The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Wednesday that it will be hosting the first-ever Sagarmatha Sambaad, a multi-stakeholder forum to deliberate on important issues of global, regional and national significance, on April 3 and 4.

Inspired by the annual World Economic Forum of Davos, Shangri-La Dialogue of Singapore and Raisana Dialogue of New Delhi, according to the government officials, the biannual dialogue will focus on Nepal’s own success stories of home-grown peace process, fighting climate change, inclusive democracy, contributions to the international peacekeeping, women empowerment and uplifting of the marginalised sections of the society.

The venue for the dialogue is yet to be decided.

Taking the lead of mountainous countries and several problems they are facing, particularly in the area of climate change, the theme of the first Sambaad will be “Climate Change, Mountains and Future of the Humanity”, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Heads of state and government and other stakeholders working in the field of climate change would be invited to the forum.

On Wednesday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs hosted national consultations in order to solicit views and opinions from representatives from diverse fields as part of the preparation for the upcoming dialogue.

“The upcoming dialogue will be an inward and outbound event that will showcase various aspects of climate change including drawing the attention of the global community to the problems we are facing,” said Foreign Minister Pradeep Gyawali. “ It will also link the issue of climate change between mountain and island nations that are facing the adverse effect of climate change. We will try to reach a common understanding through the dialogue, create an alliance of mountainous nations that are suffering from the effect of climate change, seek climate justice to those who are affected and contribute for climate and green funding.”

Earlier too Nepal had taken several initiatives to sensitise on the issue of climate change, like hosting a Cabinet meeting at Kalapatthar near Mt Everest, but this is the first time Nepal is going to take the lead as a mountainous country so that the donor community, those responsible for carbon footprint in large scales and multilateral agencies working in this fields would be sensitised further.

Speaking at the programme, former minister Sunil Bahadur Thapa said issues of migration, displacement from climate change and natural disasters should also be included.

“As per several previous reports, the dialogue should showcase ethnicity and cultural diversity and harmony; the relations between the donors and governments; the role of civil society; and linkages between various government agencies,” said Thapa.

Pramod Budhathoki of the Nepali Congress said the dialogue’s mission should be clear.

“This initiative should be a strategic one rather than a government-driven process,” he said. “If the process is government-driven, it will try to impose its value on others, leaving minimal room for independent voices. Sub-themes of the dialogue should be compatible with our priority, not global concerns. And we have to strengthen our capacity.”

The two-day dialogue will focus on traditional knowledge, culture and technology; livelihood-agriculture, food security, forest and biodiversity; green economy-tourism; energy and water; and low carbon resilience and transformational solutions focusing on areas like youths, technology, innovation, lifestyle, opportunities, climate justice and finance.

Madhav Kari of Centre of Green Economy said that the event should provide a solution and not focus on digging out problems.

“It has to be result-oriented. We are saying that it will be a biannual function, but can we engage the audience regularly? And there must be separate panels of heads of state, government representatives, institutions working in this filed, youths and others so that it can be more result-oriented,” said Karki.