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Livable Cities-Nepal

Final Narrative Report

September 2016 to August 2017

Background

he world is undergoing the largest wave of urban growth in history. More than half of the world’s population now lives in towns and cities, and by 2030 this number will swell to about 5 billion. Much of this urbanization will unfold in Africa and Asia, bringing huge social, economic and environmental

transformations.

Urbanization has the potential to usher in a new era of well-being, resource efficiency and economic growth. But cities are also home to high concentrations of energy consumption and commercial viability in cost of health and environment vulnerability. Developing countries, like Nepal, are facing many challenges as a result of increasing urbanization.

Non communicable disease (NCDs) cause 63% of deaths globally and nearly 80% of

deaths in low and middle income countries (WHO 2010). In Nepal, more than 50%

of deaths are caused by NCDs.In the last one decade the disease prevalence shifted

from communicable disease to NCDs. The health of the Nepali population is greatly

affected by the state of its cities. In cities, there is a notion on ensuring that the city

is supportive of motorized vehicles rather than pedestrians. Evidence of this can be

found when looking at both the state of the non-motorized transportation (NMT)

environment and at the budgets allocated NMT. Public transportation options are

poorly coordinated and there is a serious lack of routes in Kathmandu. According to

a recent report more than 500 motorbikes are sold every month in Kathmandu only.

Poor public transportation facility and risk of pedestrians in city is encouraging

purchase of more private vehicles. Parks and public spaces are poorly managed and

under constant threat of encroachment and privatization. Car and truck drivers use

high volume horns, which creates noise pollution and as a result people are losing

their hearing. Other than this, the factors contributing to NCDs are food choices.

There is emerging evidence that the people are switching from fruits and vegetables

to processed foods high in fat, sugar, and salt.

RECPHEC, with a vision of ensuring people’s rights to health, has been working

constantly on public health issues during the last two decades. RECPHEC, has been

working on Urban Health issues like noise pollution, campaign against polythene

bags, vehicle regulated zone , pedestrian rights ,junk food advertisement, open

spaces and recently on public market spaces in partnership with Healthbridge

Foundation, Canada. In addition RECPHEC’S Health Right and Tobacco Control

Network in 57 districts has also been advocating on some of these issues across the

districts.

T

The major activity undertaken taken this year by RECPHEC was continuation of the

“Ktm walks” campaign to promote open streets along with rights of pedestrians.

This issue of pedestrian rights has been addressing through public support,

campaign and policy level workshops and meetings. This year we were able to see

positive initiation taken by government side to in support of pedestrians. The public

markets in Kathmandu are also being threatened by modern concept of cities with

super markets marginalizing small scale traders. This concept not only decreases

easy and affordable accessibility to healthy food but also risk local vendors from

their business. In this phase we have made an effort to approach more communities

as possible to communicate about the existing situation of beautiful public space as

courtyards that already exists but are being misused for parking purposes.

Following are the updates of activities conducted for this phase. Since we had, local

level election held this year, we have now opportunity to advocate for liveable city

with stable institute of government authorities in next coming phase.

Access to Healthy Transportation

1. Walkability Audit:

In many developing countries, a large number of citizen walk as part of their daily social, recreational and livelihood activities. In case of

Kathmandu, a study by Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transportation (MoPIT) in 2011 showed that the travel mode share of walking is 40.7 percent whereas private vehicle is only 28.2 percent.

However the share of walking is declined by more than 23 percent in last two decade. This is mainly because the plans and policies and

infrastructure development that were adopted are almost exclusively vehicle centric, discouraging walking and even cycling. And there are no policies that specifically address pedestrian. With the objective to provide

qualitative assessment of walking situation of the KMC respective to pedestrian’s right, we have proposed this study. The study provides

information on the current pedestrian infrastructure in Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) and can be used to develop and propose

pedestrian friendly solutions. The result of study could develop interest among policy makers and city officials and help them to improve walking in the city. The research protocol has been developed and a pilot survey

had been conducted with the prepared tools. Similarly training has been

conducted for the eight volunteers to perform the survey in fields. The

field survey has been completed. But the final report and dissemination would be done in next phase.

Orintation program for LC youth Volunteers

Pilot Survey conducted by one of the Volunteer

2. “Ktm Walks” Campaign

After continuous meeting and lobby for the continuation of “Ktm Walks” campaign, the community of Kilagal finally , said they are will to continue the campaign once every month in their community. As per the planning, the “ktm walks” campaign was conducted in the month of September, October and February. But unfortunately,

because of ongoing KUKL(Nepal Water Corporation) project, the community could not organize the campaign in other months. This project currently is inserting pipelines across the city to incorporate new water channel from Melamchi. Thus, the major part of the streets is under construction. In case of Thamel, because of internal political conflict in TTDC, they had stopped the entire program in Thamel for the time being. On follow up, recently, they said that all the matters had been sorted out and they would soon call us for meeting. On, the other hand, the community along with other partners and stakeholder are trying to lobby for this campaign to be included in yearly plan and budget of KMC. Since, we have new Chief appointed in Heritage and Tourism Department (Ms Archana Shrestha) of KMC; we have to reproach with the concept all over again. We have introduced our self with one meeting already. And we got positive response from the new chief to begin with but still we need to continue our lobby with KMC on this regard. Along with ongoing campaign, we are also trying to promote and replicate this campaign in other areas of Kathmandu valley. With this aim, our team went on to visit Lalitpur Sub Metropolitan City (LSMPC). We met with Chief of Environment Department Mr Pradeep Amatya and Program officer Ms. Sarita Maharjan of Public Health Department and submitted our publication materials related to “Ktm Walks”. They seemed positive to the idea and requested us to give a brief description to the CEO and other department of LSMPC so that, all of them can work together. We would soon visit the LSMPC as soon as their strike ends.

Ktm walks campaign, September 17,2016

Ktm walk for few hours in morning. (open vegetable market)

Meanwhile talking about “Ktm walks” campaign we also, brought up the issue of promoting non motorised transportation in Lalitpur. We have proposed some possible ideas; hopefully we will be able to work in collaboration with LSMPC as well to promote non motorised transportation in Lalitpur. In month of April and May, even though the physical state of road was not appropriate but still Kilagal celebrated “ktm walks” for few hours in morning.

RECPHEC also, organized a meeting with core team member where we invited consultant Mr. Keshav Joshi of KSUTP project under ADB, where we expressed that the project of ADB may be technically sound but misses the part where it is accessible for people to walk and cycle. Mr. Joshi gave a very positive response and assured that he would discuss the issue with the project member. The local election held after 20 years have changed the whole political dynamic of our country. This is very encouraging for all of us especially in field of advocacy. The promises and commitment of mayor of Kathmandu valley hinted to move toward liveable city. We emailed few candidate on this topic and two of them wrote back promising to make it better with promotion of walking and cycling. Finally we have local government. The newly elected mayors have published 101 agenda where one is creating vehicle free zone. All the core team of “Ktm walk” along with community member decided to propose the idea to newly elected mayors of different municipalities now. An exercise is going on to meet and submit the overall plan from all team members related with “Ktm walks”. RECPHEC also got an opportunity to meet all the newly elected ward presidents of Kathmandu city, where we discussed about our campaign to replicate this campaign. a. Post event field survey : A survey was conducted in 100 households of

Kilagal area to understand about their perception about the campaign. The survey was deliberately conducted after the local elections. From the survey, it was found that more that 70 percent of respondent find that “Ktm Walks” campaign has reduced the air and noise pollution creating an interactive environment for the community where the elderly people could walk safely and children and open space for children to play. More than 50 percent of the respondent would prefer to have this campaign

every month. From the survey it was found that people were very hopeful that the newly elected local officials would help change their community

Perception survey in Kilagal

for better and could comply with us to continue these campaigns in their annual planning. More than 40 percent of responded were willing to approach their community leaders to promote this campaign, whereas 97 percent of them think that the new formed local government should take the full responsibility to manage and conduct such campaign every ward of the city.(Detail report in annex I)

Core team meeting

Meeting with KMC officials, Basantapur Branch

Ktm walks on March 24 Meeting with newly elected ward members.

Meeting with ADB consultant

Meeting with community members

3. Pedestrian Rights campaign. Apart from promoting vehicle regulated zone, RECPHEC would also focus on basic issues of pedestrians rights. Since we are promoting walking and cycling it is important to advocate for the infrastructure that encourages people to walk and cycle simultaneously. The recent development related to transportation in Kathmandu, from observation, is clearly promoting motorized transportation. The issue of inclusion of side walk, standard form of sidewalks, zebra crossings where necessary with traffic amenities and increasing number of overhead bridges as per the media news are alarming. Therefore, we propose to focus our programs to advocate for these issues along with our youth volunteer livable cities groups enrolled last year.

a. College interaction program: As a lead agency to this campaign, we went to K and K College to interact with student of social work about pedestrian rights on December 21,2016. We showed them the situation of Kathmandu from the perspective of pedestrians through a video followed by presentation which included information about important of non motorised transportation with successful international examples. During the interaction with student, we learned that, they never gave thought in this. But, they said that our session was very interesting and some of them shared their interest to join the campaign too.

b. Debate Program: We also conducted a debate program with the students on different college on “Which is better for pedestrians; Zebra crossing or Overhead Bridges” on December 03,2016. Lot of concerns about safety of

pedestrians while using zebra crossing was raised during the debate. It draws our attention to the current situation of zebra crossing in the city, which is little still risky for pedestrians.

c. Public Demonstration and Video documentation in Bagbazaar and Jawalakhel: We tried to prepare a short satirical video to showcase the difficulties, a pedestrian has to face while using zebra crossing. We had our volunteer in costume of a mythological hero who was helping general public to cross the road in Bagbazaar and Jawalakhel area on Febraury 19,2017. Three satirical videos were prepared during the process. These videos were shown in meeting conducted with Traffic office and local communities during the preparation process of campaign for pedestrian rights and was shared through youtube.

Public Demonstration and video preparation

d. Public Awareness Campaign in collaboration with Nepal Scout team in

Singhadurbar on pedestrian rights: Nepal Scout was approached to

support our campaign to raise the issue of pedestrian rights. The

scout team showed their interest and agreed to voluntarily conduct a

public awareness campaign. During the campaign the scout team

distributed 1500 copies of publication materials published by

RECPHEC in collaboration with Metropolitan Traffic Police Division on

second week of March.

e. Public Campaign on pedestrian rights:

i. A program was organized in Basantapur area to create interest

amongst general public about the rights of pedestrians. The

program was started by the Executive Director of RECPHEC,

Mr Shanta Lall Mulmi, welcomeds all the participants in the

campaign and to the special guest Mr. Sabin Pradhan, DSP of

Metropolitan Traffic Office Department, Mr. Ranjan Lall

Shrestha Commissioner of Nepal Scout and Mr. Ganapati Lall

Shrestha, representative of local community and activist. Mr.

Mulmi raised the current situation of developments that

emphasizes on motorised transportation rather than non

motorised transportation on February 28, 2017. He shared that

the current situation of the city for walking is very challenging

especially to senior citizen, differently able people. It is high

time for us as a team to advocate for a city is that i walking

friendly. He also said that RECPHEC is the first organization to

initiate program sole for the rights of pedestrian and also

thanked Metropolitan Traffic department and Nepal Scout for

theri support for this campaign. DSP Sabin and Mr. Ranjan also

agreed to the issue and committed that they would help and

support us to all way possible and advocate for the right of

pedestrians. Mr. Ganapati, thanked RECPHEC for initiating this

campaign and said he is glad to be a part of it. He said that, it is

really necessary to focus on core city o Kathmandu as walking

zone and regulate vehicles to maintain its real essence. He also

shared his interest to further associate and support this

campaign through his network. DSP Sabin Pradhan and Mr.

Ranjan Shrestha were given appreciation letter for their

support on issue of pedestrian rights and their positive

initiations by Mr. Mulmi. A photo exhibition was also done

show casing the challenges faced by pedestrians. Along with

that, signature campaign was conducted where 1000

signatures were collected. We were also able to collect the

signature of legendary actor of Nepal Mr. Shiva Shrestha

during the campaign, who thanked us for the being the first

one to initiate rights of pedestrians. We aim to reach at least

10,000 signatures and submit it to respective government

department in next phase. The main agenda forwarded from

this campaign was- inclusive footpaths; discourage overhead

bridges and maintain and increase safe zebra crossing. We also

distributed 500 remaining publication materials during this

campaign on zebra crossing. Youth Volunteer for Livable Cities

contributed extremely to this campaign from preparation to

the campaign date. It’s been noticeable that many people came

up and express their concern and problem to traffic officers

present there.

Figure 1Legendary Actor Shiva Shrestha with our mascot and DSP Sabin Pradhan.

ii. Public Awareness campaign on Pedestrian rights: RECPHEC has been communicating with MTPD since last year regarding issues of pedestrian rights. Finally, we invited by them for a meeting to discuss further on this issue on May 3, 2017. We put forward our areas of concern related to pedestrian safety and facilities. After discussion, they decided to run a campaign for pedestrian in collaboration with RECPHEC in collaboration with Nepal Scout an MTPD conducted week long campaign for rights of pedestrian first last of May. The campaign was named “Pedestrian safety week”. Around 1,500 publication materials published by RECPHEC on zebra crossing was distributed to general public including vehicle riders during this campaign.

Handing over publication material on zebra crossing to Traffic Police

Human Chain

Presentation to Scout Volunteer on zebra crossing and about our campaign

f. Signature Campaign: A week long campaign from April 17 to 25,2017 was started with our volunteers to collect signature to for zebra crossing and other better pedestrian facilities. We were able to collect 2500 signatures of public. The collected signature was then submitted to Chandra Kumar Subedi, Unit Chief, and Department of Roads. After receiving it, he said that he will convey the message to his team and would do the best on this issue.

Signatures collected

g. School Program walkability:

RECPHEC with volunteers conducted a painting program on 12, 19 and 26th of August, 2017(Saturdays) on student’s perspective on walking experience in the city. This painting program was conducted with student of Nava Adarsha School located in Basantapur. We are planning to submit and share few selected painting with municipalities and other concerned government authorities.

Nepal Scout Volunteer in field distributing our publication materials and communicating with public.

Students displaying their art.

h. Campaign on effective implementation o f “No horn zone” in Lalitpur District : RECPHEC has advocating against noise pollution since many years. REPCHE conducted study to measure noise pollutionlevel in six different busy areas of Kathmandu , shared report with stakeholders including government sectors. Published many awreness raising materials related to health hazard due to noise pollution and had dialogue with Ministries in this issue. Finally Nepal government have declared Kathmandu a “No Horn Zone” sicne April 14, 2017. RECPHEC has been actively involved in advocating for No horn zone in Kathmandu City .Along with Youth Volunteer for Liveable City, RECPHEC conducted a awareness campaign to support the government on effective implementation of “No horn Zone” in the valley. The team focused on Lalitpur district and had 30 stickers posted in different walls of city with permission of neighbourhood community. We choose busy areas where we could still notice honking and few nearby education institutes. During the process, we communicated with at least 5 people in each 30 point who came forward for the information.

4. Observation of World Environment day/ Campaign for Clean Air Rights (Maskmandu).

a. Public Campaign: During the regular meeting with likeminded organizations, the issue of alarming state of air pollution level in the city and its impact on health and environment was raised. It was issue of concern at present state. RECPHEC, in year 2016 as partner organization then collaboratively supported to conduct campaign against increasing air pollution along with other likeminded organization and volunteer groups. Thus, on the occasion of World Environment Day, a public demonstration showing effect of air pollution was organized and submitted the written petition to prime minister’s office. As, the continuation, another Maskmandu campaign

Campaign on effective implementation of “No horn zone"

was organized again on January 20, 2017 as “MASKMANDU 2.0”. This campaign was able to garner attention through its media coverage.

Campaign for Clean Air Rights “Maskmandu” in Jawalakhel

b. Project “Dhulo to Dhunga” and participation in exhibition on World Environment Day: The issue of air pollution was being regularly discussed amongst the partner organizations and volunteer group since, since the air pollution level has drastically increased due to haphazard road construction around the valley. The volunteer group with engineering background suggested a project that will allow us to collect pollution (dust particle) in the busy road of city and named it “Dhulo to Dhunga” that mean from dust to solid structure. RECPHEC exhibited the project in Eco fare on the occasion of “World Environment Day” at office of our partner organization Clean Energy Nepal , Lalitpur. The eco-fair was formally inaugurated by the newly elected Ward Chairperson Mr. Sudarshan Mishra of Ward-15, Lalitpur district. About one thousand people from different academic institutions, civil societies, individuals, ward officials and community people visited the eco-fair. Ultimately the collected dust from the road side would be shared with Ministry of Environment. But, since the ministries changed after resignation of then Prime Minister Puspa Kamal Dahal on May 24, 2017, we submitted the collected dust to Environment Department of Kathmandu Metropolitan City instead for now.

Exhibiting project "Dhulo to Dhunga" in the exhibition.

5. Publication of awareness materials: During the meeting with Traffic

Officers, they said that they are now looking not just from perspective of a vehicle but from pedestrians as well. It was interesting that they encouraged us to gather more information and support them with awareness materials. We then, finalized few publication materials to advocate safety in zebra crossing for pedestrian and submitted it to Traffic Department. They then agree to be associated with the materials and also would help in our campaigns. This helped us to approach Nepal Scout team who later conducted public awareness campaign for rights of pedestrian.

Publication material with added information of No Horn Zone

No horn Zone stickers

Published material for pedestrian rights campaign

6. Meeting with government officials: During this phase, REPCHEC made an effort to approach new government departments related to transportation. Due course, we met with representative of Kathmandu Valley Development Authority (KVDA), Mr. Bhagwat Bhakta Khokhali, Urban planner of KVDA. We shared about “Ktm walks” and issue of pedestrian rights. From conversation, it seemed like the term health transportation is not at all in consideration. He shared about the master plan of KVDA and how they are planning to widen the road considering natural disaster especially earthquake. We tried to convey our views as much as possible. And we will continue to pursue our point in next phase. We were also able to meet with representative of Department of Road (DoR) and submit the signatures collected. In this meeting we discussed about current situation of zebra crossing in the city. We also managed to meet four newly elected ward presidents during the Thamel meeting. There we talked about creating a vehicle free zone in their respective wards. Likewise, we had series of meeting with Kathmandu Metropolitan City, Lalitpur Metropolitan City, Godavari Municipality (news), ,Kirtipur Municipality about replicating “Ktm walks” and considering pedestrian friendly environment in their respective areas.

Activities Immediate Outcomes Intermediate

Outcomes Variance

1 Walkability Audit Report. 2 Training conducted for the field survey.

Field Survey Completed

Activities will eventually lead to an increased number of Roads in valley becoming pedestrian-friendly.

We finalized the point of interest for the study in mid of June, hence completed the field survey in month of July and August (along with other pre scheduled). Thus, propose to complete the final report and dissemination in next phase with ear marked fund. The current infrastructure happening in the city is hindering any kind of open

3 “Ktm walks” campaign. -September 17,2016 -October 22,2016 -February 17,2017 -March 24,2017 -April 21,2017 -May 05, 2017 2 meetings with community of Kilagal before and after the election. 2 meeting with community leaders of Thahity. 3 meetings with Lalitpur Metropolitan City. 1 meeting with Kirtipur Municipality 1 meeting with Godavari Municipality. 5 meeting with core group team member (3 after election). 1 meeting with consultant of KSUTP project of ADB.

Increased number of organizations working on issue. New org; -European Union -Himalaya Trinienalaya -Association of Youth Organization Nepal (AYON). -WHO -Ramro Kathmandu -Bike Portals. -Make a difference Nepal -introduced the campaign in 3 new municipalities -Approached 5 new wards with the campaign concept -1 ward president gave positive response about the campaign . -all core team members are committed to make effort to meet the new mayor and advocate for ktm walks

1 meeting with 5 ward presidents 1 meeting with KVDA official 1 post survey in Kilagal

campaign. Reached 100 households

street events.

2 meeting with newly appointed chief of

Heritage and Tourism department of KMC.

(Ms. Archana Shrestha).

Positive response and encouraged to continue the campaign

2 meeting with LSMPC

-Positive response to replicate Ktm walks in Lalitpur district.

1 meeting with Head of Traffic Office Department. (Submitted reports of “Ktm Walks “campaign).

-Said he will support our campaign to ways possible by his department.

2000 copies awareness materials published on pedestrians Rights.(Zebra Crossing). 2000 copies of awareness materials published with information about “No horn” in Kathmandu Valley. 50 Stickers published on “No Horn” in Kathmandu valley

-reached around 3150 peoples with the message.

Pedestrain Rights 1 campaign in partnership with Nepal scout and volunteers.

Distributed 1500 publication materials to vehicle riders and general public

1 campaign on pedestrian rights with youth volunteer for liveable cities

-DSP and Commissioner of Nepal scout appreciated our campaign and committed to support in future. -Distributed 500

publication materials. -Collected 1000 signature from general public

1 campaign on Pedestrian rights with MTPD and Nepal Scout Volunteer.

- MTPD called for meeting. -MTPD gave orientation to Nepal Scout Volunteer Team on pedestrian safety and zebra crossing. -Distributed 1500 publication materials on zebra crossing.

3 meeting with traffic officers of MTPD

-Orientation program from traffic officers to individual drivers of public vehicle. -MTPD started a campaign to stick stickers to slow down and stop at zebra crossing in public vehicles. -Hoarding boards in many areas could be seen directing vehicle riders to slow down in zebra crossing. - repainted zebra crossing in ward6. -1 zebra crossing added in Bhadrakali area.

1 painting program with students on walking experience.

Participated by 66 students. - Also showed interest to promote sustainable transportation in Lalitpur. Agreed to create parking spot for cycles in 3 areas of Lalitpur District.

1 Campaign(Rally) for Clean Air Rights;”Maskmandu”

-3 media instances

Supreme court has orders responsible government office to pay the medical bill of people effected by air pollution(cases if respiratory diseases)

1 project on air pollution “Dhulo to Dhunga” and participated in Eco fare exhibition.

-1000 people attended the exhibition.

1 no horn zone awareness campaign in Lalitpur District

Reached 150 people in 3 different areas.

Media involvement on Pedestrian issue/Sustainable. Approached 4 new journalist - -1 intern journalist from national daily “Republica”. -1 from Narnari Magazine -1 freelance journalist -1 journalist from Classic FM contacted for information about PR campaign. -

4 media instances -7 FM radio -1 Television coverage (Pedestrian Rights)

Traffic officers communicating with drivers about zebra crossing rules

Hoarding boards to prioritize pedestrian zebra crossings

Traffic Officer helping pedestrian cross the road just below the overhead bridge.

Some Positive Initiation taken byMTPD

Access to Healthy Food Area of Focus: Restricting advertising of junk food Series of field studies has been undertaken to understand the urban food habit behaviour and media coverage of junk food products in Nepal. These studies

Added zebra crossing in Bhadrakali

included information that depicts the misleading nature of advertisement in Nepali media. We also conducted a review study of policies addressing the issue. We have couple of national level workshops and discussion meeting with respective stakeholders to discuss further on the issue. Later, we came to learn that , on the basis of studies conducted by RECPHEC, Consumer Forum along with other individuals filed case against junk food advertisement in supreme court. As a result of, Supreme Court has ordered the respective government authorities to prepared guidelines to regulate junk food advertisement in Nepali media. Since, RECPHEC has been working and lobby for this issue, Press Council then appointed Advocate jaya Prasad Poudel (associate of RECPHEC) as their main consultant to draft guidelines. Since, then we have several one to one meeting with the advocate to get the information and updates. He personally visited Mr. Mulmi to get some inputs. Mr Mulmi then clearly requested him that the advertisement should not use children as actors, should not give any sort and forms of misleading information related to health, should not target children and it should not be telecasted in children’s television programs/channels. In this phase, the president of Press Council Mr Borna Bahadur Karki was replaced and Mr. Bhawani Prasad Baral was appointed as new President. This has affected the perspective of targeted guideline. The previous president was very upfront about the issue to draft strict guideline. But same is not the case with new president. On follow up, it seems he might not be keen to dart strict rule for junk food. Meanwhile, few months back, press release prepared the draft guideline related to advertisement. We received the copy of that draft guideline (brief version) in month of July, 2017. On review, we found that the guideline does not address issue of junk food directly and specifically. We will now have to re approach press council and further lobby for advertisement of junk food products. National level consultation meeting: RECPHEC planned a national level consultation meeting in month of June but because the current President of Press council was replaced and Local level election started, we had to plan it for next phase. RECPHEC had planned to included member of Press Council, Consumer Forum activist, Nepal Bar Association and other related government authorities and stakeholders in this consultation program

Activities Immediate

Outcomes Intermediate Outcomes Variance

4 one to one meeting with consultant of press council regarding the draft guideline to restrict junk food advertisement in Nepali media.

Draft guideline has been prepared.

Ongoing activities will eventually lead to a monitored and censored version of junk food advertising.

Mr. Borna Bahadur Karki was replaced by Mr. Baral as President of Press Council

Area of Focus: Healthy Food Environment / Food Markets Recphec has been advocating for against junk food through advocating for regulation of junk food advertisement. In one hand, our effort is against junk food product, in another hand, it is necessary to promote healthy food too. Traditionally and ethnic Nepali diet could be considered as healthy food option. This traditional system also ensured easy access to healthy food with proper management and affordable price. But today, the scenario, especially in urban area has changed. The best medium to purchase healthy food was through markets located in many areas of the city. The core areas have many vegetable markets. However, the sub urban area and new town planning lack the affordable vegetable market place. Vegetable markets are an integral part of our society, but now there is chance that it might be replaces with supermarkets in new developing areas. This also reduces the chance for farmers to reach the consumer directly and allow brokers to benefit instead. Considering all these fact, RECPHEC in the year 2014/15 , conducted a study to map vegetable markets in KMC. In second phase, we conducted another study to review the policies and some case studies of vegetable market along with another policy review study conducted on public space.

a. Dissemination workshop on Public space and Vegetable market of Kathmandu Metropolitan City.

RECPHEC organized a dissemination workshop on policy review of public space and vegetable market in KMC 30 August 2017, with the following objectives to;Share the

findings of the policy review amongst the stakeholders, discuss on existing policy and

condition in terms of public space and market place, enhance the coordination among

different stakeholders for the promotion of public space and facilitate and initiate policy

dialogues for public space and vegetable markets. in wider forum to further advocate in the issue and to identify the role of civil society in addressing these issues. In the seminar, a total of 45 participants were present including representatives from government (municipalities), civil society, health experts, media, youth volunteers and staff of RECPHEC. In Inaugural session, Mr. Shanta Lall Mulmi, Executive Director of RECPHEC, shared that RECPHEC has conducted two studies on policy review of public space and vegetable market of KMC. He shared that public space are an integral part of urban development and it is necessary to draw attention towards it. He stressed the rising level of encroachment of public space in urban areas , especially in KMC and should be addressed and role of government, NGOs, civil societies should be reflected and urged all to work together to address the issue. RECPHC then gave its first presentation on study report of policy review on public space. First we shared the process of study which included methods, limitations and literature review. Then we shared the main highlights of the sudy which is the policy , act and legislation for public spaces in Nepal. It was learned from the study that the Government of Nepal, Council of Ministers have issued a notice which announces the area in kathamndu, Bhaktapur and Lalitpur districts as gazetted open space and in case structure as has to be constructed in these open specs a permit has to be issued from the Ministry. Land use policy has also identified that internal migration, haphazard settlement urbanization has resulted in the surge of agricultural land and increment of encroachment of government, public and forest lands and lack of open space in urban areas. The study also showed the reports related to planning norms and standards of Nepal government related to public space. IN this seminar, we also shared case studies of eight common public spaces of KMC including courtyard and park. At end we shared the final conclusion and recommendation made in the study report. Basically the study emphasises on community participatory approach to preserve the existing public space in the city. It also focuses on need of institutional cooperation, open Space Area and Population Density, Hierarchy of Public Open Spaces ,Safety & security, emergency shelter for disaster , Connection Safety, Consideration for women, children, elderly and disabled ,Public open space used for uses such as hospital or school at the expense of the open space ,Encroachment ,Incentives and Disincentives ,Value Capture and Management and Maintenance.

After this first paper presentation Mr. Sudarshan Rajbhandari .Program Director of CIUD, gave his comment on the study report. He first appreciated the initiation taken by RECPHEC to advocate for public space. He stressed that even though the importance of public space has increased since last earthquake but still the rate of encroachment is not decreasing. He said that, Nepal has all the required policies for public space but the real challenge is implementation. And ended his comment by adding that stakeholder from this forum could all together focus on this issue and advocate for effective implementation of existing policies which would preserve the existing public space and create more.

RECPHEC presented its second paper about the study of vegetable market in Kathmandu City. This presentation too gave briefing about the whole procedure of the study. We then shared the highlights of the study. the waste management and scarcity of dumping site is the major problem that the vegetable markets facing in the city.Lie wise there is huge gap between internal import and transportation agro products lack of cooperation with other agro market, including government and non government sectors are also some of the issue that vegetable markets going through. Regarding policies, it was very clear that there are no specific mentions about vegetable markets. There are no guidelines or rules to maintain and increase these types of vegetable markets. Most of the markets are sustained by local group communities and some by Vegetable market Development Board. Fro teh satudy it was found hat comprehensive vegetable market policy is required to control and manage vegetable markets. Government should focus on improvement of Market information system, market infrastructure and waste management. Overall, market places should be included in each urban city planning to increase access to healthy food. The study also highlighted the opportunities of recycling the bio degradable waste fro these markets for producing energy.

Dr. Anusuya Joshi then commented on this second presentation. She said that RECPHEC is the first organization to raise the issue of vegetable market and its importance. She said that, vegetable

markets have been an important part of Kathmandu heritage and society. We can see can still see many vegetable markets in core are of Kathmandu. She also shared her concern that there are no specific policies of guidelines to promote vegetable markets here. She also appreciated RECPHEC’s initiation towards this issue. She also said that the study could cover the guideline prepared by KVDA and compare its planning to ensure placement of vegetable market.

After the presentation, there was panel discussion. The panel consisted of Mr. Indra Man Suwal from KMC, Ms. Anita Bohara from Godavari Municipality , Mr. Anuj Pradhan from Kirtipur Municipality and Mr. Kashi Prasad Gupta from DUDBC. First the entire panellist said that this was a great effort by RECPHEC to compile all the related information and share it in public forum related to public space and vegetable market. All the representatives from Municipality committed that they would discuss the reports in their respective offices with their collegue. They also sadi that the newly formed office with locally elected official would help us now to work in collaboration with community and other liek minded organizations. Mr. Gupta of DUDDBC, shared some examples of what they are doing related to development of public space. He shared that maintaining and allocating public space in each community is their major priority now. Having said that, they were also

Dissemination Workshop on Public Space & Vegetable Market

aware of current challenges for public space which is encroachment. They sadi that they would make an effort to look into this issue. They also suggested that stakeholder of this forum should also organize a meeting with their newly elected mayors so that we all could work in collaboration.

Mr. Shanta Lall Mulmi thanked all the presenters, participants and panellist for their presentation and inputs respectively. He also agreed that implementing the policies and plans is crucial to overcome different issues related to public spaces. He also shared that the workshop is just a beginning and we should work in collaboration to advocate for this issue. Mr. Mulmi encouraged all to collaborate together to pressurize the government for effective implementation of policies related to public space and increase policies to improve vegetable markets in Kathmandu as well as, if need be, collaborate with Forum for Consumer Protection Act to take legal action. He concluded that every individual should take action on responsible manner to give better environment for future generation. Activities Immediate Outcomes Intermediate

Outcomes Variance

1 report prepared on “Understanding the Policies regarding Vegetable Markets in Kathmandu Metropolitan City”. 2 meeting with KFVMDB. 1 Dissemination workshop conducted.

1 report prepared. Representative of KFVD, Mr Binaya Shrestha appreciated our effort and agreed to approach KMC to further lobby for more vegetable markets in city. Around 45 participants(stakeholder) including 4 government officials attended the seminar -3 media instance (2 in television Image Channel and NTV) and 1 in Himalayan Times. http://epaper.thehimalayantime s.com/index.php?mod=1&pgnum=1& edcode=71&pagedate=2017-8-

31& type.

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Open and Green Space/Parks and Playgrounds

In Nepal, especially in Kathmandu, traditionally the city was designed in such as a way that every residential settlement had a common open space. These spaces were used for different purposes such as interaction spot for senior citizens, religious and cultural events etc. But over the years urbanization pattern of Kathmandu valley has been rapid and haphazard. High rise buildings, supermarkets have replaced the traditional housing system. These changes have challenged not only on the way of living but the community itself. Lack of open space such as parks, gardens, playgrounds have prevented people to stay indoor especially children and elder citizens. This is our effort to reclaim the already existing public space, specially courtyard . Core area of Kathmandu is very rich in its traditional art and architecture. Many sites of Kathmandu are also under world heritage site. The house and neighbourhood were also designed for people considering climate, health and social well being. Almost, all neighbourhood consisting minimum tem houses have a common public space, which is called “Bahal”(courtyards). The size of it may vary from 800 to 7000 square feet. These courtyards were designed to ensure open space for people to communicate, socialize and also as escape gate during natural disaster like earthquake. Many people witnessed the importance of this space during last devastating earthquake that took place in Nepal. These space provided shelter and relief to many people. Even though, it is a significant part of our culture and living, its existence has been hugely challenged by vehicles. The spaces are slowly turning into parking spot for many. We have explored many areas and tried to reclaim scuh area from vehicle and redesign it with community members to maintain its original essence. We have worked with seven communities with courtyard in this phase.

a. Hepunani is another area, which agreed to remove parking from the spot and utilize the public space. They collaborated with us and provided all the human resources.

Community of Hepunai working in that area.

Hepunani area before

Hepunai area after

b. Tebahal: we also talked with Sankata club in Tebahal area. They shared that

they are also facing problem by vehicles intruding the alleys designed for people to walk. Then they decided to exclude vehicle in their ally by physical barrier and did it. There is a very popular temple located in this courtyard, Sankata Temple. ABD’s project is funding the area to pave it with stone bricks. But , the project did not pursue or forwarded the idea to make it vehicle free. There is gap between the community and the project as told by Mr. Deep Ratna Shipakar of Tebahal Community. We have tried to communicate and requested them to make the area vehicle free for people and supported them with design for people to enjoy the space. The community make an effort to restrict vehicles to some extent.

c. Thahity: Thahity is a new community that we approached this year. Teh community members were very much positive with the idea to reclaim their area. The newly elected ward president of this area Mr. Nabin Manandhar was keen to improve the area under his observation. Our collaboration with the ward office and few local community members showed us some hope to change teh area for better. We were able to open the park for the people which was closed for public before and also add in some structures for people to enjoy the park in collaboration the ward office of Thahity.

Community initiated Vehicle Free ally in Tabahal

Community initiated effort to restrict outside vehicle from parking

Sitting arrangement in Tebahal

Figure 2Arrangement of sitting tools

Debris removed by community

Reclaiming area in Thahity Parking prevention in Thahity

d. Ombahal: This is also new area that we explore in this phase. We met a very

strong activist and communuty member of this area Mr. Ganapati Lal

Shrestha. When we proposed our concept. He immediately shared that , he

was also tryign to so the same . he said he would be very willing to work in

the community and reclaim the public spaces from vehicles.

Preventing parking by using flower pots

e. Bungamati and Kirtipur: Both of this area was highly effeced by recent

earthquake. Many people from these communioty have lost their house and

belongings. When we visited the area, many community members still are

living in temporary shelter. And from the pace from government running for

reconstruction rehabilitation program , it seems it would take more than

couple of years to resettle the community. We joined hands with one of the

organizatino already working there, and explored the area. A local club

named “Bungamati trail” came forward and expressed their interest to revive

the city. With help of community member, local club and stakeholders, we

have tried to make an effort to rebuild the spaces available for the people.

Added benches

Sitting arrangement in Dev pukhu,Bungamati

Volunteer of Bungamati train preparing Board to show cyclign trail in the area using local woods

Painted by local resident to encourage earthquake victims in the community.

Children playing in public space

Bungamati bus park area, an initiation by Bungamati reconctruction board to rebuild area with greenery.

f. Itumabahal and Kilagal: We have been workign with this community since

long through “Ktm Walk” campaign. We did reclaim few courtyads in this

area from vehicles and made it more vibrant with participation of local

resident and local youth groups. In this phase too, we have tried to work wih

community to make place more appealign from childre. In this phase, a new

organization named Ramro Kathamndu approached us to share their idea of

similar project and learn from our expirience. Together we were able to

achieve something interesting for the children of community and other

peoples.

Figure 3This narrow ally is being painted with help of Ramro kathmandu depicting the famous historical figure of Rajamati

A iron structure made for the community children to play

g. Layakusa: Mr. Prajwol Chitrakar, Vice persident of Layakusa Youth Club was approached by us to communicate aboutt he present situation of our community area and problems created by unauthorised and hapazard parking.Mr. Chitrakar shared that this was alsoissue of concern for their club. But he said that we would put an effort

to work with community to resolve this problem and keep area open. It was very encouraging to see his efforts to restrict vehilce. He shared that though they have taken this initiation but they are facing backlash from few people and will need to work more to communicate and continue.

h. Maru : This was one of the community that agreed to make their ally vehilce free and agredd to have permanent bars prevent vehilces but later we realized that it comes under world heritage site and we are not allowed to make any permanent strcutures there. Thus, we did not move ahed with that instead we are in communicationto sort other ways to make the ally vehilce free zone.

Activities Immediate Outcomes Intermediate

Outcomes Variance

Liveable cities campaign in four region. 1 dissemination workshop on public space policy review study. Park Observation Redesigning and Reclaiming courtyards. -10 meeting with local club and community groups

Planned in moth of October 2017.(After election) 1 report prepared List of total number of Parks identified and prepared.(Annex II) -2 courtyards has been changed for better by the community and local groups. -6 new local clubs and community showed interest and joined in the project for its

This will ultimately lead to increased access to public space in the community for the people

The local level election held in all seven provinces hindered the planning to visit different region to promote liveable cities.

Layakusal area after clubs initiation to restrict parking

Organizational Capacity Participation in International Forum: WALK 21 Conferences, Vienna, Hongkong. Ms. Kamana Manandhar, Program Officer, Urban Health participated in the international conference held at Hongkong, China from 3-7 October 2016. Ms. Kamana gave her presentation on RECPHEC’s initiation to redesign and reclaim, certain public spaces in Kathmandu called courtyards with the help of local groups, community and youth volunteers. The conference focused on new trends and innovations to create and promote walking with infrastructural developments and policies to support the same. Apart from the conference, I also participated in their WALKSHOP , where designated personnel took the participants to area of their choice. I choose the inner city. One thing that was noticeable in Hongkong was, they have developed corridor adjoining first floors of the building that created a whole new street. Those corridors were walking friendly as obviously there were no vehicles. This seemed a very

Follow up with existing courtyards. -1 meeting with We the One and Kilagal Tole Sudhar Samittee 3 meeting with community , local group and clubs

implementation voluntarily. -1 ally of Tebahal (Sankata area) has completely on their own -1restricted vehicles in their ally. -1 area has agreed to restrict vehicle on their alley. New local clubs, organization and community approached; Hepunani Toel Sudhar Samittee - community of Maru -Layaku Youth Club -Olympus Club - Sankata Club,Tebahal -Bungamati Area Reconstrcution and Development Council(local NGO) Interaction with 10 community(4 old and 6 new one)

WALK 21, Hongkong, China

innovative idea to utilize the space utmost in already congested cities. Also it provided a safe and calm area for people to walk. I also, got the opportunity to attend annual general meeting of International Federation of Pedestrians (IFP) on 5th October. This year I observed greater number of interested participants in the meeting. They also shared their activities with updates. RECPHEC has applied to be the organizational member of the federation and they have accepted our request and provided the membership to our organization. This would help us to collaborate and support each other in our future endeavours.

Participation in Habitat III in Surbaya , Indonesia and Quito, Equador Mr. Shanta Lall Mulmi, Executive Director of RECPHEC attended Habitat III conference in Quito, Ecuador from October 17 to 20, 2016. During the international conference, Mr. Mulmi gave separate presentations on “Ktm walks” organized by Ecocity Builders on US state Department. Besides he also contributed as volunteer in Healthbridge Exhibition stall. Prior to this conference, he also participated in preparatory meeting at Surbaya, Indonesia. In this conference, Mr Mulmi, stepped in front and volunteered to visit the city with officials from Kathmandu Valley Development Authority. During the city tour, Mr Mulmi highlighted the possibility of turning Kathmandu valley a pedestrian friendly zone and also regulates vehicles in core areas with the officials.

Regional Meeting in Bangalore, India Participation in Regional meeting in Bangalore, India:

Figure 4Habitat III Conference, Quito;Equador

A regional meeting of partner organization of Healthbridge was conducted in Bangalore from 30 January to 01 February 2017. In the meeting, the all the partner organization from India (five cities), Bangladesh and Nepal (RECPHEC) shared their project activities, success stories , learning and planning for the next phase. This meeting provided us the opportunity to learn the experiences from each other from different region. Apart from sharing, the team of RECPHEC also got opportunity to participate in Bangalore Cycle day program and

ASRTS program. It was incredible to see the level of enthusiasm amongst the community and children in both the programs. We also saw the result of strong networking with community and groups which led to successful and sustainability of the programs.

Other Initiatives taken by RECPHEC; Core group meeting RECPHEC organized a core group meeting on December 16, 2017 to inform and discuss about RECPHEC initiation to advocate for Pedestrians Rights. We also shared the activities update and planning for the next phase. Core group members suggested that we should go to Department of Roads and look for other organization working in this issue. Representative from KMC and LSMPC also invited us for a meeting to discuss this further and explore the possibility to collaborate. Another core group meeting was held on August 23, 2017 in new office of RECPHEC in Thasikhel. In the meeting, the study report on public space and vegetable market was discussed amongst the core group member. There was a long discussion between on present scenario of public space in valley and how we should proceed further with this agenda with newly elected officials. The representative from KMC said that they would help us with all necessary documents.

Regional Meetign in Bangalore,India

Core Group meeting

Sustainable Development Goal

a. National Consultation on "The Role of Civil Societies in implementing SDG Goal no. 11"

There has been concerted effort in making the globe a just equitable society enjoying "Peoples Right to live". For this United Nations and its member Country came with Millennium Development Goal for 15 years which started in 2000 AD. The UN Conference of June 2012 in Rio Da Janeiro discussed about Sustainable Development followed by the formulation of Working Group on 19 July 2014. Out of all 17 SDGs, RECPHEC being a coordinator of Health Thematic group of Nepal Civil Society Forum would like to draw the attention of all the sector on Goal number 11 "Make Cities and Human Settlement Safe, Inclusive, Resilient and Sustainable". The 2030 Agenda for Social Development has become a guiding principal to address these issues at national, regional & global level. The civil society being one of the key players in this regard, a consultative meeting has been organized with the following objective to orient on the genesis of Sustainable Development Goals with special focus to Goal # 11: Making Cities and Human Settlement Safe, Inclusive, Resilient and Sustainable, discuss the role of the government in line with National Policy and Constitutional provisions and to identify the role of National and International Non-Government Organization. In the plenary session, Prof. Sudarshan Raj Tiwari, IOE: Prof. Sudarshan Raj Tiwari thanked Mr. Joshi for highlighting different aspects of SDGs and commented that goals of SDGs are ideally great thereby doubting the implementation of the goals and targets within the specified time. He also mentioned that all the goals in SDGs are integrated and hence plan and action on implementation part should be focused in all levels Mr. Prafulla Man Singh Pradhan, Freelancer: Mr. Pradhan shared that the presentation gave information regarding SDGs and also the linkages between the goals of SDGs. He also shared that there is a paradigm shift from MDGs to SDGs and therefore planning and execution of activities should be in accordance to changed paradigm. Mr. Pradhan also stressed the significant role of public, private and civil society in SDGs and stated that expertise from all levels should be utilized to bring synergistic effect.

Figure 5 Workshop on SDG goal no.11

In the comment section, Mr. Kashi Nath Gupta, DUDBC shared that DUDBC has been cooperating with KMC to ensure safe housing in 14 affected districts in Nepal. He also shared that although the government has strictly instructed builders to comply code while building houses, it has still been ignored. For this he suggested that KMC should have strict authority for effective implementation of the building code. Mr. Indra Man Suwal, KMC commented that planning and implementation of SDG should be done through integration process. He also shared that a forum of 11 municipalities within a valley should be formed to have continuous discussion and planning to achieve the target goals. Similarly he also suggested that the threats and challenges for reconstruction process should be minimized by continuous monitoring process. Mr. Ram Govinda Shrestha, Bhaktapur Municipality shared efforts of Bhaktapur district towards preserving traditional heritage through the use of local resources and support by Bhaktapur municipality. He also gave examples of effectiveness of no vehicle zone within core Bhaktapur area while comparing with Kathmandu and Lalitpur. Similarly he also added that efforts are being made to reconstruct the damaged structures through coordination with related stakeholders. Ms. Sabina Maharjan, Heritage Conservation Section, LSMC shared that there is an organized structure of MDG/SDG in the office of LSMC and the department is working on to incorporate SDG goals through planned manner. She also shared that efforts are being made to restore the damaged structure at Patan durbar square through the use of local resources. Mr. Anuj Pradhan, Kirtipur shared that local government is a significant stakeholder in achieving targets of SDGs. Considering the lack of coordination between municipalities in Kathmandu valley, he stressed the need of bringing them together to address various issues concerning reconstruction, preservation of heritage etc. Mr. Gopal Lamsal, NGO Federation He shared that a gap in mobilization was found between development partners and NGOs through review of implementation of MDG in Nepal. He also shared that NGO Federation participated in setting the SDG agenda and supported government in documentation. Mr. Govinda Shrestha, Water Aid Nepal shared that NGOs should not be kept as a separate entity as it plays an important role in achieving target goals of SDGs. He also added that a gap identification should be made to fit the role of NGOs in the process. Ms. Anushuya Joshi closed the session by thanking the commentators for their valuable comments and suggestions. She shared that with dedication and proper coordination cities in Kathmandu can be rebuilt according to the needed guideline. In open forum session, Ms. Sangeeta Singh, Assistant Professor, IOE shared in Nepal tools should be developed to support the concept of traditional cities. Considering the shift in paradigm from MDG to SDG she suggested that planners should develop the cities cooperating eco, smart and green concept. Mr. Sunil Acharya, Digo Bikash shared that there is rise in pollution and ecological crisis in Nepal and he blames the overwhelming situation to development. He also pointed out that there should be transparency in the nature of investment in achieving SDGs. IN response to comments, Mr. Padma Sundar Joshi shared that RECPHEC organized workshop on eco cities which emphasized on the need of promoting eco

cities in Nepal. Similarly he also shared during the workshop Prof. Sudarshan Raj Tiwari gave his presentation on traditional system of planning. Through these information he highlighted that efforts are being made to promote the concept of traditional cities in places like Kathmandu which has cultural significance. Similarly regarding investment for achieving SDGs Mr. Joshi shared that in the previous year’s budget was managed through negotiation, but for SDGs meetings are being held to identify the nature of funding; both at national level and international level.Mr. Kamal Raj Gosai shared that while enormous resources have been spent to plan and implement different development goals there have been increased level of problems related to water, sanitation as well as pollution. For this he stressed the need of identifying gaps by respective stakeholders including CSOs. He also added the need of continuous advocacy in addressing the problems and also suggested for continuous research. Mr. Sahaj Shrestha He shared that there should be systematic intervention in making sustainable cities and also added that all the stakeholders should play equal role in reconstruction programme. He also suggested that there should be standards set for new settlement as well as old settlement within urban planning. Mr. Purusottam Subedi, Madhyapur Thimi shared that there should be planned proposal and suggested that responsibilities should be divided to all government offices and stakeholders equally.

b. Participated in Asia-Pacific Forum on Sustainable Development 2017. Mr. Shanta Mulmi. ED of RECPHEC participated in Asia-Pacific Forum on Sustainable Development 2017 held in Bangkok, Thailand from March 23 to 31 of 2017 organized by United Nation ESCAP. Mr. Mulmi actively participated in the seminar and represented civil society of Nepal in that forum. The main agenda of the seminar was effective implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in Asia and the Pacific. It is expected that the governments and other stakeholders will convene at the Asia-Pacific Forum on Sustainable Development (APFSD 2017) on the theme of “Eradicating poverty and promoting prosperity in a changing Asia-Pacific.”

c. Meeting with country director of United Mission in Nepal: Mr. Mulmi had a brief meeting with country director of UMN, Mr. Tara Nath Acharya on the issue of Sustainable Development Goal in context of Nepal. In the meeting they discussed about the current issue and agreed to work in collaboration on the issue of health.

Lessons Learned The local level election held on May, 2017 had a great influence on the programs that were pre planned for this phase. It is a massive opportunity to advocate with stable government. But, some planned activities were required to be postponed.

Achievements: RECPHEC has been advocating on the issue of urban health since more than a decades.

Since few years, RECPHEC is focusing on issue of healthy transportation, food and

public spaces. In context of transportation, RECPHEC has been successful with it

initiation to create vehicle free zone in different areas of Kathmandu. One of the

community is willing to make it a monthly event in their community, where as

RECPHEC has been promoting the campaign in other areas as well as other

municipalities. Due course, Lalitpur municipality has shown keen interest to replicate the

campaign in their area. Along with this, RECPHEC has made an effort since last two

years to advocate for rights of pedestrian specially focusing on infrastructural

development and support in policy level. Even though it’s just been two years,

RECPHEC in collaboration with other organizations have been successful to persuade the

word “Pedestrians”. From meeting organized by RECPHEC with respective government

authorities, it was clear that road and traffic developments revolved around vehicle. But,

it is not the case now. Metropolitan Traffic Police Division (MTPD) has been actively

initiating campaign and forthcoming with programs for pedestrians. Along with Traffic,

Nepal Scout team has been supporting our campaign and initiating campaign to

strengthen pedestrian rights since the beginning with RECPHEC. The support from Nepal

Scout team is very encouraging.

In case of healthy transportation, RECPHEC can proudly claim that, this is the first and

only organization that took an initiation to advocate for regulation of junk food

advertisement. RECOHEC has conducted many studies. These reports have been helpful

to advocate for the issue not only by RECPHEC itself but from other activist working on

this issue. We have now learned that Press Council has already prepared that the draft

guideline to regulate junk food advertisement as ordered by Supreme Court.

In case of public space, it is notable to mention that RECPHEC has been able to

communicate with many new communities clubs and municipalities regarding reclaiming

public space in their respective areas. In this phase, RECPHEC approached communities

affected by earthquake. It is sad to learn that government has not yet reach there to

support and many families are still under temporary shelter. In such areas, there is no

place for children to play. In community meetings, they shared that since they are in

process of rebuilding, they are willing to create space for their people to socialize and

children to play. Some local group also shared that now they want to develop their area as

biking zone and promote cycling. Those communities are willing to collaborate with

RECPHEC in future. Meanwhile, two new municipalities were approached (Godavari

and Kirtipur) to understand their view on public space. Since, we have newly elected

officials there; they seemed more positive about our approach and expressed their

willingness to collaborate with our organization to rebuild their community for people.