Snapshot of Local Security and Justice Perceptions in Selected Districts of Nepal

District assessment findings

After more than a decade of conflict, Nepal is now on the road to consolidating democracy and forging a sustainable peace. This has provided opportunities for building state infrastructure and further strengthening security and justice provision in response to the needs of Nepal’s citizens. While ongoing and emerging political and security challenges, as well as inadequate resources, have challenged the strengthening and further improvement of effective, accountable, and accessible security and justice sector institutions, there are also examples where security and justice providers are able to reach out to citizens and collaborate with them to make local security and justice provision more people-centred and effective. Clear opportunities exist for further strengthening effective security and justice provision and, in turn, improving the real and perceived public safety, security, and justice of the Nepali people.

This report investigates the security- and justice-related experiences and perceptions of people living in nine districts in Nepal, representing geographically, ethnically, and economically diverse communities. It focuses specifically on assessing the perceptions of various stakeholders – including communities (with input from men and women for a gender perspective), local authorities, the private sector, and security and justice providers – on local public safety, security, and justice and how these have changed over the past two years, as well as key causes of insecurity. Some of the problems highlighted are specific to certain groups, while others are more generally shared.

Key findings from the research point to:

• Women have a sense of declining security in recent years

• Weak rule of law and impunity are the key structural cause of insecurity

• The private sector continues to be undermined by insecurity.

Read an article by Ojaswi Shah and Anurag Acharya on the current security situation in Nepal.

“Overall, security is perceived to have improved... and reflects positive efforts taken by security and justice agencies to strengthen the effectiveness of security and justice provision, as well as progress in the wider peace process.”