From 2010-2014, Dr. Poorna Adhikary, an Accredited CPSC Peace Professional, undertook peacebuilding work with senior leaders of major political parties of Nepal. This involved finding consensus among them in the constitution writing process. At times, when their talks ended with deadlock, he was called upon as a Civil Society “activist” to bring them to the dialogue table. In addition, together with some colleagues, he was also an observer in the past Constituent Assembly elections.
Dr. Poorna, as he is commonly known, has also joined friends to establish the Lamjung Skill Development Foundation (LSDF), as a strategy for economic peacebuilding. The objective is to provide skill training to out-of-school youth and link them to employment and/or self-employment schemes. This has turned out to be very satisfying work. In 2015 they trained 20 youth, their alumni, as Master Trainers to build schools and community halls as well as to train local youth in earthquake resilient construction technology. They are now, with these youth, building schools in remote areas of Nepal which were destroyed by last year’s earthquakes.
Furthermore, through public-private cooperation and community participation, they have also introduced employment oriented vocational skills in a college in rural Nepal. The objective in this case is to provide education to youth who currently have no scope for employment. They are currently trying to extend this initiative to other colleges as well.
As if the above is not enough to have kept Dr. Poorna busy, in 2014 and 2015 he was also a part time Country Facilitator of LOGIN Asia, a network of institutions and persons working in local governance in 12 countries of Asia. This involved travel to a few countries like Bhutan, Bangladesh, Thailand and Cambodia. Finally, he is also Chairman of Communication and Management Institute (COMAT), which has been implementing a bilateral Swiss-Nepal project called Strengthening Accountability of Local Government Bodies (SALG). Unfortunately, due to budget cuts, this project will end on July 15, 2016.