Working Conditions and Procedures for INGOs and NGOs in Nepal: Requirements and Code of Conduct Iris Kobek& Ram Pratap Thapa, November 2005 1 Annual Nepal NGO Meeting The Eleventh Nepal NGO Meeting or­ganised by the German-Nepal Friend­ship Association(GNFA) was held on September 10, 2005 in Cologne, Ger­many. As in the past, this annual meet­ing of the nongovernmental organisa­tions(NGO) working for Nepal brought together a large number of people rep­resenting some 35 NGOs and other or­ganisations. The main topics of discus­sion for the day included the changing working condition for NGOs in Nepal, the effects of the political change of Feb­ruary 1 on development cooperation, and Nepal’s new Code of Conduct for Social Organizations and Institutions 2005(CoC). The discussions also fo­cused on the potential effects that the CoC might have on the work of the German international nongovernmental organizations(INGO) and their partner organisations in Nepal. The German Ambassador to Nepal, Franz Erwin Ring, sent his greetings and thanked the representatives of the Ger­man NGOs for continuing their work in Nepal in spite of the unfavourable pre­sent conditions in the country and for taking personal risk in doing their work. The Nepalese Ambassador was repre­sented by Minister Counsellor Prahlad Prasai, who expressed great apprecia­tion for German NGOs for their contin­ued commitment and important work in Nepal. The speakers of the day were Jochen Kenneweg, head of the Depart­ment for South Asia of the Federal Min­istry for Economic Cooperation and De­velopment(BMZ), Annette Lohmann from the Working Group on Develop­ment and Peace(FriEnt) in the BMZ as well as Birgit Starkenberg from the German Agency for Technical Coopera­tion(GTZ). Marei John from Friedrich-Ebert Stiftung (FES) described her impressions from her last visit to Nepal and reported on the local activities of FES in Nepal. She observed that the political parties in Ne­pal seem to have come closer together in the present situation, and that a gen­erational change seems imminent and necessary for them to regain credibility. The unions also seem to be coming closer together. Thus, general willing­ness to enter into dialogue seems to have grown for some groups. At the same time, local elections have been announced. Whether such elections will be a precursor to other moves toward the recreation of democratic conditions 1 Ram Pratap Thapa is President of Deutsch-Nepalische Gesellschaft e.V.(German Nepal Society, DNG) in Cologne, Germany, and initiator of the annual Nepal NGO Meeting that has been taking place in Cologne since 1995. Iris Kobek has been working for several years in Nepal as a development expert. 1