Appreciative Inquiry summit helps foster peace in Nepal
Growth of AI understanding vital to realizing new vision for country, says leader
Wednesday July 15, 2009 -- Michelle Strutzenberger
A group of Nepali residents practising Appreciative Inquiry (AI) says the approach has helped foster peace in their country.

Imagine Nepal (IN) is an initiative created in 2002 by AI practitioners who wanted to work towards the restoration of peace in Nepal by focusing on what’s already working in the country.

A monarchy throughout most of its history, Nepal went through a decade of civil strife, which culminated in 2006 in a peace accord.

The ensuing elections for the constituent assembly voted in favour of the abdication of the last Nepali monarch and the establishment of a federal democratic republic in May, 2008.

The first president of Nepal, Dr. Ram Baran Yadav, was sworn in July 23, 2008.

Dhruba Acharya, chair of IN, says AI has had an influence on the country’s journey in recent years.

Since 2002, IN has been organizing AI workshops and conferences for Nepali residents from a broad cross-section of society, with a view to encouraging and empowering people to practice the AI approach where they work and in their personal lives.

But its most significant work has been through an AI summit in 2005, which it put together with support from David Cooperrider, pioneer of the AI movement and professor at Case Western Reserve University.

“It was the time when Nepal was in serious conflict,” Acharya tells Axiom News.

The summit brought together a large number of people from government as well as interested Nepali residents with the goal of using AI to develop plans for moving towards peace and equitable development in the country.

Together, participants “discovered the best of the past of Nepal, envisioned the kind of future they want to see by 2020 and identified 16 initiatives that they wanted to implement at different levels,” says Acharya.

These action plans continue to be rolled out.

The summit also led to many Nepalese governmental, non-governmental, business organization and academic institutions adopting Appreciative Inquiry as a way to do planning and management.

“For Imagine Nepal, it was a dream coming true,” says Acharya.

But while the country has made great strides, the journey isn’t over yet and as it moves forward Acharya’s belief is that AI can be an important tool for furthering Nepal’s development.

The country is on the verge of preparing a new constitution and essentially reconfiguring an entire centuries-old way of doing things.

“We are creating a new history of the nation,” says Acharya.

“In this context Appreciative Inquiry could be a very important tool to create the new vision of the country.”

He notes that while the armed conflict is over, there is still the possibility it could re-surface.

“In this situation we need to create hope, passion, harmonic relations and healing of the trauma for a peaceful and prosperous nation,” he says.

Acharya says for AI to have the kind of impact it needs to, the knowledge and practice of it needs to continue to grow, influencing politicians and other decision makers in particular, “so that their way of thinking is more positive and synergistic.”

IN is already working to expand that knowledge in a variety of ways, one of which is by hosting the 2009 World Appreciative Inquiry Conference in Kathmandu, Nepal.

It also is planning to establish a global AI university.

To learn more about Imagine Nepal and its future activities visit this link.

If you have feedback on this article please contact michelle(at)axiomnews.ca or call the newsroom at 800-294-0051.