National Working Group meeting in Nepal

On 3 September 2021, the fifth Nepalese NWG meeting took place. The core of the meeting was a discussion on the challenges surrounding the implementation of the Provincial Police Act.

The meeting consisted of 13 delegates representing amongst others academia and research, the legal establishment, parliament, and civil society. There was a lively discussion about the current status of implementation of the Provincial Police Act, and the need for better coordination between federal, provincial and local government actors. The tension between decentralised police services and a centralised judiciary was mentioned as an additional challenge, as well as the step between discussing these problems and addressing them, the need for additional incentives and motivation among security actors, the need for more information to improve parliamentary oversight, and a reorientation of security forces away from more traditional interpretations of security.

The usefulness of having such coordination meetings was acknowledged, as well as the need for broader geographic representation and still more study on the role of federalism in security sector reform.