Skip to main content

First Steps Taken: Inception Meeting Empowers Partners

With the signing of the Project Agreement on March 28, 2025, PBI Nepal officially launched the “Support to Local Women/Human Rights Defenders and Minority Groups in th Terai” initiative, and set things in motion with a dynamic inception meeting held from April 22 to 24 at the Social Work Institute (SWI) in Lalitpur.

The three-day gathering brought together board and project staff from Advocacy Forum, Collective Campaign for Peace (COCAP), and Madhesh Human Rights Home (MAHURI-Home), marking a crucial first step toward collaborative implementation.

Day One: Building Common Ground
Partners aligned on project goals, roles, and expectations, while team-building activities set a tone of trust and mutual respect. Sessions also covered financial systems, procurement standards, and compliance with both BMZ and national regulations, ensuring clarity from day one.

Day Two: Planning for Impact
The focus shifted to Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E). Participants explored key concepts and engaged in group exercises to design SMART indicators and align monitoring frameworks with Social Welfare Council (SWC) expectations and their own institutional plans.

Day Three: Visioning for Change
On the final day, participants worked on reporting tools, success story frameworks, and outcome-based documentation strategies. Representatives from COCAP and Advocacy Forum shared their reflections, with one WHRD noting, “This kind of space brings us closer — not just to each other, but to the change we want to create.”

The meeting ended with a shared commitment to action, grounded in local leadership and collective purpose. Over the next 15 months, PBI Nepal and its partners will work to strengthen grassroots protection strategies, elevate women and human rights defenders, and build resilient, inclusive networks across the Terai region.