Bishwaraj Adhikari/Pahichan – Blue Diamond Society (BDS) is a Nepal based Non-Governmental Organization established in 2001 AD. BDS strives for the implementation of human rights for sexual and gender minority people throughout the country.

This is the first organization in the Nepal that works for the rights, advocacy and the empowerment of Sexual & Gender Minorities (SGM). It envisions a just and inclusive society where the SGM community will be able to live while enjoying full freedom and equality with other members of society.

Brief on Royal Norwegian Embassy (RNE) Supported First Round Project “Support to BDS for Human Rights, Media Advocacy and Core Fund”

To support the lives and human rights of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex (LGBTI) community of Nepal, the Royal Norwegian Embassy (RNE) provided fund for three year project “Support to Blue Diamond Society for Human Rights, Media Advocacy and Core Fund”.

The specific objectives of this project were: (1) Influence government and donors on the human rights of SGM/LGBTI; (2) Reduce the human rights violations against LGBTI individuals in Nepal; and, (3) Raise awareness and sensitize on LGBTI rights in Nepal. This project was implemented from 1st November 2011 to Feb 2015.

RNE’s support was judicious and balanced combining both program support and core institutional support. The support is also strategic in nature as it is aligned to the BDS strategic plan and supports two important strategic areas relating to human rights. This indicates mutual ownership of BDS’s strategy (2011-2013). It is the basis of the partnership and RNE recognises BDS as the owner of the process^[1].

The End Review has been commissioned as per the provision made in contract between RNE and BDS focusing on assessment of relevancy, efficiency, effectiveness and making forward looking recommendations. The main activities of the project are as follows:

 Main Activities of the visit:

• To Support LGBTI people to keep their visibility in other human rights discourses Follow up service
• To Documents human rights cases, complaints and sensitise local legal mechanism to respond accordingly
• To check the Skills of media reporters increased to write articles on LGBTI issues Monitoring and Evaluation

Objectives of the Monitoring Visit:

• To track the progress in line with agreed targets
• To use information from routine monitoring to improve performance

 Detail about the Monitoring Visit:

 Among the various programs mentioned above, monitoring visit to district offices is one. In this time, the following indicators were used for the monitoring:

• No of advocacy meeting conducted
• No of Human Rights Violation cases documented
• No of beneficiaries visits for the legal aid support  in the organization
• No of cases or complain filed in HRC district centers
• No of cases or complain filed in police
• No of People sensitized on HR issues policy maker
• No of community people sensitized in HR issues
• No of referral case in different sectors
• Place of referral
• Increase or decrease
• BDS project working in the district:
• No of policies changed ( Name)

In conclusion, all the districts are needed to work hard to fight with the society against social stigma and discrimination as some of the districts like Kapilbastu and Nawalparasi are very weak comparing to others districts. Specially in Kapilbastu, there’s cummunity members situation is worst than the BDS initial phase before 2001. In this regards they need proper education regarding SOGI issues and rights as well as the income generating program as their economical status is very poor and if they got sufficient training or some fund they can utilize their skills and knowledge to grow up and meet social requirement.