Ramesh Singh is in Nepal now but he wants to remain anonymous. He states, “I was not in a position to pay tax to the country for a considerable long time and do not think I have a right to speak much.”
Back then Abha Subedi was one of my colleagues. She had a beautiful voice. Despite working with us in the development field, she used to work with Kantipur Radio as a radio jockey. I asked her to make available the songs of Bachhu Kailash. Back then it was not easy to access favourite artists’ songs. Subedi was also a fan of Kailash and wanted him to appear in her show for an interview. Unfortunately, he was very shy with the media and did not want to face them, even though it could have been beneficial for him to reach a wider audience.
He once said, “Upon my death, I don’t mind what my fans would like to do with me, but while I am alive I want to remain unnoticed.”
Kailash despite being of the almost same stature as Narayan Gopal, is still unknown to many music lovers. Like Kailash in music, Ramesh Singh is also a figure from the development sector who is shy to the media and fame he deserves.
Ramesh Singh is one of the few Nepalis who has reached the highest level of international stature, like Kulchandra Gautam, Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations.
About Ramesh Singh
Born in Biratnagar in a middle-class family, Singh is an agriculture graduate, who got an opportunity to work in the Pakhribas Agriculture extension program promoted by the British, which remains one of the best agriculture institutions in the country. He got the opportunity to study in the UK for his higher education which opened the door for international jobs in the development sector. He got the job as Program Manager in ActionAid, a UK-supported project and ascended to the position of Country Director of Ethiopia Action Aid.
While he was in the UK he wanted to serve his motherland so he came to Nepal as Country Director of ActionAid Nepal by succeeding a British white. Before Singh’s appointment, no other Nepali ever qualified for that position.
After Singh’s ascending to the position of country director, many other Nepalis were hired as country directors in different INGOs.
In that sense, he opened the door to other highly competent Nepalis to such international organisations to hold such positions.
The changes
When Singh was in the office in Nepal, the country was in a transitional phase. The joint movement of the united left front and Nepali Congress had overthrown the Panchayat autocratic regime and formed an interim government under the leadership of Krishna Prasad Bhattarai. Other than changing the name of Gau Panchayat to Gabisa nothing had changed.
At one point in time, the Social Service National Coordination Council (SSNCC) which had Queen Aishwarya Rajya Laxmi Shah as its chairperson was so powerful. It used to run as a parallel government and all the INGOs working in Nepal were under it and were allowed to work directly in the rural communities. Its name was later changed to Social Welfare Council but without any clear vision, mission or guiding principles for INGOs and emerging NGOs.
Action Aid was also working directly in the communities and it was Singh who introduced the policy of working in partnership with the local NGOs. Almost two years after Singh introduced the policy, the Social Welfare Council mandated INGOs to go in partnership with the NGOs and this is still the case.
During the end of the Panchayat regime, about 20 INGOs were working under the leadership of SSNCC led by Queen Aishwarya. In my opinion, most of the INGOs are the left forces as they always oppose the wrongdoings of the capitalistic monopoly and advocate for the welfare of the people, their social security justice and many other agendas.
It is the INGOs who strongly advocate the issue of climate change and compel the multinational companies and their protecting government to take corrective measures.
Singh as a leader of such international organisations and movements has played crucial roles. One example of INGOs playing a crucial role in their opposition to WTO policies that benefited developed countries while marginalising poorer nations
There are several milestones that Ramesh Singh set while he was in Nepal. During the 90’s, he introduced the concept of Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA), which became an effective tool to find out the root causes of poverty and marginalisation. Rural community people could use such tools to analyse their situation and advocate for change. Singh promoted such tools and techniques by establishing an organisation called Nepal Participatory Action Network NEPAN.
The PRA tools were so popular and mandatory that the World Bank supported the PAF (Poverty Alleviation Fund) project, which used these tools to categorise poor families into four sections: A, B, C, and D. Section A represented the poorest families, while section D represented the non-poor or wealthiest families.
The shift
I was working for an international organisation but was not working on the Dalit issue. However, it was Ramesh Singh, who upon seeing a paper presented in the first Dalit Seminar in 1993 with the title Development Flux for Dalits asked me to guide the organisation in taking up Dalit issues and support the movement.
The Dalit CSO movement is incomplete if the name of FEDO (Feminist Dalit Organization) is not taken. Its founder president Durga Sob was one of the employees of the organisation and Ramesh Singh decided to depute Durga to work for FEDO.
Till mid 90’s all the international organisations were working with the people with the charity approach which is largely based on the mercy of someone. You are poor and vulnerable and it’s merciful for rich people to help them.
Singh through its second country strategy paper introduced a rights-based approach which did a paradigm shift in the development approach. That approach asked the organisations including the government to treat people or citizens as rights holders and it’s the duty to provide necessary services being the duty bearers. Now the constitution of Nepal has 31 fundamental rights and that indeed has a root in the approach introduced by him.
Let’s now talk about the international personality of Singh, he ascended to the highest position of ActionAid UK as CEO and introduced a federalised concept within the organisation. Until he was in the position, the UK and other Action Aid affiliates were the donors or givers to the poor countries in Asia and Africa and organisations working in these countries were the recipients. He provided equal membership to all the members and shifted its headquarters from the UK to South Africa and now there are more than 45 countries as members across the globe. Though the organisation has been fully democratised and federalised, its effectiveness is a matter of further inquiry.
After Action Aid International, Ramesh worked for many other international organisations including Green Peace which is an activist organisation working to save the environment and climate justice. He stationed himself in India to look into environmental aspects of the government led by Narendra Modi. He found that along with the other corporate entities the country is severely damaging the environment and started to oppose with evidence, which was intolerable to the government and resulted in the closure of the Green Peace Office.
Ramesh could have settled in any part of the world but still carried a Nepali passport. Though our country does not have the tradition of using the talents and calibre of renowned and skilled people for the ultimate benefit of the country, the experience, skill and exposure of Singh could be of great use.
