Basic Operating Guidelines

In Nepal, the impartiality of aid and the degree of access to the needy has been codified through the UN and donor agencies' Basic Operating Guidelines (BOGs), a set of measurable working principles that organizations have to apply and advocate on. The term operational space describes the freedom of development and humanitarian organizations to assist beneficiaries and implement projects independently of military and political interference.

In the last couple of years, UN and donor agencies as well as a number of NGOs active in Nepal have stepped up their efforts to monitor the threats to the operational space from the CPN-Maoist or the security forces. Through tracking and reporting violations of the BOGs, organizations have been able to progressively assess the degree of free access to the vulnerable populations and, ultimately, the effectiveness of aid. Consequently, the BOGs have emerged as a widely accepted standard among development agencies to monitor operational space.

On behalf of the BOGs Group OCHA started monitoring and consolidating information on operational space from a wide range of UN, donor and I/NGO sources in 2006– developing a system of mapping and disseminating events. Two ‘Risk Management Offices' established by donors – one as a collaboration between DFID and GTZ, and a more recent office established by Canadian CIDA and SNV – have also been key to monitoring ground information on the operational space through frequent field visits and reports from its local partners. OCHA and the Risk Management Offices routinely provide specific information on BOGs violations and trend analyses on the subject to the BOGs and Contact Groups.

The BOGs Group, which represents almost all the major donors operating in Nepal , is the driving force behind the monitoring and advocacy efforts on operational space. The group was established in October 2003 in order to ensure safety of aid staff and establish common positions on threats to the delivery of their programs.