SUSTAINABILITY OF THE PROJECT

The project was implanted in a situation of no peace and no war, just after the end of a decade-long violent conflict in Nepal. The violent conflict in Nepal had destroyed the rural infrastructures and caused massive displacements of populations from rural areas resulting into negatively impacted livelihood opportunities. Though the peace process had started inadequate attention was given to rural issues, concerns and the demands of those who have been deeply affected by the conflict, which caused heightened frustrations amongst people left by mainstream development. Therefore, the project was adopted by local communities and national level stakeholders as it was able to address the needs of local people basically through livelihood opportunities and was responsive to the national priorities and policies of tourism and environment management.

During the initial project period, the government mechanism was fragile in the local area due to the transition leading to frequent changes in the government .The DDCs and VDCs were operated by the all party mechanism as there had not been election since last 15 years. The all party mechanism had their own vestal interest and tourism and environment management had never been a development priority .Never the less, NETIF maintained good rapport with DDC, VDC and CBOs. These public relations of the project had paved the way for minimizing conflict and duplication of the project in the project area.

NETIF enhanced the existing organizational structure, managerial skills, and financial management systems manage the project. The project management structure is divided into central and local levels. At the central level, A Project Management Unit was established. The Project Management Unit comprised of Project Manager, Project Coordinator, Field Coordinator, Admin and Finance Assistant and a Support staff. Similarly Filed level offices were set up in Mulkharka, Chisapani, Nagarkot, Dhulikhel and Panauti which were headed by Project Officers. The field offcie is fully responsible for assessing the target groups’ demands and implementing project activities in the respective areas. The Project management unit is based in Lazimpat kathmandu and responsible for monitoring, supervision and the fallow up of the project activities.

The project management unit gave high priority to the selection of the CBOs by involving stakeholders to avoid conflict regarding selection process. Similarly, the project provided technical and other needed expertise to CBOs to identify the needs and local level planning in tourism and environment. The project worked on creating an enabling environment for the community people so that they would be able to undertake the project initiatives with their own ownership and participation. In addition to it, NETIF also organized several experience sharing meetings annually for the national level stakeholders .The key objective of the national experience sharing and policy feedback were to improve networking and linkages of project with other related agencies and to influence the policy making bodies to formulate, amend and update government policies, strategies and guidelines related to tourism and environment etc. The key stakeholders included representatives from SOUMEN LATU, Social Welfare Council (SWC), MoCCTA, NTB, FOREST ACTION, ICIMOD, Kathmandu University, TAAN and so forth. These national stakeholder meetings gave an opportunity for the project to coordinate its activities with different actors in involved to garner their support and cooperation, sharing experiences and improve the performance of the project. Similarly, with a view to keep the local communities informed about the achievements, constraints and challenges of the project, Project Officers are placed in the respective area who regularly organized community interaction meetings, whereby CBOs would present their activities and achievements. The project officers also participate in other related community meetings organized/hosted by the VDCs and other tourism related organizations working in the respective areas.

NETIF maintained a functional relationship with MoCTA, Social Welfare Council and SOUMEN LATU and maintained coordination with NTB, Kathmandu University, TAAN, HAN, at national level.The day to day supervision and monitoring of the project activities was ensured by the Project Management Unit established in Lazimpat, Kathmandu. Regular monitoring mission from SOUMEN LATU, Socail Welfare Council helped the project to remain on proper track as agreed in project design through their analysis and feedback.

Since the project was implemented in the transition phase, it experienced a number of logistic difficulties during implementation. The logistic difficulties were related to transition, geographical barriers, power cuts, poor basic infrastructure in the project area and poor communication coordination among the community people and field staff.

NETIF adopted the sustainability approach right from the beginning of the project implementation. It ensured community ownership and participation in planning, implementation and management of the project from the preparatory to handover phase and enhanced the skills and capacity in tourism management accordingly to the local inhabitants who are less likely to migrate to other areas. The project activities were harmonized with the policies and program of Government of Nepal, private sectors and I/NGOs working in similar area. Maximum utilization of local resources local architect and traditional design and technology were utilized while constructing the infrastructures. Similarly eco-friendly technologies and construction materials were utilized to ensure environment sustainability.

It made several efforts on harmonizing its activities with the regular activities of the government line agencies and local bodies through joint planning and monitoring workshops and meetings. Additionally NETIF has been conducting activities that support environment protection such as plantation along the trail and environment awareness programs throughout the project period. The community people were also educated on the environment degradation and its impact on livelihood and sustainable tourism development. The awareness boards on environment, tourism and biodiversity were prepared and placed along the trail with the help of local community. The environment and heritage fund were created and donation boxes were distributed to the each CBO to generate finance for waste management locally. The CBO members were extensively trained in local level planning, environment awareness, cleanups and maintenance of community houses and information centres. Similarly, the products, and services developed by the entrepreneurs are linked with the buyers through the support in the participation in fairs, direct exposure visit and interaction meetings between buyers and produces. In future, it is likely that they will collaborate to form a business chain for the mutual benefits at local and regional level.

NETIF strengthened and mobilized the already established CBOs rather than forming new ones in the beginning of project implementation. Most of the CBOs are growing as emerging grassroots organization for tourism and environment initiatives. The CBOs are either legally registered or are affiliated with government line agencies and local bodies. Similarly the CBOs have already developed the capacity to influence and pull the resources from other agencies. Additionally they have knowledge on the services available to them from government line agencies and local bodies. The authorities of local bodies and government line agencies are aware of the multiplier effects of mobilizing CBOs for local development initiatives and they have already started mobilizing them. CBOs are also harmonizing their Annual Work Plan with the regular activities of government line agencies and local bodies. Hence in future CBOs will receive financial supports for the renovation and the construction of trails, community houses, information centres from local bodies and government line agencies in absence of the project. The Project do not have a separate phase out strategy, however it has been incorporated in the 2013 plan. Therefore In this phase following activities were successfully initiated before the project phased out.

a) Transfer of the projects learning to other development partners through the sharing of community centered tourism development model through workshop at national level.
b) CBOs will be prepared to function independently by additional training and support.
c) The local bodies and government line agencies will be informed on the phase-out of the project
d) The product and services of entrepreneurs will be linked with the buyers (markets) for the establishment of a loose market chain between them.
e) The CBOs members were trained in repair maintenance to ensure that they will be able have the system repaired by themselves in the absence of the project.

The next stages of the project implementation will be:

• continuously implemented the ongoing project activities planned for the final year ,
• Transfer of the projects learning to other development partners through the sharing of community centered tourism development model through workshop at national level.
• CBOs will be prepared to function independently by additional training and support.
• The local bodies and government line agencies will be informed on the phase-out of the project.
• The product and services of entrepreneurs will be linked with the buyers (markets) for the establishment of a loose market chain between them.
• The CBOs members were trained in repair maintenance to ensure that they will be able have the system repaired by themselves in the absence of the project.
• Identifying new project opportunities for 2014 onwards.