Seminars, Discussions and Dialogues
Each year , NCCS has been organizing national level seminars and regional seminars covering South-Asia. In January 2004, a national seminar on Participatory Democracy in Nepal was organized in Kathmandu. The papers of the seminar have been published as an edited volume Nepal: Quest for Participatory Democracy. A regional seminar on Non-traditional Security: State, Society and Democracy in South Asia was organized on 16 and 17 November 2004 in Kathmandu, publication of which is titled Non-traditional Security: State, Society and Democracy in South Asia and Nepal.

NCCS organized a two day regional seminar on Restructuring the State in South Asia, in Pokhara on 28 and 29 April 2007. Papers were presented and discussions held on Indian, Pakistani, Sri Lankan and Bangladeshi perspectives, caste, ethnicity and gender perspectives, and Madhesh perspectives on restructuring of the state.

With support from the Enabling State Program of UK government's Department for International Department (DFID), NCCS launched a new but necessary debate on possible restructuring of the Nepali state. Three seminars on Restructuring of the State were organized in Biratnagar, Nepalgunj and Pokhara in February and March 2004. Among the participants of the seminars were political leaders, academics, lawyers and journalists.

NCCS also initiated monthly discussion programmes with Restructuring of the State as the series theme. A programme in June 2004 was on Contemporary Politics and Restructuring of the State. Present Politics and Constituent Assembly was the topic in July 2004. Third discussion was entitled Shanti Baarta: Kasle Ra Ke Ka Lagi (Peace Dialogue: by Whom and for What) and held in September 2004. Looking back after three years, it is pleasing to observe the trajectory and the proportion this agenda of Restructuring of the State has acquired.

With International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assessment (International IDEA), NCCS organized a Dialogue on Constitution Building in Nepal on 13 November 2005 in Lalitpur. The dialogue brought together people of diverse political, social and knowledge backgrounds to focus on constitution building in Nepal and facilitated their sharing of knowledge, experiences and opinions. Participants included representatives of different social movements, NGOs, political parties and academia.

On 15 May 2006, NCCS organized two consultation meetings with politicians closely involved in political decisions and activities from different sides. Various current political issues, including the Constituent Assembly, were discussed. International IDEA and Yash Ghai, an expert on constitutionalism, also contributed to the discussions.

NCCS organized a one-day discussion programme Present Politics and Constituent Assembly in Jhapa on 18 May 2006.

A seminar Restructuring the Nepali State: External Dimensions was organized on 24 September 2006 Professor S.D. Muni from India, Chakra Prasad Bastola, Jhala Nath Khanal and Dr Baburam Bhattarai were the invited speakers.

Workshops

With an objective of upgrading social scientists, NCCS has been providing training to young scholars through residential workshops. The purpose of the workshops is to enhance the capacity of fresh social scientists through interactions with scholars, party leaders and leading activists from Nepal and other South Asian Countries. Six residential workshops have already been organized with continuous support from the Ford Foundation:

he theme of this year's workshop, on 21-30 January 2007, was Constitution Making, Restructuring the Nepali State and Research Methodology. This is a part of the project on Restructuring the Nepali State and Democratic Sustainability funded by the Ford Foundation. Altogether fifteen young scholars with different disciplinary background of social sciences participated in this workshop. The Centre gives preference to female and university teachers of political science.

The topics covered were:

1. Constitution Making and State Restructuring: Thematic Discussion
2. Retrospect on Political/Constitutional Development in Nepal
3. Conflict Resolution, Peace Building and Constitution Making
4. Constituent Assembly and Constitution Making Process
5. Inclusion in Constitution Making: Modalities and Contents
6. Federalism
7. Ethnicity and State restructuring
8. Regional Movements and Madhesi Politics
9. Marginalized Group and State Restructuring Agenda: Gender and Dalit Perspectives
10. Political Parties and Inclusive Democracy
11. Local Democracy and People's Empowerment
12. Social Science Research in Nepal
13. Research on Inclusive Democracy
14. Research Methodology: Sampling
15. Field Survey Techniques and Experiences

Orientation on research methodology is a part of the workshops and is followed by a fieldwork program in which the participants of the workshop are expected to apply their theoretical knowledge gained in the workshop. After the workshop of 2007, a questionnaire survey on Constitution-Making and State Restructuring in Nepal was conducted from 2 to 14 February 2007. In 2006, 30 surveyors had crisscrossed 21 parliamentary constituencies across the country in May 2006 to survey on State Restructuring and Consolidation of Democracy. Qualitative interviews had been conducted in 2005.

Democracy in South Asia
NCCS is also a host institution of the Nepal chapter of State of Democracy in South Asia project with Dr. Krishna Hachhethu as Country Coordinator. The project is making a comprehensive assessment of democracy at the same time in five countries of South Asia and is coordinated by the Center for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), Delhi in partnership with International Institute of Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA) based in Stockholm. In addition to other research tools used in the project, a sample survey was conducted in 163 polling stations across 39 electoral constituencies of Nepal mobilizing 70 enumerators in August-September 2004. Opinions of 3,249 respondents on various issues about democracy were taken and report published. Besides the national report, South Asia report has also been published by CSDS.

Second phase of the survey in Nepal was conducted in March-April 2007 with support from International IDEA. It is a loose panel survey. Besides respondents, many questions from the earlier survey have also been repeated, allowing for understanding of dynamics of political perceptions as well. Opinions of 4089 people around the country have been collected.

Study of Electoral Violence in Nepal

A 6-month long research project on Study of Electoral Violence in Nepalwas conducted in Palpa, Dhanusha and Kathmandu from June to March 2006. Three Focused Group Discussions were held in Janakpur on 22 July, Tansen on 5 August and Kathmandu on 18 August 2006. Prof. Lok Raj Baral was involved as the coordinator, Druba Kumar as researcher and Dr. Pancha Narayan Maharjan as Focused Group Discussion Coordinator. It was financed by UNDP and aimed to study elections, to identify problems of free and fair elections and to recommend reforms on elections.

Nepal : Democracy and Constituent Assembly

With grant from the Rights, Inclusion and Democracy Fund through the Enabling State Program, NCCS initiated a project Nepal: Democracy and Constituent Assembly. The project is designed to contribute to democratic transition through the election of Constituent Assembly. It has two components of activities, research and dialogues, and has two phases.

The first phase, which is over, was aimed at educating the people about the Constituent Assembly (CA) and understanding the people's expectation from the CA though organizing local dialogues. For this purpose and for dissemination of knowledge and publications, the NCCS has developed an informal network at local level in five different places, one from each of the five development regions. The Centre is also mobilizing both the local and national media, i.e., newspapers, FM radio and television for public dissemination of knowledge on CA and related issues.

The first phase of the project concentrated on two aspects of the processes of the CA. First, the process of the CA inevitably begins with the negotiation with the CPN (Maoist). A lot of questions are involved in this aspect, i.e. negotiations, peace agreement, interim parliament and government, management of the Maoist arms, adjustment of the Maoist's guerillas, dissolution of the Maoist's jana sarkar (government at various levels), mediation by UN or international community etc. NCCS had engaged the people representing different political parties, and also the Maoist, on the given issues. It organized 2 meetings with the representatives of political parties, 1 national dialogue, and 5 local dialogues involving the people from different walk of life, party and ethnic activists, academics, media, civil society members etc. The issues emerging from such local and national dialogues would be helpful to both the Maoist and other political parties to find out the most pragmatic way out for holding CA election. Knowledge was disseminated and feedback taken during the dialogues. A booklet incorporating all feedbacks from national and local dialogues has been published and is being disseminated.

By making a rapid research, a team has prepared a concept paper on Constituent Assembly in Nepal, based on literature review, analysis of documents of the political parties including those of CPN (Maoist), media reporting, and findings of local and national dialogues. People's understanding of CA expressed in dialogues both at national and local level are valuable information for the finalization of the paper.

As the first phase of the project, completed in March 2007, covered the theme of CA and associated questions in the light of complexity of transitional politics, the second phase will concentrate more on key contents of new constitution to be made by the members of CA. To be undertaken after the election of CA, it will concentrate on contents and modality of the Constituent Assembly.

Research Fellowships

In December 2003, NCCS awarded three junior research fellowships to new researchers of social sciences. Researches were done on the following topics: Looking into Social Dimension of Dam Building: A Case from Kali Gandaki Hydro Project with its Impacts on the Livelihood of Bote Community; Decentralization in Nepal: A Case Study of Rupandehi District; International Linkages of Maoist Insurgency in Nepal.

Again, in September 2004 other five researchers were given fellowships for researches on the following topics: Arjun Bahadur Ayadi: Party Politics after Royal Takeover (October 2002), Bal Chandra Mishra: A Comparative Study of the Communist Movements in India and Nepal, Manita Pradhan: Women's Participation in Local Governance: A Case Study of Matatirtha and Machhegaun VDCs, Pimpa Chemjong: Athpaharia Rai: Ethnicity and Their Access in Politics/Power, Sanjeeb Ghimire: Role of Civil Society in Negotiated Resolution of Maoist Conflict in Nepal

Publications
NCCS regularly publishes books, occasional papers and journals. Books published by NCCS are

Publications in NCCS Occasional Paper Series and their authors are

NCCS also publishes a journal Nepali Journal of Contemporary Studies biannually.