>>Good morning and welcome to Global Perspectives, I'm David Dumke.

Today we are joined by Doctor Suman Acharya who is a political science professor at UCF.

He is an expert on Nepal and climate change and environmental policies.

Welcome to the show.

>>Thank you so much, David.

I'm really happy to be here today.

>>I want to talk a little about about Nepal.

Last month there was a change in government.

There were there were violent protests.

Tell me.

Tell us a little about why that happened.

And it was led by a loose kni group called the Gen Z movement.

Tell us a little about that.

>>So last month we had a very amazing, political movement in Nepal.

So it was like a big historical moment in Nepal.

So the youngest generation, the Gen Z, they lead a big movemen against the current government.

So right now, Nepal is following the federal democratic government system.

After a long, monarchy system, Nepal entere into the federal system in 2015.

So we or the Nepal expecte to have like a good governance, which is more inclusive in many ways.

That also includes the youth voices.

However, at this time.

So these young people, they realized that the current government was not able to make their voices more inclusive.

They feel that the government is not really accountable and they do not have any transparent system.

So because of this, the country has been going through a lot of, corruption and, you know, a lot of, financial crisis at the current time.

So this led to the Gen Z movement.

And at the same time, you know, the young generation, they are more media friendly.

They are more social media friendly.

They, they are, you know, engaged in online employment and, you know, all kind of online stuff.

At this time, however, the government also banned the social media, for several reason that country was going through.

However, this was not appreciated or this was not really welcomed by the young generation who are, you know, dependent on social media for multiple purpose.

So because of these reasons, they started the movement in the September now lasted for two days.

However, this led to the you know, the collapse of the government.

And right now we hav a new interim government formed.

>>So you had before before this, this movement emerged, you had a coalition governmen that included a Communist Party and what is called the Congress Party of Nepal.

How did that coalition work or did it not work?

>>All right.

Yeah.

So after the monarch system was and the kingship was end in 2006, so, you know, the major three parties, the first one, Nepali Congress, that's the Democratic Party.

The second one is Nepal Communist Party UML so that follows the you know, communist principle.

And the next one is the Maoist party that follows the communist as well.

So they came into power and, you know, so after going through the election, so these parties started making a coalition party because, you know none of these parties were able to get the majority of, the votes.

So right no we have like these three party, you know, cultivating, you know, like, tending to partners, I would say.

And right now the CP and UML party, the Communist Party and the Congress Party, they are actually, you know, they are collided.

However, this seems to be like, you know, a very nepotism, you know, following the nepotism principle.

So they try to bring their, you know, own people into the, you know, government system.

And, you know, so they are mostly working.

And I would say that, you know, this coalition party was not working so well because they wer mostly fighting for their power.

And then, you know, for their families and, you know, for the near one who were with them, and the young generation, the Gen-Z, who led the movement, they also felt like they were out of the conversation.

Also, they were out of the you know, the government system.

And then they started, you know, this movement, the coalition, was mostly done by these parties.

And, you know the most of the leaders in these parties are quite old, like, you know, more than, like 70 or 80 years old and like, they have been in the political syste for more than 50 and 60 years.

However, we have not see any changes from these people.

I mean, we had seen some changes in the past, which was good.

However, if we see, like the current decade or, you know, like two decades, so we don't so we didn't see any kind of big changes from these people.

So like, I think that was the next reason, the coalition was not working because that was not really benefiting people in public but that was one the benefiting the public, the political leaders.

And that led to the current, changing moment.

>>I want to ask a little about the social media ban, because, you know, the government, as I understand it, said, this was done for a taxation policy, but but it also was came across probably to the young people stifling them when they're already upset with the government's performance.

Is that accurate?

>>Yeah.

That's true.

I mean, yeah.

But I would say that that's the government responsibility to handle it here, because government also need to think about the contemporary time because, you know, as most of the youth in Nepal, they are moving abroad, like for there's a question of purpose for the, you know, working or, you know, for the working purpose and these things.

So we have a very few number of, young people left in the country.

And some of these young people are, you know, really involved i social media and digital world.

They're also involved with digital economy at this time.

So, like, I think the government should have, you know, realized that, you know, they are not harming these people by banning the social media.

>>So it was perceived as not only stifling their voice, but their economic opportunities as well.

>>Yes.

Yeah.

Of course.

And then, yeah, I think like, the governments should have heard their voices.

I mean, you know, the governments should have realized that they are not harmin the voices of the young people, their engagement in digital economy and also which was benefitin the country, maybe in some ways, but also taken care of, like the, the governance issu like taxes and, and this thing.

But I think there there could be some other ways of doing that.

But that was like, you know, quite abrupt.

So, okay, the social media is banned and then, you know, like most of the things for the young generation really stopped.

And, that led to that moment again.

>>So I want to step back a little so our viewers understand a little more.

In Nepal' a country of about 31 million, and it has an interesting geographic location.

Tell us a little about about how that plays into, Nepal's politics and and history.

>>Yeah.

Okay.

So as you just talked lik Nepal is a very small country, it's, you know, bordered by India in the, east, west and southern region whereas in another region it's, surrounded by China.

So it's like a small country, between two big, you know, big part, big countries.

So, also like if we see Nepal's geography, I mean, the southern part, the middle part and the, and the northern part.

So, like, you know, like peopl there from diverse background.

And also if we see the Nepal's history, we have like, the caste system and, you know, that ranks people from high caste to low caste.

And then, you know, if we see, the reasons that are nearby, the Kathmandu or the capital are more, advanced then those regions that are, you know, very far from the country's capital.

So like, this leads to a big, you know, political division as well.

So people that have, you know, the advantage of being in the high caste and also living nearb the country's capital, they get I mean, they have like higher opportunity or political benefits.

So most of the leaders they come from are as we see are, you know, from the from these privileged background, from the high caste.

And, you know, the most advanced region of the Nepal, also, like, you know, some come from other reasons, but still they seem to be highl privileged of these backgrounds.

So I think this makes like you know, a political situation really interesting.

As I was doing one of my research, my, so while I was doin my PhD research back in Nepal.

So I did i in the kernel region of Nepal, which is, the most remotest region of Nepal.

And, you know, like it's a very crazy geography there.

And you know that people are out of opportunity and these things there.

And what I was doing my research there, I was talking with multiple people.

I was talking with different political parties as well, and also like the local people.

I was talking to the province government.

I was talking to the loca government and community people.

And I came to realize that when I was doing my fieldwork, that was in 2021, 2022.

So I didn't find a single representative from that region in the federal government.

And, you know, that leads to a big political gap in those remote reasons, I think.

And also like, you know, yeah So this matches the, you know, politics of a country.

>>So interesting how that there's, there's a difference between the capital and the outward areas.

>>Yeah.

>>And, and it's, it's location between India and China.

How has Nepal been able to balance relationships.

So landlocked countries had obviously to have not any economic activity, you need to to have working relations with China and India both how somebody able to balance or hasn't it.

>>So this is really challenging, you know question and also like the selling the situation for Nepal, you know, being a small country, you know, economically, you know, poor country, I would say, and lying between the two big, big economies at this time.

So it's been a challenge all the time.

And also at this time it's really challenging.

And, you know, like Nepal is a landlocked country.

So we have been dependin in India for, you know, import and export of the, you know, countries need, because that's the one the easiest way we have been getting to run all these things.

So it's a big challenge.

But at the same time, I think the Nepal government has played a vital role i maintaining a good relationship or friendly relationship with both China and India.

But also, you know, like, the challenges comes, all the time.

If we go back to 2016.

So there was like, docket from India, the, you know, the borders were closed.

And, you know, Nepal had to g through a very challenging time, you know, importing the goods that the country needs.

So the country didn't have fuel.

The country was lacking, you know, foodstuffs and other, you know, important stuffs.

So that led to a challenging time as well.

However, the countries I would say during that time, the Nepal government had a like withstand and, you know, like they were able to solve the problem talking with Indian government and, you know, like solving this problem.

So like that was one of th challenges that I really faced, you know, during my time when I was in Nepal.

And so like I think at this time also lik we are facing multiple talents, you know, when we have a new government or when we have some political movement, there is always like the approach of, you know, these both countries and, you know, like maintaining a relationship at the same time, maintaining the political relationships with these countries, it's challenging, but I think it's we are putting effort on that.

>>I want to talk about anothe challenge that that Nepal faces.

That is a global problem.

But it's something that's, that's, specifically, threatening to to Nepal.

And that is climate change, which is also your area of expertise.

Tell us a little about climat change and why it affects Nepal so much.

>>Yeah.

So this is an important question for me because I work on the climate change.

And I've been working in climate science for a decade now.

So as you a we talked about Nepal, you know, geographic location Nepal lies between India and China.

Nepal has a lot of mountain ranges in the northern part of the country, whereas in the southern, southern part is quiet.

It's it has like a very plain landscape, you know, so talking about biophysical impacts of climate change.

So every year the Nepal faces several climate calamities.

For example, you know, if we go to the mountains of the Nepal, the northern region.

So every year the you know, snowcapped mountains are turning into the, you know, a dark rocks.

So like the snow is melting every day and it's melting rapidly a the global temperature rising.

So due to that reason.

So we are lacking water and we are lacking the sno capped mountains in the north.

The reason that has multiple impacts, the social impact, the political impact, economic impact and cultural impact among the communities living in those periphery.

Also, not only it's it has like, the impact at the local level, but also it's impacting at the national scale and also globally, because as our mountain system becomes fragile, it's not only the problem of Nepa is the problem of entire globe, you know, so that's the one of the major problem.

And when the monsoon comes and we are facing a lot of erratic rainfall, the precipitation patter are changing rapidly every year.

Because of that the monsoons are becoming crazy.

The monsoon time you're changing.

And when we have like massive flooding, the southern plain of Nepa is always swept away every year.

And this is not only the problem of Nepal, also the bordering country, India, you know, like India and Nepal, they are the water system, like, you know, the river system.

So the flooding is also impacting India.

We can see this is happening all across the world.

So these are some kind of biophysical impacts of climate change and some other impacts like, you know, around 70 of people in Nepal are dependent on agriculture because of these changes.

The agriculture system in Nepal is going through several problems.

So the productivity of agriculture is decreasing every year.

The soil fertility is decreasing.

People that are dependent on natural resources and these agriculture system are suffering every day.

So this is like a problem of the local people in a war are really dependent on these natural resources.

And climate change is really impacting.

And, you know, climate change works as a threat multiplier because these people are already going through multiple stresses, the social stress, because, you know, their access to political party, their access to political system and institutions, their access to education system are lower in the remote part of the Nepal and when climate change happens, these people are the same community who faces, you know, the multitude of, climate change in different ways.

So climate change acts as the threat multiplier.

They, increases the social vulnerability, the political vulnerability and the institutional vulnerability of this community living there and people that comes from the, you know, underprivileged or, you know, marginalized, reasons.

And from the underprivileged social system.

Like I talked about caste system, right.

The people coming from the low caste and those who do not have like a power to risk the political systems that they faced, this kind of, impact.

>>So, so I want to ask on, on that and given a earlier part of our conversation, government instability seems seems linked to this problem that Nepal has to face.

And even if its policies were great.

And I'll ask you about those in a minute on on environment and climate change.

Even if Nepal's policies were great, they're part of it's a global problem.

So the problem is going to come well, irrespective of what the government actually does.

What have they done?

>>Yeah.

So I would say Nepal has done a lot of great work, in addressing the impacts of climate change and other environmental challenges, for example, Nepal has built the climate change policy.

So it has, also developed some local level climate adaptation and mitigation programs and policies at the national scale.

It has like national adaptation plans and programs.

Apart from these different like forest policy, environmental policy.

So it has done a great job.

However, I would say that was not enough.

And, you know, like, Nepa is still putting effort on that.

So, although doing all thos things, I mean, you know, doing a massive progress in policy.

So we are still facing, the impact of climate change.

So one thing was like, what I think, based on my own research, is like, the country has not been able to bring the real voices of the community who are really suffering from the climate change.

So as those communities ar suffering from climate change, I think the voices from those community is crucial in developing the policy.

That's what we are lacking, I guess.

The policy system is not inclusive because this communit does not get a chance to engage in, you know, to decision making while policy forming.

And also they do not get, at the inclusive environment while planning and implementation phases of this program.

So because of that, their voices, are missed.

And, you know, at thi these days, we have been talking about the indigenous knowledge system, right.

And the traditional knowledge system, because we know that the communities that are living at the local level, they have been adapting to are in a mitigating the climate challenges fo several decades and centuries.

However, these day we are driving these adaptation policies and program through the technocratic lenses.

So we have been working on scientific knowledge system.

How?

And we miss the indigenous knowledge system.

I think if we can breathe these our, you know, the technical, the technical knowledge system the scientific knowledge system with the indigenous knowledge system that would really help to bring the local knowledge system into the policy.

And then we blending of these knowledge system would really help.

But I would also argue that, the indigenous knowledge system and the traditional knowledge system, the local knowledge system are really important.

That shows that how our communities were resilient in the past and how we have, you know, become weaker in the current time.

So I think that's really important.

So that's, that's one of the need.

And the next thin is like the institutional gap, although we have like an institution set up like the federal government, provincial government and the local government, I see some form of conflict between these governments vertically and also horizontally among the government.

And the is the skills.

So I think there is a lack of trust between the you know, the government because, you know we have a coalition government that also brings the issue of trust.

So the lack of the trust and they have like, and the system of information sharing among this government is very weak.

That's what I found in my research.

So I think we need to have like a very strong institutional mechanism.

And the next one is like the resources.

So Nepal lacks resources.

It's a very small country, you know, like and it doesn't have like a big economy.

And, you know, it's facing the climate change and it is also dependen the international institutions and forums for climate, funding.

So, you know, for example, the UNFCCC, it gives lik some sort of funding to Nepal.

And we are also dependent on Green Climate Fund an some other international aids.

However there is lack of accountability and transparency of this fund because these funds go into the federal government system.

However-- >>There's not accountability.

>>Yeah, there's not accountability.

But the policy says that 80% of these initiative funds and the fund that is, you know, set up by the country's budget for climate change, the 80% should go to the community level.

However we don't have that record yet.

And like, you know, we don't have information about that.

So I think like, the fund are buried at the federal system and they are not held to the local governments and the communities who are really-- >>On the frontline.

>>Yes.

The frontline.

>>Well, given that though you, you you also mentioned that, you know, Nepal becam a democracy relatively recently, through its history as a monarchy before, I think you said 2016.

Do you see any improvement in services or governance since that change of government, or do you see the potential for improvement?

>>I think the system has brought a lot of changes, both positive and negative changes.

So talking about the positive change, so at this time, I think people are getting, you know, a lot of freedom of their voice, you know, and however, if I talk about the negative side, I mean, the people are, you know, the elite communities that are utilizing this freedom a lot.

So at this time we have, like, the local government system and province government system, official government system.

So I think this is principle really, you know, a great system.

You know, if they can act practically in delivering the power through the system to the local community, that will be the great I also try to see the how the federal government was giving authority to the local community, how they were trying to, you know, empower the local community.

But I see, like, you know, most of the elite people are, you know, the politically elite people in the local, level they were able to deliver is that, benefit however, the frontline community who are suffering from climate since we're not able to I think this has also challenged because, the bureaucratic system is really challenging.

And this system in particular, the in the case of Nepal.

So, while I was doing my research, I got a lot of frustration from the bureaucrats that are working in climate adaptation and, you know, climate policies in from all three scales of the governments, the challenges they were facing was, like, you know, the lack of information sharing between the between the government, the lack of sharing of the resources between the government and when they receive the international funds for the climate change.

So they want their acces at the local and federal system.

However, the accountability and transparency is again the problem.

So I think that that's the area, we need to work in the federal system to enhance the, you know, climate adaptation and climate policies.

>>So we're running out of time.

So just very briefly, the the Gen Z movement and this change in the of an Indian prime minister right now is this is this a positive developmen in the greater scheme of things?

>>I think, yes.

Because, you know, we have been going through a lot of corruption problem for a long time.

The nepotism is the next problem.

So the Ge Z were also trying to highlight the nepotism that was happening, you know, the luxurious life of the political leaders.

And their you know, younger generation has, you know, put this Gen Z movemen into the fire because, you know, there was a trend in TikTok and some other platforms, the nepo-kids, I mean, they were talkin about these political parties, the political leaders and their younger generatio who were living the lavish life in different, you know, part of the world.

But the those local people, I mean, those young people living in Nepal were having a hard time to maintain their everyday livelihood.

So that was like a big reason.

You know, bringing the issues of transparency and accountability and corruption was the main reason to bring this, moment in effect.

Personally, I think the country is going to go into a massive change after this.

So I think that, but also it's a challenge how to move forward in coming days, like how to mak the government more transparent.

And accountability is also a problem.

So I think we are going to see some changes in a few months or a year.

I still doubt on that but I'm looking forward to it.

I'm still positive fo the positive changes in Nepal.

>>Dr.

Suman Acharya thank yo very much for joining us today.

>>Yeah.

Thank you so much for having me here.

>>And thank you for joining us.

We'll see you again next week on another episode of Global Perspectives.