institute (DIE), I set off as part of a team of five young researchers to find out if and how the donor community supported the transition to peace and democracy in Nepal. It is part of a larger research project on state fragility at the DIE.

Nepal is a typical post-conflict country that struggles to achieve peace and democracy. From 1996 to 2006, Nepal suffered from a civil war between the Nepalese state and a Maoist rebel group. Overall, the peace process is seen as relatively successful: the Maoist army has been transformed into a political party and the monarchy was abolished. However, there have been some major setbacks and the current process is marked by political instability.

Continue reading Chicken, Strikes and Power Cuts: Doing Field Research on Peace and Democracy in Nepal