Three-day training on “Leadership Planning and Proposal Writing for NGOs and Local Government Officials”
Background
Nepal English Language Teachers’ Association (NELTA) organized three-day training (3-5 March 2020) on the “Leadership Planning and Proposal Writing for NGOs and Local Government Officials” at Park Safari Resort, in Sauraha Chitwan with the support of Regional English Language Office, the U.S. Embassy, Nepal. The objectives of the training were to strengthen the leadership capacity and develop grant proposal writing skills of the representative leaders of the NELTA Central Committee, Provincial Committees and District Branch Committees along with the NGOs elected local government officials such as mayors, education officers from various districts. Altogether, sixty-two participants (Central Committee Members-6, Presidents of Provinces-7, Chairs of Branches and representatives-28, NGOs-2, Education officers from Local government-13, Mayor-1) including 5 facilitators participated in the training and it was a first and unique in combination. The aim of the training was to identify the local resources liaising with the local governments and NGOs of similar interests to improve quality education in the grassroots through English.
Day-1 (March 3, 2020)
Inaugural Ceremony:
The first-day program began with the opening ceremony, chaired by Ms. Motikala Subba Dewan, President of NELTA. Ms. Renu Dahal, Mayor of Bharatpur Metropolitan city graced the opening ceremony as a Chief Guest and inaugurated the program lightening the Panas. Mr. Hari Bahadur Mahat, Mayor of Hetauda Municipality, Mr. Uday Kumar Barbariya Yadav, Mayor of Sahidnagar Municipality, Dhanusa, Mr. Curtis Chan, Regional English Language Officer, US Embassy Nepal, Dr. Hari Lamsal, Joint Secretary and Spokesperson for the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, Mr. Hemanta Raj Dahal, NELTA Advisor and Past President, Mr. Bishwa Raj Gautam, RELO Program Specialist, US Embassy Nepal, Mr. Sitaram Koirala, Education Officer, Bharatpur were invited on the dais. Ms. Sarita Dewan, the National Training Coordinator of NELTA was the master of the ceremony.
Synopsis of Speeches:
Ms. Motikala Subba Dewan, NELTA President-Ms. Dewan expressed her sincere gratitude to all the guests, facilitators, participants for providing their valuable time in spite of their busy schedules, especially to the Mayor of Bharatpur Metropolitan City, Ms. Renu Dahal for accepting NELTA’s invitation to grace the program as a Chief Guest. Ms. Dewan began her presidential speech providing a brief introduction of NELTA and its activities. Then she talked about the training. She said that this type of training is unique and significant because of the combination of participants are academic professionals, representatives of private and public institutions, and government officials, a very heterogeneous group, which will help them to develop networking, leadership skill, management skill, and grant writing skill. She further said it would also help them to enhance their productivity to make better decisions in the future and work in collaboration with different groups.
Ms. Dewan highlighted Bharatpur Mayor’s contributions in her district. She said the Mayor has created a milestone in the history of local development being a woman leader, which is praiseworthy. Ms. Dewan shared that she is very much impressed with the Mayor’s work and stated that NELTA is very much optimistic to get support from the Mayor and to work in collaboration with Bharatpur Metropolitan city to improve quality education in the district liaising through NELTA Chitwan. She is hopeful this type of future endeavor could amplify the development work and significant changes in the district. In the end, she expressed enduring gratitude to Mr. Curtis Chan, Regional English Language Officer and Bishwa Raj Gautam, RELO Program Specialist, US Embassy Nepal, for their support and effort to bring this program into reality. She also expressed her special thanks to Mr. Batuk Tamang, Chair of NELTA Chitwan for liaising with the local governance to organize this program. In conclusion, she wished all the participants have a great stay and take rewarding experiences with them and to utilize that knowledge and learnings in real-life practices.
Mr. Hari Bahadur Mahat, Mayor of Hetauda Municipality- Mr. Mahat shared his working experiences in the existing system of the government. He said it is very difficult to work at the local level when one is at the decision making level. As a mayor, he faced many challenges while executing various development programs in Hetauda. He suggested everyone must be honest and committed to his/her duty to bring changes in the country. The system itself is not bad, however; the people who work for the system have to change their thinking and attitude. He then praised NELTA for its voluntary work and shared that Hetauda Municipality had also supported NELTA to host National conference 2018, in Hetauda. Mr. Mahat showed his commitment that in the future also they would support NELTA for this type of program. They want to see improvement in education through English. He shared that resources are there, only they have to identify and initiate it to for the right program. In the end, he thanked NELTA for inviting him to speak a few words and wished for the great success of the program.
Mr. Curtis Chan, Regional English Language Officer, US Embassy Nepal-Mr. Chan expressed his happiness to collaborate with NELTA for this training. He believed in its significance for all. He wished all the local government and elected government officials along with NGO representatives and NELTA leaders from the center, province, and branches would get benefit from this training to enhance quality education in Nepal. He was very optimistic that this training would bridge the gap between private and public institutions. RELO is happy to collaborate with NELTA and with the local governments for the future endeavor.
Dr. Hari Prasad Lamsal, Joint Secretary and Spokesperson for the Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology-Dr. Lamsal shared his experience as a Government officer and wished for the success of the training.
Mr. Hemant Raj Dahal- Mr. Dahal highlighted about the program and gave emphasis on its importance. He was very much optimistic that this training would open the gate for them to work in collaboration with the local government to improve quality education in Nepal.
Ms. Renu Dahal, Mayor of Bharatpur Metropolitan City- The Mayor expressed her happiness to be the Chief Guest of the program. She shared that she was in a dilemma whether to attend the program or not since she was not very much aware of the NELTA. However, when she arrived there and learned about NELTA, she realized that if she had not come here, she would have missed the great opportunity to be acquainted with the great organization, which is quite apolitical and focuses only on quality education besides the English language. She was pleased to be in the program, because of that she was able to meet the English language leaders, representatives of the various NGOs, and local level government along with education officers from different parts of the country. She expressed her sincere gratitude to NELTA for providing her this opportunity to be a part of this.
Then the Mayor shared the information that the Bharatpur Metropolitan City had given first priority to the development of physical infrastructure; however, the education and health sector was in second or third priority in the past. This year they have allocated Rs 8.5 Crore budget only for the development of the education sector. She was happy to know that the goal of NELTA is also similar to their priority to improve quality education in the respective areas. She expressed her commitment to work collaboratively with NELTA for the improvement of quality education in Bharatpur in the near future. She thanked all the guests for their presence and wished for the great success of the program.
Sessions:
Dr. Hari Lamsal with the first and second sessions on Understanding leadership and competencies/ self-development/ emotional intelligence and organizational learning and knowledge/ organizational change and development respectively. The detailed analysis and presentation on the topic were indeed beneficial and practical; his example of lines of Shri Bhagwat Gita relating to emotional intelligence was very impressive.
In the third session, Ms. Motikala Subba Dewan shared the theory of Negotiation Skills. She began with the background and importance of negotiation skills. She then briefly talked about negotiation’s behavior, negotiation space and negotiation situation in proposal writing. She gave various examples of negotiation and provided the cases. She talked about targeted points and resistance points of bargaining along with negotiation space, positions, number, atmosphere, and structure. She provided the model of negotiation conversation phase by phase and explained about both parties’ roles and duties to make a successful negotiation. She ended her sharing providing clues to think for tomorrow’s practical session on negotiation.
Mr. Sita Ram Koirala, Under-secretary, Bharatpur Municipality presented on Performing Leadership in Education. He talked about leadership in education. Mr. Koirala spoke about different aspects related to profession vs. occupation, leader vs. manager, the practical meaning of leadership in education. He answered all the questions raised by the participants regarding national and local education policy.
The last session was the Interaction of RELO with the NELTA representatives of Province 1 and 6. Mr. Bishwa Raj Gautam, the RELO Program Specialist responded to all the queries put forward by both provinces.
Day 2 (March 4, 2020)
The day second began with critically reflected feedback of two participants representing male and female on day 1 achievements and expectations. Mr. Arjun Karki, Education Officer from Dolakha, expressed his feedback by analyzing leadership through drawings of participants; it was an impressive analysis of Social, Emotional, Physical, and Psychological Aspects of human emotions. He appreciated the time management of trainers as well. Mrs. Gomati Awasthi, the education officer from Bhim Datt municipality appreciated the presentation of Dr. Hari Prasad Lamsal about emotional intelligence for leaders, leadership and their attributes and Ms. Motikala Subba Dewan’s presentation on negotiation skills and strategies.
The first session was led by Ms. Motikala Subba Dewan that was the practical session of the previous session of Negotiation Skills. She divided the participants into eight groups and asked them to work on the given case. In the case, there were two parties: buyer and seller. Four groups were asked to perform as buyers and four were as sellers. They had to negotiate with each other on the product following the steps and strategies they learned in the previous session. Time was provided for the preparation and each group selected a spoke person to proceed with negotiation. The session was a kind of simulation practice or mock-up of negotiation strategies between sellers and buyers as we do in real-life. The session ended with a demonstration of the negotiation with signed agreements. In the same case, they got different results. Later, Ms. Dewan checked the agreements and provided feedback for further improvement.
Mr. Hemant Raj Dahal and Prof. Dr. Basu Dev Kafle conducted the session entitled Proposal Writing: Fundamentals of Proposal Writing. The session included a stepwise process of proposal writing such as vision, mission, statement, objectives, writing SMART objectives, project rationale, the significance of proposal writing, proving the problem, SWOT analysis, proposal writing process.
Prof. Dr. Basu Dev Kaphle delivered the second part of the proposal writing session. He initiated the session with the language needed for proposal writing where he detailed on objectivity, consistency, redundancy, the language of mass and so on. He further shared practical aspects of proposal writing under the title Proposal for the grant: How to? It included writing cover to the donor to bringing proposals in concrete shape.
Mr. Bishwa Raj Gautam, RELO Program Specialist delivered the fourth session. The session was entitled RELO Resources Session. He shared about common entities that one gets while reaching out to the possible funding, collaboration with local government as well as different sites to explore for proposal writing for funding it. He had responded to the remaining provinces’ (3, 4, 5 and 7) and branches queries related to the RELO. He had encouraged the participants to write proposals that relate to the priority of the US Embassy.
Day-3 (March 5, 2020)
The day third was started with the feedback of two participants on day 2 achievements and expectations. Mr. Ram Bahadur Ghalan, a government officer of Makawanpur district, recaptured and shared his learning and appreciated the presentations, their practical usefulness, and time management of trainers and strict following of the program schedule. Ms. Damara Saud, a NELTA life member from Karnali Province-6 shared her learning, how emotional intelligence touched her and negotiation strategies have enabled her to handle the situation while negotiating.
Mr. Bishwa Raj Gautam conducted the first session. He shared the topic of Resource Identification with a positive connotation. He shared web sites where people can grab opportunities. He discussed challenges and solutions for being an effective teacher. He shared a couple of sites as online resources; ELF, online courses like; MOOC, E-teacher program.
In the second session, Mr. Hemanta Raj Dahal encouraged the participants to write proposals for small grants. Prof. Dr. Basudev Kafle then shared his strategic planning on Strategies for a Grant Writing Proposal. He divided the participants into 8 groups and asked to work on mission, vision, goals, and objectives for a proposal. Teacher leaders and government officials shared their mission, vision, goals, and objectives of their upcoming proposal. After the sharing, Prof. Kafle gave his feedback to the participants on the issues of proposal writing also encouraged on how they could write strong grant-winning proposals.
Closing Ceremony:
NELTA President, Ms. Motikala Subbha Dewan, chaired the closing ceremony. On behalf of participants, Ms. Indira Oli, Secretary of NELTA Surkhet and Mr. Kapil Lamichhane, Education Officer from Parsa provided their reflection. Both had appreciated the content of the training and their usefulness in the real-life situation. They thanked NELTA and the RELO, US Embassy for supporting the program. Mr. Rajendra Baral from Ilam shared a prose poem on the program. Similarly, Mr. Ramji Hamal, President of Province-7, Prof. Dr. Kafle, and RELO Program Specialist Mr. Bishwa Raj Gautam gave their concluding remarks. Mr. Gautam said that looking at the modality of the three-day rigorous training, the term “orientation” would be appropriate instead of “training”, he also said he would be happy to get proposals from participants in the future. He thanked NELTA for the ‘extra-mile’ planning. The participants were provided with certificates. On behalf of NELTA, Central Committee Member Mr. Keshav Prasad Bhattarai expressed a vote of thanks for the successful completion of the 3-day training on Leadership Planning and Proposal Writing for NGOs and Local Government Officials. With the permission of the Chair of Closing Ceremony, Ms. Sarita Dewan, Master of Ceremony announced the 3-Day training was over. The participants were provided some important and useful books from the courtesy of RELO, U.S. Embassy.
Achievement (Based on the Reflection Template provided to all at the end)
• The combination of modality in the training of local government and elected government officials, NGO representatives with the academicians in the training was unique and effective for future collaboration. All the participants appreciated it.
• The amalgamation of participants of similar interest in developing quality education would help them to liaise for future projects for the local development.
• The participants learned the leadership skills, management skills, grant proposal writing skills along with negotiation skills to be competent leaders to develop their organizational system, negotiation through meaningful communication, develop the project proposals to generate sources and professional skills, develop strategic planning for their organization and explore resources for proposal writing, as well as capacity building.
• The commitments were shown by the government officers to collaborate with NELTA at the local level in the days to come.
• They have also appreciated the management and arrangement of the three-day training with a commitment to write project proposals in their respective districts, with a request for the following up training in the future.
Personal feedback from participants:
"The training was a kind of platform for building an effective and close relationship with the elected local government officials, and NGOs, which will be helpful to work collaboratively (especially) with them.” Mr. Ganesh Prasad Humagain, President, Province 3
“This training has strengthened our leadership, negotiation and proposal writing skills that each NELTIAN needs to improve. This has helped reduce the weak links with the government and government officials and has brought all trainees to a higher level.” Mr. Kamalraj Lamsal, General Secretary, Province 4
“It is good to know that the RELO, US Embassy, and NELTA are positive and actively concerned in the professional development of those who are associated with the Education system of Nepal. Personally got opportunities to learn many tips on Leadership and Proposal writing from the training. The insight they provided us was very fruitful and I am happy to be a part of it. I do hope to collaborate with NELTA in terms of teachers' professional development in the days to come.” Ms. Alina Basnet, Education Officer, Belbari Municipality, Morang.
Acknowledgment
NELTA would like to express its sincere thanks to RELO, Mr. Curtis Chan and RELO Program Specialist, Mr. Bishwa Raj Gautam, and the US Embassy, Nepal for the support on this unique training first of its kind.
Similarly, the heartfelt thanks go to the Mayor of Bharatpur Metropolitan City, Ms. Renu Dahal for gracing the opening ceremony as the Chief Guest, and the Mayor of Hetauda Municipality, Mr. Hari Bahadur Mahat for giving their valuable time and positive commitment towards NELTA, the education officers of different branches and representatives of NGOs, all the facilitators: Dr. Hari Lamsal, Joint Secretary and Spokesperson for the Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology, Prof. Dr. Basu Dev Kafle, and Mr. Sita Ram Koirala, Under-secretary, Bharatpur Municipality, and the Advisor and Past President Mr. Hemanta Raj Dahal for their efforts to impart their knowledge and research to the participants on the respective topics. The leaders of NELTA provinces and branches are highly appreciated for liaising with the government officials and other participants to be present in the training. NELTA also likes to acknowledge the tireless job of the hotel assistants in arranging everything as required according to circumstances. Due to the outbreak of COVID-19 some changes had to be made in the schedule that was very efficiently managed. Lastly, we appreciate the hard work of NELTA officials to make the program a huge success.
