Nepal’s Masters programme in ICA methods

By Tatwa P. Timsina

Human capacity building is a huge concern and many are contributing in this area. There is a need for national as well as global efforts towards this and it requires support and collaboration from all levels. ICA has been striving for this in the past five decades and it is now time to institutionalize this endeavour.

For the last 15 years, ICA Nepal focused on transforming human potentials. The way Nepal tackled human development issues saw many changes as it went through various political upheavals in a short period. During the last four decades, Nepal moved from rule by an autocratic royal regime to democratic governance. It also experienced conflicts in which more than 15,000 innocent people died.

Human development is always important no matter what the type of governance is. Even now when the democratic system is in jeopardy, this issue is becoming even more important.

Globally as well as nationally, ICA played a great role in building human capacities. In the changing context, it seems the way of tackling human development issues is also changing. Given this, ICA should think of transforming its tools and techniques.

ICA tools and techniques are great and can be applied in different settings. But as Nepal moves ahead and people get skilled in these methods, they seek a higher level of capacity building. For example, once an individual becomes aware of the situation, he or she looks for socio-economic transformation, both at the personal and community level. Areas like Changu or Parbat in Nepal where we introduced the tools about 15 years ago need something different now. They did what we preached and now have a different socio-economic status. But they are not satisfied and have new hopes and expectations. This is the natural way of human development.

Realizing this need, ICA Nepal has remodeled many of its approaches. ICA methods are used not only for work ranging from group facilitation to developing plans but also for developing proposals, carrying out monitoring and evaluation, fund raising, social mobilization and so on.

Now we want to go further by incorporating them into university curricula so that we can have graduates who can go to various areas where there is a need for higher levels of transformation.

ICA Nepal has taken the initiative to develop the Masters in Training and Development, which is being offered as an interdisciplinary program that will produce graduates with the knowledge, state-of-the-art skills and the capacity to provide training and development to the private, governmental and NGO sectors in Nepal and abroad for the sake of promoting sustainable human development.

We are incorporating a number of participatory tools and techniques for personal and organizational empowerment and human development. These include the Technology of Participation (ToP), Appreciative Inquiry, Logical Framework, Open Space Technology, Participatory Rural Appraisal, Future Search, Social Artistry and Result Oriented Leadership and Management.

Starting a programme like this requires cooperation from various individuals and organizations. We request all concerned to support this programme.  Through it, we expect to not only produce the required human resources but also realize the decades-long vision of the ICA of developing competent trainers and facilitators. This will have a multidimensional impact on the overall development of Nepal, Asia and the world.

With the implementation of the Masters programme, we hope to have a full-fledged system for human capacity building from the grassroots to the tertiary level. This will help develop human resources required at various levels. Along with this, the role of the ICA will become even more important.

Tatwa P. Timsina, PhD, is chairman of ICA Nepal