Kathmandu/Washington: Nepal has emerged from per week of violent demonstrations that introduced down Prime Minister Ok P Sharma Oli’s authorities. The protest, led by Gen-Z, left round 50 individuals lifeless, set hearth to Parliament and the Supreme Court docket and broken tons of of buildings. What started as anger over corruption, unemployment, excessive inflation and sweeping social media ban escalated into one of the crucial damaging political uprisings within the Himalayan nation’s current historical past.
Now, questions are mounting over whether or not the unrest was spontaneous or scripted overseas.
The political storm had a protracted build-up. Again in March, The Sunday Guardian carried an in depth investigation claiming {that a} huge circulation of U.S. funding into Nepal was linked to efforts at regime change. The report even named native political actors who allegedly performed roles within the unfolding operation.
Inner communications from america Company for Worldwide Growth (USAID), together with programme outputs printed by American democracy-promotion teams, counsel that Washington poured practically $900 million into Nepal between 2020 and 2025.
Critics argue that a lot of this cash didn’t go towards improvement, however as an alternative into political coaching, narrative-building and networks that formed the very protests that unseated Oli.
The U.S. Funding Path
In response to paperwork cited by the newspaper, america has allegedly dedicated greater than $900 million to the nation by way of help and governance programmes since 2020. The vast majority of the funds have been reportedly channelled by way of Washington-based Consortium for Elections and Political Course of Strengthening (CEPPS), a partnership that features the Nationwide Democratic Institute (NDI), the Worldwide Republican Institute (IRI) and the Worldwide Basis for Electoral Techniques (IFES).
In Might 2022, the USAID allegedly signed a $402.7 million Growth Goal Settlement (DOAG) with Nepal’s Finance Ministry. By February 2025, $158 million had already been disbursed, whereas $244.7 million remained unused.
In parallel, a separate $500 million Millennium Problem Company (MCC) compact, signed in 2017, was allegedly lastly ratified in 2022 regardless of fierce road protests and parliamentary battles.
By early 2025, solely $43.1 million (8.63%) of MCC’s funds had really been spent. The undertaking’s mandate was nonetheless prolonged, protecting infrastructure and governance initiatives alive. The USAID and the MCC packages collectively introduced U.S. commitments to Nepal to the $900 million mark, an quantity that analysts describe as unusually giant for a rustic of Nepal’s dimension and geopolitical weight.
The place The Cash Went
Breakdowns of U.S. allocations present telling priorities: $37 million was allegedly earmarked for civil society and media, $35 million for adolescent reproductive well being programmes and $8 million particularly for “democratic processes”. Even a comparatively small $500,000 undertaking for a “Democracy Useful resource Middle Nepal” was allegedly totally expended.
On paper, these programmes sought to strengthen democracy, enhance youth participation and guarantee truthful elections. However critics inside and outdoors Nepal argue that they served as instruments of political engineering. Initiatives branded as well being or analysis initiatives, they declare, doubled as devices for constructing affect and shaping narratives.
NGOs, Coaching And The Youth Issue
The Sunday Guardian investigation highlights actions by the NDI, the IRI and the IFES that seem intently linked to the eventual rebellion.
The NDI printed studies between 2020 and 2022 on federalism, Dalit rights, local weather change and youth participation. It additionally allegedly developed coaching toolkits for younger activists.
The IRI allegedly carried out nationwide surveys gauging public dissatisfaction, specializing in youth disillusionment with unemployment and curiosity in new political events. The IFES allegedly supported Nepal’s 2022 native elections with technical help and voter consciousness campaigns.
Formally, these have been programmes to deepen democracy. However as one Nepali analyst advised the paper, they successfully inserted an American agenda into the nation’s political ecosystem. Lots of the protesters, who crammed Kathmandu’s streets this 12 months, have been reportedly the identical youth who as soon as took half in U.S.-funded coaching and civic engagement programmes.
A Script Written In Washington?
The concept a small South Asian nation might appeal to practically a billion {dollars} in U.S. funding in just some years has raised eyebrows. “For a rustic like Nepal, this scale of monetary dedication shouldn’t be regular,” mentioned a Kathmandu-based political observer.
The suspicion deepens when tied to Nepal’s current political trajectory. Within the weeks earlier than Oli’s fall, accusations of corruption and heavy-handed censorship had already sparked stress. When protests erupted, they shortly acquired the organisational construction, slogans and coordination extra typically seen in actions with outdoors backing than in purely spontaneous road anger.
The Sunday Guardian argued that what unfolded appeared much less like a sudden explosion and extra like a pre-scripted situation, one which had been rehearsed by way of years of coaching modules, toolkits and NGO-backed activism.
The Fireplace Subsequent Time?
For Washington, programmes below the USAID, the MCC and the CEPPS stay framed as democracy-strengthening. For critics in Nepal, they’re a skinny cowl for geopolitical maneuvering, inserting American leverage in a rustic sandwiched between China and India.
What is obvious is that the Gen-Z protest motion, whose chants of anger toppled a authorities, was not born in isolation. It allegedly grew from years of structured funding, surveys, workshops and activism programmes that formed a technology of Nepali youth. Whether or not these programmes quantity to democracy promotion or regime engineering is now on the centre of one among South Asia’s most urgent debates.