Documentos de Académico
Documentos de Profesional
Documentos de Cultura
Prepared by Total Management Services in association with PRAD Nepal and InLoGos Nepal
Kathmandu, Nepal
This consultant’s report does not necessarily reflect the views of ADB or the Government concerned, and
ADB and the Government cannot be held liable for its contents. For project preparatory technical
assistance: All the views expressed herein may not be incorporated into the proposed project’s design.
GRDCP Final Report
‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
Volume 1: Main Report
Volume 2: Annexes
January 2009
Page i
GRDCP Final Report
‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
Table of Contents
Preface & Acknowledgement ................................................................................................... iv
Abbreviations and Acronyms.....................................................................................................v
Executive Summary .................................................................................................................... vi
CHAPTER I: THE CONTEXT, WORK DONE AND THE REPORT ........................................1
1.1 The Context ............................................................................................................................................................1
1.2 Objective and Scope of the Study .......................................................................................................................1
1.3 Approach and Methodology ...............................................................................................................................2
1.4 Other Activities during the TA ...........................................................................................................................8
1.5 Limitations of the Study.......................................................................................................................................9
1.6 Organization of the Report ..................................................................................................................................9
CHAPTER II: DECENTRALIZATION IN NEPAL – LEGAL AND INSTITUTIONAL
FRAMEWORK ..........................................................................................................10
2.1 Decentralization Efforts & Achievements.......................................................................................................10
2.2 Legal and Institutional Framework of Decentralization ..............................................................................12
2.3 Key Issues, Gaps and Challenges .....................................................................................................................14
2.4 Changing Political Context and Federalism ...................................................................................................19
CHAPTER III: MANDATES PROTOCOLS AND SERVICE DELIVERY IN
AGRICULTURE........................................................................................................21
3.1 Service Delivery Mandates, Policies and Protocol ........................................................................................21
3.2 Organizational Set up and Business Process..................................................................................................23
3.3 Service Delivery Capacity and Beneficiary Perception ................................................................................29
3.4 Reforming Policies Institutions and Business Process for Better Service Delivery .................................31
CHAPTER IV: MANDATES PROTOCOLS AND SERVICE DELIVERY IN RURAL
INFRASTRUCTURE................................................................................................34
4.1 Service Delivery Mandates, Policy and Protocols .........................................................................................34
4.2 Organizational Set Up and Business Process .................................................................................................37
4.3 Service Delivery Provision and Beneficiary Perspective .............................................................................40
4.4 Reforming Policies, Institutions and Business Process for Better Service Delivery ................................41
CHAPTER V: REFORMING GOVERNANCE FOR BETTER SERVICE DELIVERY...........45
5.1 Institutions, Mandates and Capacity ...............................................................................................................45
5.2 Business Processes ..............................................................................................................................................51
5.3 Ensuring Marginalized and Disadvantaged Groupsʹ Access to Public Services .....................................54
5.4 Reforming Policies, Institutions and Business Process for Better Service Delivery ................................57
Page ii
GRDCP Final Report
‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
List of Figures:
Fig 3.1: Fund Flow and Planning Process Diagram in Agriculture Sector at the District Level
...................................................................................................................................................28
Fig. 5.1: Institutional Structure of LBs (LSGA ‐ 2056) ......................................................................49
Fig 5.2: Fund Flow from MoF to LBs.................................................................................................52
List of Tables
Table 1.1: Sampled Districts......................................................................................................................6
Table 1.2: Number of CMS, ASC & LSC and the Sample Allocation by Selected Districts .............7
Table 2.1: Status of Decentralization Progress in Nepal .....................................................................11
Table 3.1: Types of Institutions under the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives ..................23
Table 3.2: SWOT Analysis of Central Organizations ..........................................................................25
Table 3.3: SWOT Analysis of District Level Organizations/Institutions (DADOs/DLSOs)...........26
Table 3.4: Comparative Indicators of Extension Service Delivery in SAARC Countries...............30
Table 4.1: Merits and Demerits of the Implementation Modalities...................................................39
Table 4.2: Types of Service Delivery System ........................................................................................41
Table 5.1: SWOT of MoLD ......................................................................................................................46
Table 5.2: Tasks and Responsibilities of LBs ........................................................................................48
Table 6.1: Selection of VDC and Municipality for Piloting ................................................................65
Table 6.2: Service Recipient Household by Type of Service Providers ............................................71
Table 6.3: Service Satisfaction Perception by Type of Residence ......................................................72
Table 6.4: UCs Formation & People’s Perception ................................................................................74
Page iii
GRDCP Final Report
‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
Preface & Acknowledgement
We are delighted to submit this Final Report of the assignment on ʺTA 4834‐NEP: Preparing the
Governance Reforms and Decentralization Cluster Program Iʺ. This Report has been prepared by
completely restructuring and rewriting to include further review and analysis of decentralization issues
and presenting the identified gaps and reform recommendations in a systematic framework. We believe
that the analysis and recommendations presented will be helpful to the Government in its initiatives and
to the ADB in its support to government efforts at decentralization of governance and improvement of
public service delivery in Nepal.
We thank with gratitude Dr. Bhoj Raj Ghimire, Chief Secretary, Office of the Prime Minister and Council of
Ministers (OPMCM), Government of Nepal for his overall support and guidance as Chairman of the
Steering Committee as well as Mr. Gambhir Bhatta and Mr. Surya Prakash Shrestha, Senior Governance
Officials, Asian Development Bank, Manila, Philippines, for their very positive support, valuable
comments and helpful understanding during the performance of this assignment.
We owe our gratitude to Mr. Surya Prasad Acharya, Under Secretary, MoLD and Mr. Mahendra Poudyal,
Under Secretary MoAC for their contribution as respective Ministry focal persons, as well as to other
members of the Steering Committee for their guidance and suggestion, to the MoLD and MoAC teams for
providing information and support; and to the Thematic Group Members for their guidance and support.
Similarly, we offer our heartfelt thanks also to the Secretaries of MoF, MoAC and MoES, the Director
Generals of the Departments of Agriculture and Livestock Services and the respectable officials of different
Ministries and Department for their professional advice during visits and interactions.
Likewise, we owe our sincere thanks to the Representatives from the eight survey districts and the Pilot
VDCs/Municipalities for their valuable coordination; the LDO and DTO Chiefs as well as the
Secretary/CEO and coordinating committee members of the Pilot VDCs/Municipalities, for their equally
valuable information support, experience sharing and hospitality.
Our thanks go also to the District Chiefs of Central Line Agencies, the Technical Social Mobilizers and the
Community Group Representatives for information and experience sharing and for their active
participation in the pilot‐testing activities. We are very grateful to also the chairpersons and officials of the
ADDCN, MuAN and NAVIN for sharing their invaluable views and insights.
Finally, we wish to thank Mr. Prithvi Raj Ligal, Team Leader of the Study Team for his ably leading the
team and other members Mr. Jagdish Gautam, Mr. P.R. Gautam, Dr. Devendra Shrestha, Mr. Ramesh
Adhikari and Dr. Bidya Nath Koirala for their proactive contribution. We wish to also thank Mr. Prajol
Shrestha, Executive Director and Mr. Rajiv Adhikari, Mr. Atul Shrestha and Mr. Sagun Shrestha, Project
Coordinators of TMS for their proactive contribution and Mr. Bigya Bajracharya, Mr. Nischeet Maharjan
and Mr. Rajkumar Maharjan for their all round assistance in making the assignment a success.
Padma Lal (P.L.) Shrestha
Chairperson, Total Management Services
Page iv
GRDCP Final Report
‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
Abbreviations and Acronyms
Page v
GRDCP Final Report
‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
Executive Summary
I. Contextual Background
1.1 Context and Objective
1. Governance reforms in Nepal have centered on reorganizing central administration and improving
its relationships with local administration, which presently, is composed of five development regions, 75
district development committees (DDC), 58 municipalities and almost 4000 village development
committees (VDC). Plans for good governance in Nepal have had aimed at (i) inclusive and participatory
governance, (ii) effective public service delivery, (iii) improved government accountability and
transparency, and (iv) accelerated decentralization. Such a government policy and strategy is practically in
full alignment with ADB's country assistance strategy for Nepal.
2. In a context like this, the overall goal of this TA on Preparing Governance Reforms and
Decentralization Cluster Program I (GRDCP TA No. 4834-NEP) has been to enhance local governance for
inclusive service delivery and poverty reduction by ensuring that the rural poor, in particular, have better
1
access to services in agriculture and rural infrastructure sectors . The intended outputs of the study are: i)
review of service delivery protocol at the central level; ii) assessment of service delivery needs at local
level and iii) pilot-testing of measures for service delivery improvement and making recommendations for
replication.
4. Accordingly, besides reviewing the relevant laws, rules, regulations, operating procedures and
modalities of service delivery in local people's vital registration, certification, and minor dispute settlement
and in the devolved services of agriculture and rural infrastructure sector, it has also reviewed mandates
and capability of the concerned central line agencies (CLA) and the Local Bodies (LBs) at the grass-root
level as well as intermediate governance actors like the Local Bodies' Associations (LBAs), relevant to
local peoples participation in local development governance.
6. Also, a study tour was organized for high level GoN officials to observe good governance practices
and service delivery models in the State of Andhra Pradesh in India. The participants observed good
governance practices in the State besides learning about the State’s governance reforms initiatives
through interactions with and presentations from resource persons.
1
Rural infrastructure sector replaced education sector during the study period.
Page vi
GRDCP Final Report
‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
8. Another praiseworthy initiative, which was a direct positive fallout of the LSGA has been the 5 year
Decentralization Implementation Action Plan (DIAP) 2058-2063 (2002-2007 AD) which aimed at i)
strengthening capacity of the Ministry of Local Development (MoLD) and the National Planning
Commission (NPC) to plan for enhancing democratic decentralized governance, ii) strengthening
institutional programming, management and governance of DDCs and VDCs to effectively implement their
mandates, roles and responsibilities defined in LSGA, and iii) supporting operationalization of Village
Development Programs (VDP) by using social mobilization techniques.
12. Also, while the constitutional delegation of authority for conducting Government business calls for
improvements in terms of balance in power or authority with responsibility and accountability in
governance, the design and specification of business allocations in the Government Allocation of Business
Rules (GABR) 2064 (2007 AD) too, call for improvements by way of a redesign based on a systems
approach to governance.
13. Gaps continue in legal-institutional framework of LSGA and in the 22 of the 23 earlier sectoral laws
continuing to be in conflict with the LSGA.
Page vii
GRDCP Final Report
‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
C. Institutional Structures & Capacity
15. Gaps in this area relate to the terms of relationship between the Government and the LBs defined
under Article-1, Part-5 of the LSGA whereby power of government is still dominantly retained by the Center
through either restrictive or constrictive provisions in the LSGA in matters of institutional structure,
functional and budgetary allocation, staff recruitment, employment and secondment etc.
22. Agriculture sector is guided by three long-term plan, policy and strategy that came into force in last
one decade. The 20-year Agriculture Perspective Plan (APP, 1995-2015), adopted a strategy to promote
outputs in horticultural crops, livestock products and selected food crops for achieving an annual growth
rate of 3.5% in Agriculture Gross Domestic Product (AGDP) during the 20 years plan period covering the
Page viii
GRDCP Final Report
‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
9th to 12th Periodic Plans. To drive the engine, the strategy gave emphasis on technology, rural
electrification, fertilizers, irrigation and agriculture roads.
23. The National Agriculture Policy (NAP), 2061 (2004 AD) was formulated to further the gains of APP
with an objectives to enhance agricultural production and productivity by promoting competitiveness in the
regional as well as world markets through developing commercial and competitive agriculture and
conserving and promoting use of natural resources, environment and biodiversity. The policy gave
emphasis to productivity gains by adopting suitable technology, devolving authority to LBs and
encouraging women to participate in agricultural activities. Besides, the policy emphasized promoting
cooperatives for commercial production and marketing, encouraging public–private partnerships and
improving land resources management through enacting appropriate legislation with involvement of local
bodies.
24. Agriculture Extension Strategy (AES) 2063 (2006 AD), as a follow through of the NAP 2061,
emphasized output oriented agriculture extension services with a central focus on the needs of the poor
and disadvantaged farmers and also the farmers and entrepreneurs of different categories on participatory
basis. The approach gave importance to the use of simple audio-visual communication technologies for
agri-extensions and encouraged partnerships with CBOs, NGOs and private sector in agriculture extension
by limiting the role of public sector mostly as facilitator and regulator.
25. Within these long-term policies and plans the Three Year Interim Plan (2008–2010) aims to
modernize and commercialize the agriculture sector, by following a strategic objective of achieving broad
based, gender inclusive and sustainable growth in agriculture.
26. Devolution of Agriculture Extension Livestock Services to DDC was implemented in 2002, as per
the “Guidelines for the Implementation of Devolved Agriculture Sectoral Programs 2059 (2002 AD)”. The
Guidelines 2002 have defined the roles and functions of different CLAs under the MoAC to support the
implementation of the devolved programs, as well as to provide agriculture and livestock services to
beneficiaries at local level. Except for routing agriculture related budget through District Development Fund
(DDF) to district agriculture/livestock offices under devolution, all other programs, personnel, financial,
technical and administrative matters are controlled by the District Agriculture Development Office (DADO)
of the Department of Agriculture (DoA), and District Livestock Services Office (DLSO) of the Department of
Livestock Services (DoLS).
28. Manuals and guidelines specify the roles, responsibility and accountabilities at different levels of
CLAs and of the LBs. Regional Directorates of Agriculture and Livestock are responsible for providing
technical backstopping to the district level offices. District level offices of agriculture and livestock are
responsible for planning and implementing all district level programs. However, the Ministry and
Departments at the Center suffer from lengthy decision making process.
29. DADOs and DLSOs prepare the district level annual programs on agriculture with consultative
participatory meetings organized by DDC to fine tune them. Such programs mainly deal with agriculture
and livestock extension services, and to a certain extent, marketing and institutional support. While
preparing these programs nationally prescribed operational strategies like Pocket Package Strategy (PPS)
and Group-based Extensions are closely followed. However, non-synchronization of district programs
between the CLAs and LBs has been a major problem in agriculture and livestock services at the district
level.
Page ix
GRDCP Final Report
‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
31. DDC and the VDC are not financially participating with even token investments in building such
infrastructures, except in certain isolated cases like the one at Sisuwa in Kaski where the local people and
the Municipality/VDC were joining in investment of funds for building service centre, thereby building their
sense of ownership.
34. The devolution of district level infrastructural programs, particularly small irrigation and drinking
water programs, and rural roads including agriculture roads etc. from the central government to the DDC
substantially increased the volume of the district level infrastructure programs and thus justified a capable
technical office of the DDC on its own. Organizational relocation of DTO from the DDC to the DoLIDAR, in
such a situation, raises this issue as challenging the basic spirit of decentralization.
35. Recognizing gaps in implementing LSGA and its associated rules and regulations on account of
(i) lack of long term vision, (ii) non-devolution of the local infrastructure related functions to the LBs, (iii)
lack of a clear enough concept on rural and urban infrastructure, Government declared and brought to
effect the Local Infrastructure Development Policy (LIDP), 2061 (2004 AD).
36. Rural Infrastructure Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Plan, 2007 (RIRRP) under the Three Year
Interim Plan (2008-2010), aimed to rebuild and reconstruct the conflict-damaged/destroyed infrastructures
and to complete planned infrastructure development activities which could not be accomplished due to
conflict. RIRRP covers seven sub-sectors, of physical infrastructures such as: (i) roads and bridges; (ii)
water supply and sanitation; (iii) irrigation and river training; (iv) rural electrification; (v) communication; (vi)
buildings/physical facilities; and (vii) civil aviation facilities.
Page x
GRDCP Final Report
‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
implementation of construction at beneficiary group level. Similarly, the LIDP, 2004 clearly requires that the
construction work shall be done through UCs, local NGOs and CBOs depending upon nature, size, and
technology involved. Only works which are technically complex in nature are to be done through
procurement contracts.
38. The instrument of UC has been an effective approach for LBs to undertake small local construction
works. The advantages of the approach are the increased local ownership and accountability, use of local
labor, reduced costs, etc. The UC approach has been found working effectively in the remotest of VDC in
the country, even in the insurgency situation. In the remote areas, private sector contractors are either non-
existent or unwilling to undertake too small-scale public or community works, for obvious reasons of
profitability.
39. Because of success of UCs at beneficiaries' group level by ensuring completion of the local rural
infrastructure project in time and within cost, more and more communities at the grass root level are
demanding such approach for rural infrastructure construction. However, anomalies, such as, formation of
UCs without including beneficiaries, contracting out their works by UCs, and the lack of technical and
administrative knowledge e.g. of government rules and regulations, accounting etc. among the UC
members, and frequent political interference in the formation of UCs and in allocation of funds are
emerging problems in the use of this, otherwise, very effective tool.
40. Household (HH) survey conducted to gauge citizen’s perception on satisfaction or dissatisfaction
with participation in the planning service realization and delivery concerning rural infrastructure showed
almost 50% people having participated in the plan formulation meeting, 75% people having taken part in
budget formulation meeting, and more than 90% participated in fund collection and monitoring and
evaluation meeting. Community perceptions on service delivery showed more than 75% respondents
satisfied with service delivery by LBs.
43. MoLD has, besides five divisions within the Ministry, one Department of Local Infrastructure
Development and Agricultural Roads (DoLIDAR), one Local Development Training Academy (LDTA) with
five Village Development Training Centers, two Women Development Training Centers and one Urban
Development Training Center located in various regions of the Country.
Page xi
GRDCP Final Report
‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
one Gumba Development Committee. The Ministry has altogether 127 staff plus 76 positions in DoLIDAR
comprising mostly engineers and agronomists.
c) Meso-level Institutions
46. Three key meso-level or intermediate level actors that have been pro-active in advocating and
promoting local self-governance in Nepal have been the Local Bodies Associations (LBAs) such as the (i)
Association of District Development Committees of Nepal (ADDCN); the (ii) Municipal Association of Nepal
(MuAN); and the (iii) Association of Village Development Committees of Nepal (NAVIN). They have been
instrumental in drafting the LSGA and LSGR, formulating the 5-year DIAP, recommending the formula
based distribution of Central Government conditional and unconditional grants to and revenue sharing with
LBs, establishment of the LBFC etc. However, unsustained institutional capacity and resource base on one
hand and failure to maintain political neutrality in its works on the other hand are reported to be
constraining their institutionalization as LBAs effectively serving and supporting their member LBs.
48. Fund flow mechanism introduced in 2003 has been the key process followed, until recently, in
releasing fund from center to district level offices and to different levels of LBs. The recently promulgated
Local Bodies Financial Administration Rules (LBFAR) 2064 (2007 AD) has enabled budget release of
unconditional grants directly from MoF to Local Bodies. Fiscal powers entrusted to LBs to raise revenue,
however, suffer from the problem of limited authority as well as overlap and duplication. A number of
revenue sources are shared between levels of government. Certain revenues are shared by the center
with DDC while others are shared between LBs.
49. Reported financial and personnel business process bottlenecks include: trimester budgetary fund
release process requiring submission of complex supporting documents for each trimester release
resulting in avoidable undue delays, and equally time taking personnel and financial administration
procedure for deputation of persons, payment releases for construction works done, internal and external
audits etc.
50. Enabled by the Public Procurement Act (PPA) 2064 (2007 AD) and Public Procurement Rules
(PPR) 2064 (2007 AD), Government corrected the gaps of LBFAR 2056 (1999 AD) by issuing a more
comprehensive LBFAR 2064 (2007 AD), which, however, still remains to address important aspects of
supply chain management such as in-bound and out-bound logistics and inventory management.
Page xii
GRDCP Final Report
‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
VDCs by ensuring engagement and participation of these groups in grass-roots community development
programs that are truly community-centered and community-involved.
Page xiii
GRDCP Final Report
‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
drinking water system and sanitation, especially construction of the household toilet facility; and the other
was helping income generation and livelihood improvement of the poor and the disadvantaged
communities through provision of deep tube well support for off-season vegetable farming cum drinking
water.
59. Similarly recommendations for replication in agriculture and livestock services included mainly (i)
strengthening ASCs/LSCs as effective technical testing cum information service centers in agriculture and
livestock extension services; (ii) encouraging DDC and VDC ownership of respective development plans
through financial contributions from their respective funds; and (iii) introducing smart public-private
partnership and networking in agriculture and livestock extension services to both the grass-roots level as
well as the small and medium agri-entrepreneurs.
60. Likewise, recommendations for replication in the rural infrastructure services included mainly (i)
making UCs politically neutral and more beneficiary-centered and beneficiary involved without the need to
sub-contract their works to visible or invisible sub-contractors; (ii) training UC members and (iii)
mainstreaming marginalized and disadvantaged communities in public service delivery network through
grant support in the area of community infrastructure development for healthy human shelter and income-
generating employments.
Page xiv
GRDCP Final Report
‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
Page i
GRDCP Final Report
‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
2. Although the process of decentralization in Nepal has been ongoing since long, clear and
systematic process began only after the restoration of democracy in 1990. The Constitution of
Nepal 1990, in its Directive Principles of the State Policy, incorporated decentralization as "the
means for ensuring optimum participation of people in governance”. Promulgation of enactments
and regulations related to decentralization e.g. Local Self Governence Act (LSGA), 2055 (1999
AD), Local Self-Governance Rules, 2056 (1999 AD), Local Body (Financial Administration)
Regulation (LBFAR), 2056 (1999 AD) as well as the National Framework for Decentralized
Governance and Capacity Building (2002 AD) and Decentralization Implementation Action Plan
(DIAP), 2058 (2002 AD), with time bound actions to implement LSGA provisions, were some of
the important actions that demonstrated commitment of the government to local governance.
Some basic services such as, agriculture extension and livestock services, primary education and
primary health services were devolved to LBs and community management committee in fiscal
year 2002, and rural infrastructures such as small irrigation, community drinking water and rural
and agriculture roads in the year 2004. The Interim Constitution of Nepal, 2063 (2007 AD) spelled
out decentralization as a means to socio-economic development and service delivery at the grass
root level.
3. In spite of all these, the process of decentralization in Nepal, however, remained half
hearted in its planning as well as implementation. Fluid political situation, absence of elected
bodies for a long time due to local elections not held because of the country-wide escalating
insurgency are among the main reasons for such a slow paced decentralization. Devolution of
authority for service delivery at local level also remained confusing, inadequately prepared, and
central hesitation in parting with authority and finance. The practice of direct appointments of key
staffs in the LBs by the centre has caused dual loyalties among district level staffs and this has all
the more constrained smooth and sustainable functioning of the local bodies. These issues have
significantly affected the momentum of decentralization and public service delivery to citizens in
the country.
Page 1
GRDCP Final Report
‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
poor, in particular, have better access to services in agriculture and rural infrastructure sectors2.
The scope of the study covered the following:
• An analysis of service delivery standards to serve as benchmarks for the program;
• Identify gaps between the unmet needs and lack of capacity at the central level agencies;
• Develop a realistic action plan for strengthening the capacity of central institutions and local
governments, as well as community-based organizations, to deliver better services (including
ways of increasing transparency and accountability, and reducing corruption in local service
delivery);
• Develop clear and achievable plans for effective decentralization (including monitoring
systems) in the rural infrastructure and agriculture sectors;
• Review and pilot test new approaches for improving service delivery and suggest for nation
wide replication; and
• Redesign tools (such as citizens’ report cards and public expenditure tracking surveys3) to
ensure that local service providers can be held accountable for their performances.
5. To achieve the above mentioned objectives and the scope of work, the study was
proposed and organized into the following four components:
D. Preparing GRDCP4
9. Prepare GRDCP report focusing on sustained governance reforms over the long term at
the central government level, and service delivery effectiveness at the local level.
2
Rural infrastructure sector replaced education sector during the study period at ADB’s request.
3
Expenditure tracking of government scholarship program was dropped after dropping of Education sector.
4
As per the revised scope of work, designing of GRDCP for possible ADB funding was changed
Page 2
GRDCP Final Report
‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
in service delivery and the the third block deals with lesson learning from the pilot testing and
replication to extend good governance and public service delivery nation-wide at local level with
improved transparency and accountability (see fig 1.1).
11. In line with the approach chosen, a step-by-step methodology was followed starting with
the first step of reviewing policies, acts and regulations, norms and standard as well as the
service delivery modality of the devolved tasks in agriculture and rural infrastructure. This included
also review of Government of Nepal Allocation of Business Rules, to understand the mandates of
the concerned ministries, their organogram and personnel strengths, fund flow mechanism,
monitoring and feedback system etc. related to delivering public services. This was followed by
consultations with different stakeholders namely, the political party representatives, line agency
officials at the ministry and department levels and grass-root level offices in the district, officials at
different levels of LBs, NGOs and COs. A series of workshops were held to discuss issues in-
depth; and household level baseline survey was carried out to understand public perceptions on
different issues of service delivery. Finally, alternative innovative ideas/approaches for improved
service delivery in the sectors were identified and designed for pilot-testing and the tests
implemented in the selected VDCs and Municipalities. Lessons were drawn from the tests done
and recommendations made accordingly for countrywide replication.
Page 3
GRDCP Final Report
‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
Public Expenditure
Capacity Protection of Tracking Survey*
Enhancement vulnerable groups
Citizen Charter
Local government Social Inclusion
Induction in decision
Meso level institutions making body Partnerships with civil
(MuAN, ADDCN, society-NGOs/CBOs
NAVIN)
Fund for poverty alleviation
and social upliftment programs Strengthening user‘s
LDTA and other local committees
body training centers
Skill training and special
income generating programs
Participation of stake
NGOs/ CBOs holders in
Technical social programming
mobilizers
Targeting service
delivery in Local Level planning
municipality, DDC, and budgeting
and VDC services
Use of ICT in service
delivery
* Used for tracking scholarships (education) at the grass root level but dropped later.
Page 4
GRDCP Final Report
‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
14. At the local level, interactions were carried out with officials of the district line agencies of
the devolved services e.g. District Education Office (DEO), District Agriculture Development Office
(DADO), District Livestock Office (DLSO), District Technical Office (DTO), Agriculture and
Livestock Service Centre (ASC and LSC) offices and District Treasury Controllers Office (DTCO).
Interaction meetings were conducted also with local non-governmental organizations (NGOs),
community based organizations (CBOs) and Civil Society Groups including Women’s Groups to
discuss and explore their role in the service delivery at the grass-root level.
1.3.3 Workshops
15. Two separate workshops were organized: one among the stake holders at the centre and
another with the representatives from the major political parties in the country. The objective of
the stakeholders’ workshop was to sensitize participants about the GRDCP TA and seek their
views in designing programs for better service delivery. The objective of the second one was to
understand the views and position of each political party on the wider issues of governance and
decentralization and service delivery improvements in the changed political context of federalism
for restructuring Nepal's governance system.
Page 5
GRDCP Final Report
‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
and threats were analyzed. SWOT analysis was carried out also of the MoLD and MoAC including
of service delivery outlets in agriculture and livestock (ASC, LSC).
A. Selection of Districts
20. A total of 8 districts as shown in table 1.1 below were sampled for baseline household
survey. Districts were selected to represent both geographic-administrative and ecological
regions of the country. Six of the selected districts were the ones which GoN had selected for full
devolution with effect from FY 2005/06.
Page 6
GRDCP Final Report
‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
minimum of 5 aided community schools were sampled. This resulted in a total of 127 schools
sampled (61 CMS and 66 aided community schools). In the agriculture sector, 11 ASC and 29
LSC/SSC were selected for baseline study depending on the prevalence of the pocket and non-
pocket program in the districts. Table 1.2 below shows the details.
C. Household Survey
22. The nature of the study demanded both demand and supply side of service delivery -- i.e.
the institutional capability in delivering quality services as well as the demand for such services.
This was strongly felt by the study team as well as the ADB. A total of 1000 households, 125 from
each selected districts irrespective of the size of the district were selected to assess beneficiary’s
perspective on the satisfaction of services delivered from the service outlets. Households were
sampled by the catchment areas of the sampled school/agriculture and livestock service centre as
these households were the beneficiaries of the services rendered.
D. Survey Instruments
23. Baseline/Household survey questionnaires and necessary checklists were developed.
Survey questionnaires and checklists were pre-tested in one non sampled district. Survey
instruments were finalized based on the feed back from the pre-test.
Table 1.2: Number of CMS, ASC & LSC and the Sample Allocation by Selected
Districts
No. of
Sample No of Sample Sample
Livestock
No of allocation Agri. allocation allocation
District Service
CMS * (25% of Service (25% (25%
Center
total) Center of total) of total)
and SSC
Solokhambu 9 2 4 1 12 3
Morang 111 28 4 1 17 4
Bhaktapur 18 5 6 2 11 3
Kaski 78 20 6 2 14 4
Rupendehi 14 4 4 1 18 4
Dailekh 6 2 6 2 12 3
Jumla 0 0 4 1 15 4
Kanchanpur 9 2 4 1 18 4
Total 245 61 38 11 117 29
Source: DOE, DOAC and DOLS * Community Managed Schools (CMS) are those where school management has
been transferred to local community through SMC; SSC
Page 7
GRDCP Final Report
‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
29. Through different interactive sessions and presentations from the resource persons, the
participants learned about Andhra Pradesh’s experiences in governance reforms including in e-
governance. The participants made field visits to observe successful governance reform programs
in the State. The notable ones were: e-Seva5, use of ICT by Road Transport Authority of
Hyderabad, services provided by the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation and Social Audit
program in Rangga Reddi district.
5
Electronic services
Page 8
GRDCP Final Report
‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
30. E-Seva, which operates in a Public Private Partnership (PPP) modality, is an innovative e-
Governance program in Andhra Pradesh. It is a “one stop shop” for citizens who are provided
transparent and user friendly services like paying utility bills, issuing birth/death certificate and
submitting passport forms etc. The study tour participants also observed service delivery at Road
Transportation Authority which extensively used ICT for service delivery. The participants also
learned about services provided by The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation. The Municipal
Corporation provides its services by adhering to its Citizen’s Charter, provides citizen friendly
services and ensures transparency and right to information. The corporation uses ICT tools like
online procurement system and online grievances redress system to improve transparency and
service delivery. The participants also visited Rangga Reddi district to observe implementation of
the program of the transparency and accountability of the National Employment Guarantee
scheme in Andhra Pradesh.
33. Volume 2: Annexes include data and information details referred to in the six chapters of
the Main Report, but organised as a separate volume with individual annexes numbered in
relation to each chapter. Such annexes number 2 each related to chapter I and II; 14 related to
chapter III; 4 related to chapter IV; 5 related to chapter V; and 6 related to chapter VI.
Page 9
GRDCP Final Report
‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
35. After the restoration of multiparty democracy in 1990, a new democratic constitution --The
Constitution of the Kingdom of Nepal, 2047 (1990 AD) -- was promulgated. The constitution
vested sovereignty in the people, provided for good governance and decentralization as means to
development and emphasized cooperation with and respect to the civil society, human rights and
freedom of expressions etc.
36. The fifteen years of democratic experience from 1991 to 2006 was a period of several
initiatives in local governance. LSGA was enacted and LSGR and LBFAR were issued during this
period. Other development actions included constitution of DIMC and the Local Body Fiscal
Commission (LBFC), finalization and presentation of Local Service Act to the Parliament, and
policies for devolution of powers and functions of the sectoral ministries to the DDC, VDCs and to
the Municipality. The devolution of basic services in agriculture, rural infrastructures, basic health
and education is a very important milestone in the decentralization journey of Nepal.
37. Besides, there has been qualitative transformation in the awareness of and advocacy for
decentralization. Recognition of the need for more inclusive local government system; greater
participation of women, dalits7 and other marginalized and disadvantaged sections of the
communities in the decision making process; increased share for the local government bodies
over the local resources; and greater use of planning by way of periodic and annual planning are
certain hallmarks of the post-1990 local government and decentralization development in Nepal.
38. Janandolan (Peoples Movement) II brought an end to the 1990 Constitution of multi-party
constitutional monarchy and commencement of the Interim Constitution of Nepal (ICN) in 2006
6
Party-less political system in Nepal
7
Oppressed so called lower caste group regarded as untouchables by so called high class group
Page 10
GRDCP Final Report
‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
with a full section on decentralization and the local governance system8. Objective of local
government, as laid down in the ICN, is to make services available at the very local level and to
‘institutionalise democracy from the very lowest level’. Good governance with transparency,
accountability, participation, an end to unitary character of state9 and provision for a president are
some of the important references in the ICN. It established an inclusive and representative
Constituent Assembly,10 for formulating a constitution for the country. Table 2.1 summarizes
status of decentralization progress in Nepal, in a way.
Page 11
GRDCP Final Report
‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
assignment prevail.
Capacity of LBs to collect tax Very low Financial and technical capacity of LBs is very low. Capacity
and deliver services building programs and efforts too inadequate.
Financial accounting and No, Very few DDC have proper account and internal audit
auditing section.
Central Government ability to No There are several Committees including the DIMC chaired
monitor and correct progress by the Prime Minister. However, they seldom are effective.
for effective decentralization
39. In summary, although some achievements have been made during the period on
decentralization and devolution, the overall performances remained lacklustre. The underlying
factors are the absence of a "political will" and a "decentralization champion" at the centre, and
reluctance as well as a lack of shared enlightened understanding among central agencies about
decentralized system of governance. The decade long armed insurgency and political instability
complicated the matter further.
42. The preamble of the LAA states that the intent of the Act is to “amend and consolidate the
local administration laws in keeping with the principles of decentralized governance system, and
to maintain peace and order.” Paradoxically, however, this Act enacted as early as in 1971 under
the Panchayat constitution amended in 1966, has been amended on ad-hoc basis four times (the
latest in 2058 or 2002 AD), but never as a unified Act. This was despite the nation having passed
through several constitutional changes since 2028 (1972 AD), e.g. the “improved party-less
Panchyayat constitution following a referendum in 2036 (1980 AD); the constitutional monarchical
multi-party democratic constitution of 2047 (1990 AD), following the 2046 (1990) peoples’
movement; and the latest the Interim Constitution of Nepal 2063 (2007 AD) as a Federal
Democratic Republic, following the joint political movement by the Seven Party Alliance (SPA)
and the Nepal Communist Party (CPN) Maoist
Page 12
GRDCP Final Report
‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
44. The LSGA does not seem to address adequately and appropriately all legal, institutional
and sectoral problems and issues related to decentralized governance. Almost twenty-three
existing sectoral Acts conflict with the LSGA12. (Details are included in Annex 2.1 of the Annex
Volume) Nevertheless, it represents a landmark improvement in the local governance system of
Nepal in terms of:
• Separation of executive and legislative powers secured in local governance through
mechanisms of (executive) committees and (governing) councils;
• Principles and policies of decentralization spelled out (although not liberally and precisely
enough) as an integral part of the Act;
• Sectoral tasks, functions and services better defined (more devolution-oriented) and
widened than before;
• Stakeholders’ participation and representation expanded for local users’ groups including
women as well as disadvantaged and weaker sections of societies in local governance and
development process;
• Accountability and transparency in service delivery recognized better than before;
• Taxation and revenue base strengthened through introducing concept of revenue sharing
(Local Govt. Fiscal Commission), and through authority to wider taxation, service charges and
fee collection, loan raising etc.; and
• Facilitative, coordinating and catalytic role of central government defined more
specifically, including recognizing Local Bodies Associations (LBAs) and providing for
representation at DIMC.
45. The Local Self-Governance Act (LSGA) provides for two-levels of LBs -- villages and
municipalities at the lower level and districts at the higher level. These local level bodies are
called respectively Village Development Committee (VDC), Municipality, and District Development
Committee (DDC). Interestingly and may be also significantly, these LBs have been defined as
autonomous corporate bodies rather than as local government bodies. Currently there are 3913
VDCs, 58 Municipalities and 75 DDCs. DDCs are further divided into 9 Ilakas (Blocks) while
VDCs/Municipalities are divided into 9 Wards (neighbourhoods) or more. Each Ilaka of a DDC
covers 5 or more VDCs depending on the size of the VDC.
12
GON had attemted to take the necessary ammendment bill in the parliament as early as in 2002 but could not
succeed in getting it through. As a result except for the ammendments in Educational Act, conflict in other Acts still
remained unresolved.
Page 13
GRDCP Final Report
‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
49. Clause (2) of Article 43 delegates to the Government legal power "to allocate and transact
the business of the Government"; as per rules approved by the Government; and
50. Clause (3) further stipulates that "no question whether the rules referred to in clause (2)
has been observed shall be inquired into in any court (of law)".
Page 14
GRDCP Final Report
‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
51. It is questionable whether constitutional delegation of governance authority to the
executive to such an absolute extent, without at the same time, subjecting or requiring the
"Allocation and Transaction of Business Rules" to observe certain fundamental rules or guiding
principles of good governance, as a matter of balancing authority with duty and responsibility, will
ensure promotion and sustenance of good governance in practice.
52. Indeed, it seems to be a lack of such a “political will” and "self discipline" in the successive
national political and administrative governance leadership, that explains the continuing gaps
between government policy pronouncements and delivery of good governance services to citizens
through an appropriate and adequate determination of policies, translation of the policies into
legal mandates and protocols, and their firm implementation through exemplary honest practice of
"rule of law".
13
Indigenous people with their own language and culture
14
Original inhabitants of Tarai or inner Tarai region
Page 15
GRDCP Final Report
‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
• Professional skill and commitment towards neutrality of the civil servants shall be
enhanced. Culture of impunity shall be ended, pursuing transparency and governance;
• Effective corruption control shall be established and
• The budget for drinking water, sanitation and rural infrastructures programs shall be
increased.
56. The policy principles enunciated suffer from definitional commissions and omission with
respect to the essential attributes of good local self-governance and a total management system
required for it. They are not enlightening enough to enable or encourage qualitatively effective
planning and implementation of decentralization. The policy direction and design seem liberal on
delegation of responsibility, but not commensurately liberal on devolution of authority to LBs.
57. A very praise-worthy plan initiative, although a sad point of implementation cum
monitoring-deficit concerning "decentralization/devolution" in Nepal, has been the Five Year
"Decentralization Implementation Action Plan (DIAP), 2058 (2002 AD) approved for
implementation by the Prime Ministerial Level DIMC.
58. The DIAP was an admirably comprehensive action plan to implement decentralization of
governance in Nepal. It included a whole range of responsibility-specific and time-lined programs
of activities necessary to achieve decentralization objectives articulated as follows in "A National
Framework Document for Decentralized Governance and Capacity Building" by the NPC and
MoLD.
1) Strengthening capacity of MoLD and NPC including sectoral ministries (i.e. central level
institutions) to formulate, improve and further elaborate policies for enhancing democratic
decentralized governance and empowerment of the rural poor based on the experiences at
the local level;
2) Strengthening the institutional, programming, management and governance capacities of the
LBs (mainly DDCs and VDCs level) to effectively implement their prescribed mandates, roles
Page 16
GRDCP Final Report
‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
and responsibilities (defined in LSGA) and thereby to be more responsive and accountable to
rural populace; and
3) Supporting the operationalization of Village Development Program (VDP) by using the
principles and techniques of social mobilization in rural villages across Nepal for
empowerment and poverty reduction efforts.
60. However, owing to causes (of political instability and insurgency) within and outside the
control of the governments up until recently, the DIAP could not be fully operational. The DIMC
has not met since the 3rd meeting in January 2002, although reportedly the MoLD has recently
initiated steps for convening the 4th meeting of the DIMC, seven years after the last meeting.
62. Among other positive features are clause 235 reserving Government authority to
implement special programs of "institutional strengthening and capacity building of LBs"; clause
236 providing for additional conditional (incentive) grant besides the specified minimum annual
grant; clause 237 providing for central government option to set up Fiscal Commission to study,
research and recommend to Government on taxes to be levied by LBs, revenue sharing between
central government and LBs and policy measures to be adopted on making the taxation and
accounting system relevant to time; clause 243 requiring Central Line Agencies (CLAs) to
classify/specify local infrastructure works as VDC, Municipality and DDC program, providing direct
program grant estimates timely and routing non-program grant through MoLD and providing
necessary relevant technical support; and clause 245 requiring district level offices of CLAs to
provide necessary cooperation requested by LBs.
63. Among other reasonable terms are clause 234 reserving central government powers to
monitor and issue directives to LBs on matters such as performance of allocated function, respect
to priorities to the benefit of disadvantaged ethnic groups, women and children and preference to
environmental balance; clause 240 specifying the channels for LBs to contact with the central
Government; clause 244 mandating DDCs to constitute Coordination Committees composed of
the development sectoral unit Chief of the DDC, the Mayor and Coordinator of service centres.
64. Among provisions which are either restrictive or constrictive to the power of LBs are clause
242 reserving right to hand in to any committee, organisation or authority any or all power
Page 17
GRDCP Final Report
‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
provided by LSGA (such a provision makes LBs sub-servient and accountable to CLAs rather
than to LBs); Clause 238 providing for Central Government authority to terminate LBs under
specified circumstances, and clause 239 giving the central Government authority to operate LBs
by either extending tenure of elected officials of LBs or by adopting other means. Such a clause
makes LBs vulnerable to misuse or abuse of authority by central government, as happened
actually by the then central government deciding to neither call for due election nor to extend the
tenure of previously elected representatives, and instead choosing to amend the clause through
an ordinance authorizing GoN to arrange operation of LBs through other alternative means of
deputing Government appointed officials to fill positions of elected officials.
65. Absence of clear definition of central government vis-à-vis local government function has
resulted in central government continuing to involve in local level services better carried out by
LBs. Also, viability of division of local governance into as many as 75 DDCs, 58 Municipalities
and 3913 VDCs continue to be questioned.
66. LSGA authorizes LBs to decide position creation, employment and compensations for
staffs but clause 253 specifies that GoN shall appoint a secretary (LDOs in DDC, CEOs in
Municipality, Secretary in VDC) to execute the day-to-day activities of the LBs. This has created
an environment of dual loyalty wherein the Secretary is more loyal to the MoLD than to the LBs,
telling adversely on the LB's institutional capacity building.
67. Article 5 of Part 2 and Part 3 of the Act provide for the semi-judicial power to the VDC and
Municipality respectively. Certain power at District Level vests also with the DAO under LAA 2028,
but not with DDC under LSGA 2055.
68. GoN has established the Local Development Training Academy (LDTA) at the centre
along with units in regions to provide training to both elected and appointed LB officials and to act
as a research, consultancy and information resource centre for local development governance,
and the Urban Development Training Centre (UDTC) at Pokhara for HRD training for Municipality
staffs. However, because of a lack of clear and firm government policy and sustained
implementation of real rural and urban-linked local development, the LDTA and UDTC have not
been particularly effective as national training institutions for local governance.
Page 18
GRDCP Final Report
‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
71. There is some sort of a system but not an appropriate and adequate "unified system of
documentation and document control" concerning governance in Nepal. Although document
control appears good at enabling laws level, and reasonably good at by-laws level, it is poor to
very poor at the level of service quality norms or standards as well as standard operating
procedures (SoP).
72. Under DIAP there has been reasonable progress in the area of LB profiles, GIS Maps,
DTMP etc. However, the District Information and Documentation Centre (DIDC) badly require
strengthening.
Page 19
GRDCP Final Report
‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
• With the state re-structuring into province or region with self-rule, the size of the district will
probably be enlarged, thereby, changing the present demographic ratio. Obviously, the
chances are that the strength of the community with largest population will be diluted to
minority and the minority groups will be further pushed to the minuscule size. This can negate
the intended benefits from the federal system.
76. In the matter of local government and decentralization, one of the most important
characteristics of the Interim Constitution is its premises for federal structure and provisions for
‘division of power’ and ‘sharing of revenue between the government and the local self government
agencies’. 19 All these provisions have direct bearing on the form and content of the future local
government and decentralization system20.
77. One important rationale of the demand for federal structure is linked with territorial
association of certain marginalized indigenous communities. The groups affected by state
discrimination find themselves, in one way or other, associated with the geographical territory.
Since historically the State of Nepal was formed by amalgamation of multitude of small
principalities ruled by various ethnic and indigineous population within certain territorial boundary,
federalism is an opportunity for them to exercise their association with their ancestral land and
territory. Some areas of the country have concentration of the certain communities who express
strongly for the federal structure so that they can reclaim and preserve their ancient home identity,
language, symbols and culture, more strongly.
79. The Nepal Government Allocation of Business Rules 2007 has mandated the MoAC with
26 businesses, which include formulation and implementation of agriculture and cooperatives
policies, development of cereal and other crops, horticulture and industrial entomology, livestock
and fisheries development, veterinary services, and agriculture research and development of
farms and centres. Besides, MoAC is also mandated with the business of training, agriculture
extension, transfer of modern technology, development of norms, standards, regulation and
certification of agricultural inputs, quarantine systems and formulation and implementation of
policies, plans and programs related to agriculture, and agriculture marketing and pricing. Annex
3.1 (in the Annex Volume) contains the list of business allocated, which reads like a shopping list
and is not structured to reflect the long-term strategic directions and components of MoAC role.
Page 21
GRDCP Final Report
‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
enhancing agricultural production and productivity; ii) promoting competitiveness in the regional
as well as world markets through developing commercial and competitive agriculture, and iii)
conserving and promoting use of natural resources, environment and biodiversity.
82. The Policy selected 26 supporting goals (No. 1 to 26) for the first strategic objective, 12
goals (No. 27 to 40) for the second strategic objective, and 7 goals (No. 50 to 56) for the third
strategic objective.
84. Key objectives included supporting the national goal of poverty reduction through the
improvement of the sustainable livelihood by enhancing production and productivity through a
network of agriculture system linked from production to marketing network; and devolution of
more functions to LBs. Among other objectives are: encouraging partnerships with CBOs and
NGOs and private sector in agriculture extension by redefining and limiting the role of public
sector as facilitator and regulator, developing resource centre in different locations to support fast
dissemination of technology, promoting of group approach in extension services, use of ICT and
creation of district agriculture development fund to carry out these activities.
87. Devolution of agriculture and livestock extension services through the delegation of
authority in planning and expending the allocated budget to the district/local government is an
Page 22
GRDCP Final Report
‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
evidence of Government commitment to decentralization and devolution. Decentralization in
agriculture has promoted greater participation and certain ownership of the beneficiaries in
planning and implementation of agriculture programs as well as in mobilization of local resources,
skills and private sector as well as community organizations involvement in agriculture and
livestock extension.
89. However, this arrangement remained short lived and multiplication of departments
occurred again, starting with the Department of Livestock Services followed by the Department of
Food Technology and Quality Control. The reason cited was practical difficulties in technical
administration of relatively different technical professions. Existing institutions of various types
under MoAC are presented below in Table 3.1.
Table 3.1: Types of Institutions under the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives
Departments Centers Committees Boards Companies Corpor Councils
ations
Department Agriculture Kalimati Fruits National Dairy Agriculture Dairy National
of Information & & Vegetables Development Inputs Devt. Agriculture
Agriculture* Communicati Wholesales Board Company Corpora Research
on Center Market tion Council
Department Seeds Cotton National National Veterinary
of Livestock Quality Development Cooperatives Seeds Council
Services* Control Board Development Company
Center board
Department National Animal Feeds National tea & Agri. Lime
of Agriculture Production Coffee Industry
Cooperatives Research & Development Development
Development Board Board
Fund
Department Chandradangi
of Nutrition & Seeds & Milk
Quality Production
Control Committee
* Extension Services of these Departments at the district and the grass-roots levels have been devolved to the
respective DDCs through the Guidelines 2059
Page 23
GRDCP Final Report
‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
90. The issues relating to central institutional set ups in Agriculture was very much deliberated
during the agricultural bureaucrats consultations during the GRDCP TA where high level officials
of this sector and the participants of the workshop suggested restructuring of DOA into separate
departments based on major functional scope.
91. Present organizational structure of the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives consists of
4 departments, 3 central level offices, 2 autonomous councils, 3 development boards, 1
corporation, and 2 companies. All the departments have regional level offices. Departments of
Agriculture and Livestock Services have district offices in all the 75 districts while Department of
Cooperatives has 38 division offices at the service level. The organizational structure includes
extension of technical services to VDCs through 378 agriculture and 999 livestock service
centres. The aggregate human resource under MoAC comprises of 10,130 personnel under the
government’s civil service, NARC employs around 1,825 officials as agriculture research and
related administrative staffs and 2,034 officials are deployed in different boards, corporation, and
companies under the MoAC (organizational charts of MoAC, DoA and DoLS are presented in
Annex 3.3, 3.4 and 3.5 respectively in the Annex Volume).
93. The downsizing of structure in the MoAC has resulted into cutting down of large number
of Agriculture offices at the local level, that too at the ASC or the front line office in agriculture
extension services. The slash down in the number of ASCs and the field staff resulted in a sharp
decline in the capacity of these offices to deliver services to the farmers. The field level
discussions, as well as the piloting of agriculture extension and livestock services at the VDC
level, clearly showed that the extension services in agriculture have been affected adversely by
the restructure reform program in agriculture sector.
Page 24
GRDCP Final Report
‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
95. A SWOT analysis of the district level organizations is presented in Table 3.3. These
organisations represent the permanent institutions of the government responsible for service
delivery in the agriculture sector.
Page 25
GRDCP Final Report
‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
• Permanent institutions • Poor Inter agencies co- • Dominant sector • Agriculture may get
with technical sections ordinations among service • Favorable agri- less priority in
(DADOs/DLSOs) providing partners ecological zones / devolved programs
• Qualified and • One man decision-making/ Climatic variability • Multiple stakeholders:
competent Subject low consultation with SMS • Agriculture and DADOs/DLSOs,
Matter Specialists • Weak database/MIS livestock extension CBOs, NGOs
(SMS) in each functions already • Fragmented farmlands
• High administrative cost
sections devolved resulting in low labor
but low level of program
• Good infrastructure budget • Emerging productivity
facilities entrepreneurs • Small land holding
• Lack of district level
• Well equipped with laboratories, resource associations with high cost of
modern ICT facilities centers to meet WTO • Expansion in production
(Computers, Internet, requirements Marketing networks • Farmers' may use
Telephone, Fax etc) and collection centers Pesticides, poor
• Common norms for all
• Provisions of ecological regions • Emerging micro- quality fertilizers,
Fertilizer/Pesticide irrigations schemes inputs haphazardly for
• Training, field visits are
Inspector for quality like Nepal SIMI, quick returns etc
supply driven, not demand
control CGWS in Terai and • Too large ratio of
driven
• Devolved programs FMIS etc farmers and technical
• Minimum use of ICT
with flexibility in • Establishment of agri- workers
facilities in service delivery
program selection industries based on • Frequent transfers of
• Mobility constraints to
• Implementation of local raw materials staffs
serve clienteles
Small Irrigation • Increasing trends in
Programs • Duplication of program
diversification and
and activities
• good network with commercialization
research stations • Lack of work standards
• Involvement of private
and transparent evaluation
sector/NGOs
• Poor documentation and
• active farmers
document control
institution
• Weak implementation
• Vast market
capacity
opportunity
• Lack of dynamism in
responding to the
changing emerging
demands
Page 26
GRDCP Final Report
‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
A. Decision Making and Coordination
97. There is a lack of efficient and effective coordination among the different agencies
concerned with various aspects and functions of agriculture development. There are duplications
in the roles and responsibilities of the internal divisions in the Ministry. For example, the role of
agricultural business policies is performed by Agricultural Business Promotion and Statistics
Division as well as the Planning Division which is often overburdened. The policy unit within the
Planning Division of MoAC is not adequately equipped to perform policy research and analysis.
The Geographical Information System (GIS) and Statistics Sections in the Ministry are not
equipped enough to provide the benefits of these tools in the planning, monitoring and evaluation
of agricultural activities by all needy departments and their district level extensions.
98. Similarly, the decision making process of the DoA and the DoLS is somewhat lengthy. For
example, files even in the department level, have to be moved from the commodity program office
to MoAC through program director, DDG and DG. Issues of decision making in the district are
forwarded to the MoAC through DADO/DLSO, RD/RLD, program director, DDG and DG.
100. District Agricultural Development Office (DADO) and District Livestock Services Office
(DLSO) prepare annual agriculture and livestock programs based on the NPC's broader
guidelines and Ministry/departmental specific program guidelines and budgetary ceilings. District
agriculture and livestock officials participate in the Ilaka level planning workshops organized by
the DDC and collect demands for specific programs. These demands are then adjusted to
available resources, matched with production or extension targets at the district level and
synthesized into a district level plan. This version is then presented to Agriculture Sector
Committee at the DDC which recommends it to District Development Council for approval. This is
incorporated in the annual District Development Plan and sent to NPC for approval. Sanctioned
programs are implemented by DADO and DLSO.
102. Different extension approaches were applied in the past e.g. the commodity based method
and result demonstration programs in early 1960s to T&V21 Group Approach, and Farmers to
Farmers (FtF) approach later on. More detail is included in Annex 3.11 in the Annex Volume.
Among the recent approaches, the FtF evolved through practice by Sustainable Soil Management
Project, the Group Approach initiated through the Third Livestock Development Project and
21
Training and Visit Extension Approach
Page 27
GRDCP Final Report
‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
Agriculture Extension and Research Project, and LIF and DEF applied by APP-SP are innovative
approaches which could be refined further and scaled up in future. This FtF and the T & V Group
approach are the key extension approaches followed in the devolved agriculture extension and
livestock services.
C. Fund Flow
103. District offices of MoAC are authorized to spend budgets within their jurisdiction. However,
the major technical and budgetary decisions in the agriculture sector still rest with the
Ministry/Departments although; the district level extension service is channelled to a great extent
through the district level offices. Financial authorization letter in devolved sector (subjects) go
directly to the LDO, who then issues authorization to district offices to operate accounts within
applicable norms and regulations. DDC is responsible for keeping accounts and conducting
interim audits of all the expenses as per LBFAR. Final audits are held in the district offices as per
norms set by AGO. District level offices are also required to hold public hearings on budgetary
status and audit reports.
Fig 3.1: Fund Flow and Planning Process Diagram in Agriculture Sector at the
District Level
* Modified from Pokhrel, et. al. (2005) based on field level discussions
104. ASCs and LSCs are, however, not provisioned as budget expenditure units. So, the
center chiefs are dependent on their respective district offices even for small and petty
expenditure. This not only affects the efficiency of their operation, but also is demoralizing in the
eyes of their contemporary peers, and in the esteem of the clientele. In such situations, they
remain as the technicians with little or no resources at hand to support as per the needs/demands
of their clienteles.
106. LSGA also requires impact evaluation of district level programs, particularly in assessing
impacts on program beneficiaries. Political instability and insurgency since 1999 has adversely
affected implementation of this provision.
108. Manpower provision at ASC, in most cases, is two extension worker (JT/JTA) and a
support staff. As there is no provision for transport facility and travel allowance is meagre, it is
virtually impossible to reach and provide services to the farmers in all VDCs. Norms exist (details
included in Annex 3.7 and 3.9 respectively) regarding the types and number of equipment,
chemicals and supplies used for testing soil and diagnosing diseases in crops, essential
veterinary medicines as well as types of services to be provided by ASC and LSC.
109. The baseline survey and interactions conducted to review the situation of ASCs/LSCs and
their service delivery showed that many centres do not even have their own offices. Quite a few
were sharing offices with each other, under one roof, which incidentally was seen as convenient
by farmers/clienteles. Of the surveyed ASCs/LSCs, 60% of the centres operated from hired space
facilities, and 20% to 40% staff posts were vacant. Almost all of the visited centres lacked
equipment and essential facilities. Only 20% had telephone connections, 10% of ASC had motor
bike (because of project support) while none of the LSCs had motorbike, only 30% of the ASCs
had some equipment such as sprayers, soil testing, and seed testing, whereas 60% of LSCs had
microscopes and some surgical equipment, 50% had artificial insemination equipment and only
20% had the essential but simple outfits like travis in order to provide services.
110. DDC and the VDCs were not found allocating funds for building such infrastructures,
except in certain isolated case like at Sisuwa in Kaski, where the local people and the
Municipality/VDC shared funds for building the service centre. However, in the commercial and
diversification areas, the beneficiaries were seen willing to participate for services on cost sharing
basis. In some cases, VDCs were seen supporting small programs on training and selected
activities on ad hoc basis.
Page 29
GRDCP Final Report
‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
B. Agriculture Extension Service Delivery in SAARC Countries
111. Presented below is a comparative chart that indicates agriculture extension service
delivery in Nepal compared to other SAARC countries. The table indicates the burden of
extension worker in SAARC countries at over 1000 households (HH) per extension worker, with
highest of 4562 HH in Pakistan and lowest of 1235 HH in Bangladesh, compared to 1879 HH in
Nepal. The professional:assistant ratio of 1:15 in Nepal is second only to the lowest of 1:20 of
Bhutan. The high "farm family: extension worker ratio" and the low "professional:assistant ratio" is
indicative of a large gap in farmers' access to technical advices/support from professionals in
matters beyond their knowledge. This situation is also well reflected by the baseline survey of this
GRDCP study -- lack of knowledge regarding new technology among extension workers eroding
the confidence of the farmers in seeking advice from JT/JTA in the surveyed districts.
113. Farmer participation in improved animal breed production, improved forage and fodder
production, training on animal husbandry, and educational tour program is low. Inadequacy of
such programs to cover the farmers under the Service Centres/ Sub-Centres due to low level of
technical manpower and inadequate budgetary support for the service centres are cited as
reasons for lack of participation by many farmers.
114. Regarding response by these centres to farmers' demand, lack of prompt services for
pests and diseases control is found to be a severe problem faced by many farmers. Other lacking
areas include supply of improved seeds, and technical skills or knowledge of the service provider.
Support services for service delivery are severely lacking, as glaringly indicated by the large
Page 30
GRDCP Final Report
‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
numbers of respondents who reckon their problems as serious. Furthermore, the
quality/standards of services provided are also not satisfactory as expressed by a large proportion
of service recipients
115. Also, as pointed out in sub-section 3.3.1 'B' above, the baseline survey under the present
work had indicated a large gap in farmers' access to technical advices from professional
extension workers in the survey districts (Details on summary of information on provision of
extension staffs, number of VDCs and farm families served etc. are presented in Annex 3.14 in
the Annex Volume).
Page 31
GRDCP Final Report
‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
2. Enabling Laws
Policy/Plans
/Procedures
1. Inadequate structuring and 1. Reformulate the 26 points business OPMCM, MoAC, MLUPA, LBA MoAC initiating action to
specification of MoAC business allocation to MoAC in the GABR based on reformulate the
2.1. Enabling Laws
allocated in GABR 2064 a systems approach to government business allocated to
business in agriculture MoAC
2.2. Policy, Procedures & Plans
a1.Mismatch between the planning a1. Synchronize the planning / programming DADO/ DSLO, DDC DADO/ DSLO & DDC
cycle of the DADO / DLSO and DDC cycle of the DADO / DSLO and the DDC integrated district level
duly agriculture development
services plan prepared
A. Planning & Plan
and implemented
(Vision, Values,
Strategies, a2. Lack of clarity with respect to a2. Make agricultural services devolution MoAC, MOF Beneficiary farmers are
Goals, Programs developed agri-services vis-à-vis planning and implementation guideline better served
of Activities) DADO / LSDO services at different clear and complete with trained manpower
level and budget allocation
a3. Absence of quality standards and a3. Define and enforce quality standards and MoAC, DoLS, DADO/ DLSO and Beneficiaries assured of
norms of services norms of services Service Centers quality services
b1. Many specialized agency functions b1. Restructure DOA into adequate and MoAC, MOGA Service delivery
of agriculture centralized in a single appropriate specialized functional improved in all
B. Institutional DOA with top heavy organizational departments specialized sub-sector
Structure & structure of agriculture
Capacity b2. Agri-extension services able to b2. NARC researching and developing local- DOA/ DOLS, NARC, DDC/ VDC, Resources allocated to
cater to needs of neither the poor need based technology and DOA/ DOLS NGO/ PS NARC/ DADO/ DoLS
and disadvantaged groups of building competence/ capacity of service adequately
Page 32
GRDCP Final Report
‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
F. Monitoring f1. Implementation of devolution in f1. Install and implement rigorously a system MoA/ DoA/ DoLS, DDC, LBAs Appropriate agriculture
Service agriculture and livestock not of monitoring implementation of devolution services delivered to
Realization & monitored duly enough in agriculture and taking immediate intended/ targeted
Delivery corrective actions beneficiaries.
g1. Implementation of Government g1. Design and install a Top Government OPMCM, MOAC, MOGA Annual top government
G. Top Government
policies, strategies, plans and Review Mechanism within the MoAC to review held, decisions
Review and
institutional reform measures in periodically review and reform strategic/ minuted and acted upon
Continual
agriculture sector not monitored structural changes in Agriculture service duly and diligently,
Improvement
and reformed effectively sector
Page 33
GRDCP Final Report
‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
118. Mandates and protocols in terms of legal and institutional arrangement, policies,
procedures and plans concerning provision and delivery of services in rural infrastructure over
the last decade or so are briefly as follows:
Page 34
GRDCP Final Report
‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
trying to address these needs through a variety of basic rural infrastructure development
programs.
121. Earlier, three different actors, namely the CLAs, LBs and donor-driven projects were
implementing rural infrastructure development at local level virtually without any coordination.
This resulted in costly avoidable multiplicity in the planning, implementation, technology use,
involvement of beneficiaries etc. in programs implemented and operated by different agencies.
Also there were many gaps in specifics such as standards, work norms and practices,
appropriate technologies, financial and human resources, basic facilities for satisfactory
program operation etc. The National Strategy for Rural Infrastructure Development, 2054 (1997
AD) was the result of the recognition of these gaps at the time.
122. The stated "key objective of this strategy" is the development of country wide basic rural
infrastructure (with strong emphasis on rural/agricultural roads) in a planned and sustainable
ways by adopting the labour-based, local resources-oriented, environment-friendly techniques
and following the government decentralized participatory approach". The strategy had 10
supporting objectives, along with corresponding indicators of outputs.
124. The LIDP defined "local infrastructure" to include (i) Local Transportation, (ii) Irrigation &
River Control, (iii) Micro-Hydropower & Alternative Energy, (iv) Water Supply, Sanitation &
Sewerage, (v) Housing, Building and Urban Development, (vi) Solid Waste Management, and
(vii) Social Infrastructure.
125. The "policy goal" was defined as "contribution shall be made in poverty alleviation by
improving the social and economic conditions of the local people at their own initiation and
participation". Likewise, the "policy objective" stated was "by means of physical and social
infrastructure, the access of local people including women, disabled, backward, oppressed, and
neglected and Dalit class to social service, economic opportunities and resources shall be
increased".
Page 35
GRDCP Final Report
‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
4.1.4 Rural Infrastructure Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Plan,
2064 (2007 AD)
127. RIRRP is a part of the Government’s three-year interim plan. The planning exercise
shared a common pool of information, used same norms and parameters, and worked on
similar premises. Stated objectives of RIRRP are as follows;
• Rebuilding/reconstructing the conflict-damaged and destroyed infrastructures,
• Rehabilitating the rural infrastructures which fell into disrepair during the 11-year long conflict,
and
• Completing the planned infrastructure development activities which could not be accomplished
due to conflict situation.
128. RIRR Plan covered seven subsectors of physical infrastructures and facilities as defined
by the LIDP 2061 (2004 AD). The programmatic scope in the selected sub sectors of RIRR
Plan incorporates reconstruction and rehabilitation activities and has been delineated with a
rural perspective using the scoping framework mentioned earlier and in consultations with
concerned agencies.
131. The Guideline introduces the different IRAP tools available to help local authorities to
undertake regular local-level planning in the context of decentralization in which they are
gradually assuming higher roles and responsibilities for rural access planning and local
infrastructure development. Portraying the structure of the local-level planning context in Nepal,
the Guideline shows where and how this process can or may be applied. It also offers an
explanation as to why it is better to look at "accessibility" instead of "transport" only. The
guideline comprises all steps and activities including data collection and compilation,
accessibility mapping, identification of access-poor communities, and finally project
identification and prioritization.
Page 36
GRDCP Final Report
‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
4.1.7 Operating Procedure for Local Level Physical Infrastructure
Development Programs
132. Government had developed in 2062 (2005 AD) and updated in 2064 (2007 AD) the
operating procedure for programs of local level physical infrastructure development through
Users Committees (UCs) composed of representatives of local people or community
organizations (COs) of the VDC where social mobilization programs are under way.
133. Structure of joint investment participation specified includes 70% by central government,
10% by VDC and 20% by the UCs in cash for programs in VDC; and 60% by central
government, 20% by the Municipality, and 20% cash by the UCs for programs in Municipality.
134. The FY2007-08 budget, which is in a way the first policy statement of the seven-party
coalition government after the restoration of House of Representatives, has set out a policy
direction for the reconstruction and rehabilitation of rural infrastructures. The policy elements
incorporated in the budget include (i) expediting reconstruction of various damaged/destroyed
district infrastructures, (ii) completion of ongoing rural roads within a set timeframe and budget
(iii) spending 70%of budgetary allocation on ongoing schemes for rural roads (and the
remaining 30% on DDC prioritized rural roads under the approved DTMPs) (iv) mobilization of
users’ committees, particularly from the low income communities, for the construction of rural
infrastructures, and (v) introduction of performance-based grant system to support the
development activities of LBs. The budget has envisaged a DTMP-Roads Construction Fund
for the planned development of rural roads. It has also initiated relief and reconstruction
activities with an initial budget allocation of Rs. 1.1 billion drawn from domestic resources.
Page 37
GRDCP Final Report
‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
DDC office and supports DDC in carrying out all the DDC approved infrastructure programs in
the district. The devolution of district level infrastructural programs, particularly small irrigation
and drinking water programs, and rural roads including agriculture roads etc from the central
government to the DDC substantially increases the volume of the district level infrastructure
programs and thus justified the needs for a capable technical office at the district. The
organizational relocation of DTO from the DDC to the DoLIDAR - a department of the MoLD at
the Centre - raises several issues as follows touching on decentralized governance:
• DTO placed outside the purview of DDC undermines the authority of local government and
defeats the concept of self-governance. It amounts to virtually counter decentralization. Section
257 of the LSGA rightly empowers DDCs to set up sectoral offices and the LSGR stipulates
qualification criteria for DDCs to establish such sectoral units. Instead of encouraging and
equipping DDCs to establish sectoral branches in line with the principle of devolution enshrined
in the LSGA, this step has tended to strengthen the process of centralization in the name of
decentralization.
• DTO operating outside the DDC framework has been transferring even the existing human
resource and physical equipment from the DDCs to DTO under DoLIDAR. This has stripped
DDCs off their technical resources and told on their capacity. DTO, as a technical unit, tend to
focus more on technical rather than on social aspects.
• Chances of other organizations to grow at local level with increased community involvement will
suffer as a result of community activities overly limited to respecting the technical directives of
the DTO. Community interests and ownership and people’s participation in planning and
implementation of projects will be adversely affected by concentration on technical aspects at
the cost of social aspects.
139. During the GRDCP TA field visit, it came to knowledge that more than 80% of projects
are executed by UCs in the case of DDC, VDCs and Municipality. UCs’ micro-project
implementation modality has its advantages - increased ownership, use of local labour (both
skilled and unskilled), greater local accountability, reduced costs etc. In addition, in the remote
areas (sometimes as much as several days walking distance from urban centres), private
sector contractors are either non-existent or (when available elsewhere) unwilling to undertake
small-scale public or community works. For Nepal, using the UC option may not appear
particularly impressive. However, for certain countries this may prove a valuable innovative tool
for micro-project implementation in remote rural areas. It has its drawbacks - sometimes poor
technical design and implementation (particularly in the context of weak DDC backstopping and
low skill levels at the local level) and a tendency to focus on too small or too large investments.
A brief review of the implementation status of basic services provisioned, regulated and
programmed in three legal, regulatory and policy documents, namely, LSGA, LBFAR and Local
Infrastructure Development Policy, 2061 has been presented in Annex 4.2 of the Annex
Page 38
GRDCP Final Report
‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
Volume. Experiences from GRDCP TA field visit showed three modalities of implementing rural
infrastructure works. They are briefly described in the text and table 4.1 below.
a) UC Implemented and operated: The UCs are involved in the entire process in this
approach: identification, planning, implementation, monitoring, evaluation, operation and
maintenances of the infrastructure projects. An individual user participates as per the rules
and regulations of the UC. Given the difficulties of attracting private sector contractors to
work in remote rural areas and a widespread dissatisfaction with existing procurement
arrangements, almost all micro-infrastructure funded by LBs have been exclusively
implemented by local UCs. This approach has been found very good, indeed ideal in many
cases.
b) UC/UG managed: The User Committee (UC) or Users' Group (UG) is involved, in principle
only. Only few members of the UC/UG are involved in the construction. These members'
working modality is not much different from that of a contractor. The only difference is that
the contractor is registered as a firm, whereas the UG may or may not be registered or
organized as a UC. The UC/UG informally contracts some technical part to a contractor
because of their lack of technical know-how.
c) Contract out: The work is contracted out to a registered contractor. The construction
responsibility of the contract package is solely on the contractor. As a profit-making entity,
the contractor makes use of human and physical resources and seeks to maximize profit
from the contract.
Page 39
GRDCP Final Report
‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
140. The UC approach has been found working effectively in the remotest of VDC in the
country, even in the insurgency situation. The approach is directly beneficial to households in a
community by ensured completion of the rural infrastructure project in time and within cost. As a
result, more and more community at the grass root level demands such approach for rural
infrastructure construction. However, a really working User’s Group or user committee
approach needs to address aspects such as follows:
i) Capacity-building: During the field visits, one of the DDC staff members stated that the
minimum qualification of UC members should be defined and agreed upon. Most of the UCs
does not have the capacity to implement, operate and maintain the infrastructure projects.
The capacity-building of UCs through training in leadership, management skill, record-
keeping and financial management and orientation in codes of conduct must be given a
very high priority.
ii) O&M: operations & maintenance is rarely given attention by program implementers,
including the local government. The O&M is one of the weakest features in most of the
infrastructure project implementation. The O&M must be considered in the very beginning of
the project and UCs members given due orientation.
iii) Politics of Consensus: There are always possibilities of politicization of the UC at local
level Party politicization adversely affects implementation of the infrastructure projects.
Awareness raising and training programs on the costs of party politicization and benefits of
non-partition approach should be provided to members of UCs immediately upon the
formation of committees.
iv) Inclusiveness: UCs should be formed and operated with sensitivity to gender
mainstreaming in local infrastructure development. Women empowerment should be a
fundamental base. Similarly, priority should be given to benefit the disadvantaged
indigenous nationalities, Dalits and other marginalized communities by making the local
infrastructure development programs truly community-centered and community-involved.
Page 40
GRDCP Final Report
‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
Table 4.2: Types of Service Delivery System
Modes Business Process Example
Direct Service Delivery Central Government produces and provides Service delivered by DADO, DLSO,
by Central Line the service directly through CLA offices DHO, DoE, DTO and DWO at district
Agencies (CLA) extended at district level level
Decentralized Service Central government provided authority to Service delivered by the LBs: DDC,
Delivery through LBs LBs for service delivery. The role of civil VDC and Municipality
society for service delivery are expected in
this system
Service Delivery Government transfers responsibility of Service delivered through Public
through PPP delivering public services to private Private Partnership (PPP)
companies and undertakes responsibility of
only monitoring compliance to codes and
agreements
Alternative Service Government and private Service delivered through UCs/UGs
Delivery sector/NGOs/CBOs enter into co-operative Community Organization such as in
agreements based on shared objectives VDC (Jhalari) and by Tole/Lane
and working relationships through Users' Organization (TLOs) such as
Committee (UC) or Users' Groups (UGs) Mahendranagar in Municipality
Page 41
GRDCP Final Report
‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
Reform Action Plan: Rural Infrastructure
Areas of Reform Action Problems/Issues Action/Measures Responsibility Expected Outputs
1. Constitutional NA NA NA NA
Commitments and
Delegations
2. Enabling Laws
Policy/Plans
/Procedures
a. Inadequate structural design and a. Redesign and reconstruct the OPMCM, MLJPA, MoLD, MOLD initiating actions to
specification of MoLD business eighteen-point businesses allocated LBA redesign/ reconstruct businesses
allocations in the GABR 2064. to MoLD in the GABR based on a allocated to MOLD
system and process approach to
defining government business in rural
2.1. Enabling Laws infrastructure sector
b. Absence of enabling laws specific b. Provide enabling laws specific to MoLD, MPPW, FNCCI, Enabling laws provided
to participation of private sector participation of private sector in local FCAN
in rural infrastructure rural infrastructure
development
2.2. Policy, Procedures
& Plans
a1. Not all DDCs prepared and a1. DDCs assertively using DPP for rural DoLIDAR/LBs Effective use of resources in
updated DPP with due priority to infrastructure priority needs basic rural infrastructure
A. Planning & Plan rural infrastructure.
(Vision, Values,
Strategies, Goals, a2. DOLIDAR/DTO tendency to focus a2. Sensitize the technical-engineering DoLIDAR/LBs Better satisfaction level of rural
Programs of on technical at social cost of oriented DoLIDAR to the need for residents from local
Activities) beneficiary people’s participation social-engineering and introduce infrastructures
appropriate manual on social
mobilization
b1. Moving DTO out from DDC and b1 Empower DDC to set up own DTO DTO set up in DDCs.
establishing it as a seperate with MoLD / DoLIDAR providing MoLD/GON
B. Institutional
entity under DoLIDAR technical support.
Structure &
undermined the authority of DDC
Capacity
leading to conflict at the district
level
Page 42
GRDCP Final Report
‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
Areas of Reform Action Problems/Issues Action/Measures Responsibility Expected Outputs
b2. Ineffective coordination and b2. Develop mechanisms to ensure LBs, DoLIDAR-DTO Improved relationships among
linkage among DDC/DTO with integrated DDC/CLA sectoral plans the service provisioning agencies
other CLAs at field level leading to better service delivery
b3. Insufficient capacity of b3. Build Capacity of government staff in MoLD/DoLIDAR/LBs Improved service delivery by LBs
governmental staff in PPP the preparation of PPP projects
planning and management designed to attract bidders and
assure a truly competitive bidding
b4. User Committee (UC) formation b4. Provide and implement procedures to MoLD/DoLIDAR, MPPW, Beneficial use of the User Group
and operation tending to move ensure that UC formation and MoF, LBs, LBAs (UG) concept institutionalized as
away from being User Group operation is UG-centered and UG- User Committee (UC) for
(UG)-centered & UG-involved to involved national-wide application
becoming Procurement Manager
C. Financial/fund Flow c1. Weak financial management c1. Review audit skills and resources in DoLIDAR/LBs Visibly better accounting and
mechanism practices DoLIDAR and DDCs for all LBs needs auditing
d1. Inappropriate and conflicting uses d1. Form, enable and equip UCs to truly MoLD, DoLIDAR MoF, MoLD-DoLIDAR and FCAN
of UCs affecting small local perform as politically neutral and MPPW, LBs, LBAs, FCAN immediately consult to make UC
D. Procurement &
construction contractors/firms corruption-free UCs without sub- an effective tool for grass-root
Supply Chain
leading to potential local-political contract purchase of UC works from level infrastructure construction
Management
abuses local private contractors without adverse effect in formal
construction contract business
e1. VDCs and municipalities do not e1. Introduce procedure of timely MoLD Participatory Planning Process is
receive proper guidelines on rural information flows as per LSGA effectively implemented
infrastructure from DDC and/or
E. Information, MoLD in time
Communication & e2. LBs not duly informed on relevant e2. Introduce system of timely information MoLD Service providers are better
Documentation policy such as the LIDP, RIRR and communication of all relevant informed to provide services as
etc. policy, procedure and plan-program per government policy and
changes procedure and to better
satisfaction of people
F. Monitoring Service f.1 Weak supervision and monitoring f.1 Review existing MoLD/DoLIDAR DoLIDAR/LBs Service recipients feel of
Realization & of LBs by DoLIDAR practices on program monitoring and transparency and accountability
Delivery streamline PMAS reporting in service delivery
Page 43
GRDCP Final Report
‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
Areas of Reform Action Problems/Issues Action/Measures Responsibility Expected Outputs
g1. Implementation of government g2. Strengthen LIDP 2061 (2004 AD) by OPMCM, MoLD, MoGA, Annual top government review
G. Top Government policies, plans, institutional providing for a top government review MPPW held, decisions minuted and
Review and reform measures in rural mechanism within MoLD to acted upon duly and diligently,
Continual infrastructure not monitored and periodically review and reform
Improvement reformed effectively strategic/structural changes in rural
infrastructure sector
Page 44
GRDCP Final Report
‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
147. The Ministry plays role as a facilitator and coordinator of decentralization and devolution.
It coordinates the functioning of LBs as well as the relationships of LBs with other line agencies,
both at the centre and at the grass root level. However, there seems to be a tendency towards
increased control and concentration of project activities at ministry level. Local Body chief
executives, namely, the LDO at the DDC, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) at the Municipality and
Secretary at the VDC are all deputed by the Ministry. The Ministry, with the support of Local
Body Fiscal Commission (LBFC) recommends to MoF the amount of annual conditional and
unconditional grants to LBs and also monitors their performances.
Page 45
GRDCP Final Report
‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
Development Committee, Gumba22 Development Committee etc. are other important agencies
belonging to it.
149. The Ministry staff positions consist of 41 Gazetted positions including special class, 38
positions of Non-gazetted class and 48 clerical and menial staff. In addition, there are 76
positions in DOLIDAR represented by mostly engineers and agronomists.
Strengths Weaknesses
• A large organization structure with arms extended to • Duplication of function and power of LBs
all LBs. with sectoral agencies
• Long and strong experience of planning and • Unclear function and mandates at different
implementing decentralization and local development levels of LBs
• Large pool of manpower with experiences in • Prevailing of large number of conflicting
decentralization and local development. laws and regulations
• Mandate of formation, implementation and monitoring • A tendency towards Ministry-led projects/
• Establishment of Institutions such as, LBFC and programs rather than local demand led
LDTA under its umbrella • Inadequate information and
• Good network with other Government agencies, communication capacity within and outside
donor and NGOs of the Ministry
Opportunities Threats
• Increased opportunities for • Long transition caused by fluid political
decentralization/devolution of governance from the situation may threaten restructuring and
State having become a federal democratic republic reforms of MoLD
• Opportunity to represent to the Constitutional • Risk of continued dependence of MoLD on
Committee of the CA for strong provision of donor assistance for decentralization
decentralization/devolution principles and policies. planning and implementation
• Prospect of increased donor support to • Attitudes of reluctance to decentralize
decentralization and devolution of public services
22
Monastery
Page 46
GRDCP Final Report
‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
the DIMC, with other members including Leader of Opposition in the Parliament, Ministers and
Secretaries of the Government, Chairman of the Development Committee of the Parliament,
Vice-chairman of NPC, representatives of main political parties and Chairpersons of the LBAs.
The high-powered DIMC was and is expected to drive the process and accelerate the pace of
decentralization implementation in Nepal.
153. The LAFC conducted studies in 2000 and recommended a number of measures for
effective fiscal decentralization including assignment of responsibilities and revenue sources to
the LBs. Later in 2003, GON renamed LAFC as Local Body Fiscal Commission (LBFC) and
constituted a 9 member permanent body under the convenership of the Vice Chairman of NPC.
The other members of the Commission include Secretary of MoLD; Secretary of MoF;
representatives of ADDCN, MuAN, NAVIN, and FNCCI; a fiscal expert and a member secretary.
A detailed road map with eleven major activities were prepared and adopted in 2003 for
implementation by the LBFC in a phased manner.
154. Contrary to the views expressed time and again by the LBAs and other professional
experts, the LBFC is functioning as a virtual division under the MoLD. Not only it is housed within
the MoLD premises, but also the staffs are deputed by the MoLD. A Joint Secretary of the MoLD
acts as a part time Member Secretary of the Commission. This has considerably affected the
workings of the Commission as an independent entity. The recent decision of the government
appointing Minister of MoLD in place of the Vice-chairman of NPC as Chairman of LBFC is a
further setback to its independence – causing loss in whatever credibility it had as an
autonomous institution meant for supporting LBs.
156. The Academy has lost much of its position since its inception. The growth in private
sector training institutes, donor agencies and INGOs' preference to use their own training outfits
posed big competition to the LDTA. Poor Institutional leadership and absence of demand for
training owing to local elections not held has driven the LDTA, its regional branches, and UDTC
to a critical stage; whereas, given the vastly changed political environment of Nepal as a federal
democratic republic, a huge demand for training in the area of local development and local
governance is a certainty.
Page 47
GRDCP Final Report
‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
158. The LSGA empowers LBs to raise internal resources from various tax and non-tax
revenue. VDCs and Municipalities have authority to levy house and land tax, vehicle tax,
advertisement tax, business enterprise tax, service charge and various kinds of service fees. The
law also authorizes VDCs to levy tax on the utilization of natural resources and the Municipalities
to impose rental tax on land and building. The Act also authorise municipalities to borrow from
financial institutions upon prior approval from the government.
Page 48
GRDCP Final Report
‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
159. LSGA however assigned little own-source revenue to DDC. They can impose tax on the
use of roads and bridges constructed from own source or those formally handed over to them,
export tax on local raw materials and wastes, sale of sand, soil, stone in its jurisdiction. They are
also empowered to collect different types of service fees and charges, and to borrow from
financial institutions.
160. Fiscal powers of LBs to raise revenue, however, suffer from problems of overlapping and
duplication within LBs as well as within government. Some revenues are shared by the centre
with DDC while others are shared between LBs.
163. LBs are free to decide on their internal organizational/administrative structure to suit their
needs and means. With certain exceptions, VDCs are operating virtually without a formal
administrative structure; they operate virtually as a one-person (VDC Secretary) office, actually
as a mobile one in the days of the armed insurgency. Municipalities' organization structure vary
Page 49
GRDCP Final Report
‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
depending on the class -- whether a Municipal Town or a Metropolitan/Sub-Metropolitan City.
The DDC organization structures seem to be in-between, with most following MoLD-
recommended structure whilst some have designed their own.
164. Among certain organizational features built in to address good local governance issues
are mandatory requirement for LBs (i) to include women and socially disadvantaged peoples,
representations in the LBs' governing councils and executive boards, and (ii) to hold open
meetings to present their plans and progress of development and service activities to the local
citizens. This is besides the LBs being required to involve, (i) citizens groups, NGOs, CLAs and
the private sector in their periodic and annual planning process, and (ii) UCs in basic
infrastructure service realization and delivery.
166. There has, however, been considerable support from local communities to the LBs as
they consider LBs their own institutions for the development of their areas. LBs, however, have
failed to capitalize on this public sentiment.
168. A SWOT analysis of these organizations was carried out based on review of previous
studies, MuAN’s Strategy Paper, as well as direct interaction of the study team members with the
officials of these associations (details included in Annex 5.4 in the Annex Volume). The analysis
indicate that, although the organisations have been a strong force in lobbying for and helping
prepare important laws, bylaws and regulations necessary for implementation of decentralization
and devolution in the country, they have not yet been able to emerge as distinctly politically
neutral and innovative membership associations of LBs growing as self-sustaining organisation
Page 50
GRDCP Final Report
‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
and demonstratively helping members deliver services to citizens economically, efficiently and
effectively.
170. However, in practice, "the participatory planning process has become just a ritual without
much real participation of people, thereby raising issues and doubts about the actual reflection of
demands in the annual plans". Coordination between and among line agencies and DDC in the
planning process and implementation is not effective. Planning process and timing of the CLAs
and LBs are not synchronized, with quite often the CLAs completing their planning well before
the LBs council meeting takes place.
171. The DDCs do not receive their budget ceiling, guidelines and directives from MoLD and
CLAs in time specified by the Regulation. As a result the DDCs are rendered unable to prepare
their budget projections and send directives to VDCs on time.
173. LBFAR 2007 has provided for budget release of unconditional grants directly from MoF to
LBs. Government provides block grants to VDCs to carryout development work within the VDC
territory. Rule 228 has prescribed a procedure which states “In the case of VDCs, until other
arrangements are made, the grant amount to be made available by GoN will be made available
in the VDF by MoF through DDC”. With the LBFAR 2007 enforced, now MoF directly sends
authorization to Local Development Officer (LDO) for the release of the block grants to VDC. The
current fund flow process is depicted in the following figure.
Page 51
GRDCP Final Report
‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
Fig 5.2: Fund Flow from MoF to LBs
174.
175. Despite improvements made through the LBFAR 2007 and the MoF budgetary release
procedure of conditional grants, the present fund flow system has gaps that needs to be
addressed. They are briefly outlined below:
a) Budgeted amounts are released in three trimester instalments in a fiscal year. District
Treasury Controller's Office (DTCO) releases funds to VDC based on the submission of the
documents by the later as per the VDC Block Grant Implementation Procedure 2063 (2006
AD). The Procedure requires submission of complex supporting documents for each trimester
release resulting in avoidable undue delays in releasing the allocated funds;
b) Budget release requisition from the VDCs often gets accumulated in the DDC until it reaches
a certain number for DDCs to forward the requests to the DTCO. This practice discourages
those VDCs who really perform well and ought to have been rewarded;
c) The II and III tranche budgetary release often gets delayed due to the time taken to meet the
requirement of statement of expenditures, which in turn, depends on timely visit of the
technical staffs from DDC to clear these statements of VDC. The technical staffs take unduly
long time to visit the site to prepare the report, thereby resulting in delay in disbursement; and
d) Other minor-looking but very troubling gaps and hurdles to efficient fund flow include: (i) too
many directives along with the authorization letter of fund release, which further depends on
the nature of the work, (ii) too many bank accounts, as high as 18 different accounts, in DDC
causing delay in financial transactions, (iii) delay in appointment of auditors by the DDC
causing hardship to VDC in timely audit.
Page 52
GRDCP Final Report
‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
176. Discussions held with the officials of the DTCO during the piloting phase revealed that the
present system of budgetary release thorough DDC not only delays budget release to VDC but
also discourages the performing VDCs, as DDC sends statement of expenditures (most of the
times only a letter confirming the statement of expenditure by DDC and not the actual statement)
only after collecting a sizable number of statements from the VDCs. Moreover, the non-reciept of
VDC statements from DDC make DTCO completely uninformed as to how the budget has been
used by the VDCs. In view of these problems, DTCO agreed the study team’s arguement on the
merits of releasing the fund directly to VDF as it is easier for them to administer (keep track of
fund use by VDC) and also saves time of VDC secretary getting approved funds.
178. Earlier public procurement used to be governed by Financial Administration Rules (FAR),
2056 (1999 AD) because there was not any separate procurement law. FAR 2056, because of
being a rule and not an enactment, tended to be changed frequently by government. Nepal
Country Procurement Assessment Report, 2002 found that the procurement rules and
regulations were “poorly organized and substantially problematic” and pointed 14 different
problematic clauses in the FAR. Some of the clauses about “public bidding” (clauses 75 through
77), were termed as "unclear rules"; some were considered as “anti-competitive provisions”
(clause 58(4), 66(2)), while some were termed "serious disincentive to foreign bidders".
Page 53
GRDCP Final Report
‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
Some Salient Regulatory Provisions Concerning Procurement
• Ten percent price preference to local over foreign goods;
• Insurance provision of constructions works exceeding Rs. 1 million;
• Access to all information pertaining to bid in the Monitoring Committee web-site;
• Provision of electronic bidding (e-submission) system;
• Sole sourcing of consulting services and purchase of capital goods worth Rs. 150,000 directly from
the market;
• Mandatory provision to purchase goods/services amounting to more than Rs. 5,000.00 from firms
having PAN number and VAT registration;
• Relaxation of pre-qualification in the procurement of construction work amounting to less than Rs 6
million;
• Mandatory requirement of Master Procurement Plan for project running over 1 year or procurement
worth over Rs. 100 million;
• Non discrimination based on nationality of bidders;
• Mandatory provisions to provide the reasons for non selection of the bids, if the bidders sought
explanation within 30 days of the award notice;
• Provision of 3 men Appeal Committee headed by judge of the Appellate Court or retired government
special class officer to review the appeal made by the bidders;
• Provision of 3 men Dispute Settlement Committee;
• Provision of bid evaluation reports preparation containing all essential information.
179. PPA addressed major defects in the public procurement procedures existing in the FAR.
The PPA seems to be a comprehensive, fair and transparent law. It corrects the gaps in FAR
2056 and simplified the bid evaluation and contract award process. Enabled by the improved
provisions in the PPA, 2063 (2007 AD), Government recently promulgated the LBFAR, 2064
(2007 AD) in place of LBFAR 2056 (1999 AD).
180. LBFAR, 2064 (2007 AD) is a comprehensive document of rules covering, besides
procurement by LBs, also rules of financial procedures of the VDCs, Municipalities and DDCs;
and contracting out revenue collection and other financial matters such as deposits, advances,
accounting, auditing and records of assets. LBFAR, 2064 (2007 AD), however, still suffers from
gaps in addressing key aspects of supply chain management, such as in-bound and out-bound
logistics and inventory management.
Chepang
182. Land-lessness is one of the cause factors for under-development of the Chepang
community. They are thinly spread as isolated settlements in the forest land. Services relating to
agriculture crop production have no direct impact on their economic condition. Livestock and
fisheries seem to be areas that can improve their livelihood. Skill development and engagement
in cottage industries are likely to positively impact their living conditions. Social mobilization to
encourage and persuade them to live as a settlement, engage in agriculture and cottage
industry and send their children to school is necessary. Imparting legitimacy to their settlement
seems to be the issue for special decisions by the government to ensure mainstreaming this very
disadvantaged community in social upliftment.
Muslims
183. In spite of their contrasting differences in religion, custom, social values etc. the Muslim
community in Nepal are seen embedded in other non-Muslim community in the villages they live
in.They share many of the cultural events, festivities, information, opportunity and service with
different communities they live with. Constraints and gaps in public service delivery are also
shared by both Muslims and non-Muslims. However, as members of minority community, they
experience a certain additional constraint in their access to these services. Service provisioning
and delivery program in the community will need to take into account such social and traditional
factors to assure and ensure these communities' access to public services equitably.
184. In the Muslim communities in the case study VDCs, school type and teacher has been
observed to be an issue. Preference for a Madarsha type of school and/or the choice for only
Muslim teachers put a virtual culturally binding constraint in the school education of this
community's children. Such a traditional culture is hindering Muslim schools from accessing
otherwise more qualified and experienced teachers.
Tharus
185. The Tharu community is a very closely built, clean and cohesive community characterized
by highly developed resilience in their social conduct. They possess a culture of respecting
leadership within their community and skills to live harmoniously with other community groups --
big or small. Community organization is their strength. They display innovation and tolerance in
developing and managing schooling system in their villages. Service provisioning and delivery
for agriculture and livestock development related activities need special attention for Tharu
communities. Fragmented land holdings of Tharu communities are one of the issues that need
constructive interventions. The community is highly receptive to social engineering and
mobilization and this can be used as a very potent entry point to developing and expanding the
access of this community to public services.
Page 55
GRDCP Final Report
‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
Gurungs
186. Gurungs are a very much organized community who prefer to live in high hill areas in
small and cohesive settlements. Their means of living is well balanced between arable and
pastor based farming. Therefore, agriculture and livestock related services are of high
importance to this community. Specially tailored service meeting their special nature of the
services on animal husbandry can be very valuable to this community. The community has
strong matriarchal character, therefore, the service realization and provisions can be effectively
managed through community organizations run by their women groups.
187. The community require small and efficient service providing agencies. Many of the
agriculture and livestock services can be effectively delivered through the local organization
established by the communities themselves. This community has not been able to benefit much
from their participation in the local government system in village. The VDC should encourage and
motivate their local community organizations to play active role in demand articulation and
project/program formulation to ensure that the community have enhanced opportunities to
access public services.
Rajbansi
188. Literacy among the Rajbansi is comparatively better than other indigenous population.
However, wide-spread poverty in this community and their compulsion to engage in livelihood
functions deprive them from access to education of higher than primary level. Very few Rajbansis
are engaged in teaching occupation. People of this community seem to perceive poverty, lack of
motivation for vocational education for gainful employment and problem of the medium of
instruction in their children's education as some of the constraints to their development. Besides,
those who live in the far flung villages cannot access health facilities because of wide-spread
traditional beliefs and shamanist and local healers. Not much efforts have been made to
eradicate wide spread superstitions among this community.
189. Rajbansis are good farmers skilled in jute farming. However, because of decline in the
jute farming in the recent years, they are forced to switch over to other agriculture farming and to
work as wage labour in the nearby towns. Because of lack of knowledge & information, and
absence of community development programs targeted to these communities, they have not
been able to benefit much from public services. Rajbansis have very little participation in the local
government agencies. Land for cultivation is no longer a big asset of Rajbansis communities.
Therefore, livestock and fishery services could be areas for their economic and social
development. Jute carpet making and twining rope can be other important vocational trade which
the Rajbansis can be engaged in comfortably and gainfully.
Dalits
190. Dalits are more concerned about their exclusion in the communities rather than in the
decision process at the local government level. This calls for their problem to be addressed and
tackled at the community level first. Although Dalit children in recent years have considerable
access to the general schooling, yet they are still subject to social segregation in the schools and
treated unfairly in the communities. Dalit children are discriminated in the school with most of
them almost always forced to sit in the last bench in the classroom. The social stigma of being
looked upon as “untouchables” has adversely affected the mental development of the children
with most of them suffering from inferiority complex in the school/classroom. The situation of
Page 56
GRDCP Final Report
‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
educated unemployment in the village and problems of livelihood discourage the Dalits from
sending their children to schools. Many Dalit parents are so poor that they cannot afford even
admission fee charged by the schools.
191. All Dalit children do not receive the scholarship as provisioned by the government.
Although the Nepal Education for All (NEFA) primary education program has made provision of
scholarships for all Dalit children, study has shown that only 65 percent of the Dalit students
attending primary school receive scholarships because of insufficient funds allocated by the
government. They expect government to make provision of school dress up to primary grade and
free text book up to class 8 students.
192. Although planning guidelines provide for specific program for Dalits, VDCs plans lack
such programs. They feel constrained to approach officials in government offices including even
in VDC offices to obtain public services. They are not aware of and are not engaged in the plan
formulation processes of the VDCs. Since most of the Dalits are landless labourers, the
utilization of agricultural extension services by them has been negligible. Also, in the formation of
UC, their representation is almost totally ignored.
193. In this way the socially marginalized and disadvantaged communities in rural Nepal
continue to remain largely outside the formal network of public service delivery. This calls for
specifically targeted or specific community-centered and community-involved development
programs to mainstream them in the development process at the grass-roots level by VDCs and
DDCs.
195. The recommendations are based also on the feedbacks received in the course of
interactions with various stakeholder groups during the GRDCP TA field work as well as several
rounds of discussions held in the thematic group meetings and, particularly in this case, also the
knowledge and experience resources of the present TA Consulting firm and its strategic partners.
Page 57
GRDCP Final Report
‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
2.1 Enabling Laws a) Inappropriate and inadequate a) Re-design and re-construct GON ABR based on a Ministry of Law, Justice & GABR is re-designed and
structural design and systems approach to structuring and specifying Parliamentary Affairs re-constructed
specifications of government government business allocation. (MLJPA)
business allocation in the GABR
2064.
b) Unsatisfactory state of continued b) Review, rationalize, and amend the LAA truly or take Ministry of Home Affairs Review and
central/local governance alternative restructure action to give effect to the (MoHA) MoLD, OPMCM, recommendations
structural anomaly in the LAA progressive principles and unified approach to balancing MLJPA considered and duly acted
2028. central and local-self governance in the changed political upon
context.
c) Gaps in the legal, institutional and c) Review, rationalize and amend the LSGA framework, in MoLD, MoH, MLJPA, and Review considered and
regulatory framework of LSGA particular the terms under Part 5 Article-1 of the Act, by other Concerned Line action taken on
and inadequacies in taking into account recommendations of this GRDCP TA Agencies and LBAs recommendations to amend
decentralization and service Report based on due understanding/ownership of new LSGA or follow any other
delivery vision, values and strategy of local self-governance in the better alternative
changed political context.
d) Issue of the 23 sector Act & in d) Resolve the pending issue of 22 of the 23 Acts in conflict MoLD, Line Ministries, Bills prepared and tabled at
conflict with LSGA still remaining with the LSGA (only the conflict in education sector MLJPA, LBAs the Parliament
to be resolved reportedly has been resolved)
Page 58
GRDCP Final Report
‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
c2. Weak financial accounting, c2. Implement a program of training LB financial staffs on MoF, MoLD, LBFC, LBAs Training program packages
auditing and record management the financial staffs on the financial procedures of the developed and implemented
by the LBs VDCs, Municipalities and DDCs as per LBFAR 2064
provision
c3. Risk of financial misuse/abuse c3. Make provision in LBFAR making LBs accountable to Auditor General Local people being informed
because of absence of financial local people by requiring them to get expenditures of Office/MoLD/MoF and aware of the facts.
auditing requirements with regard Municipalities & VDCs' own sources funds also audited
to Municipality and VDC externally by AGO.
Page 60
GRDCP Final Report
‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
Page 61
GRDCP Final Report
‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
Page 62
GRDCP Final Report
‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
Page 63
GRDCP Final Report
‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
allowances to visit far flung households. Most ASC/LSC/LSSC were manned by a single JTA
serving farmer families scattered as many as in 7 to 15 VDCs.
(Details of perceived level of satisfaction and dissatisfaction and reasons are presented in Annex
6.3 in Annex Volume)
198. Altogether five VDCs and three municipalities, as follows, were selected for piloting.
Selections were made from the eight districts, where both LBs (DDCs, VDCs/Municipalities) and
CLA district level services ASCs/LSCs/LSSCs/SMCs etc. existed. Household surveys were
carried out along with in-depth interactions with other stakeholders. Selection criteria included
geographical representation, concentration of a cross section of population and poverty etc.
(Details of resource and social mapping of the pilot VDCs/Municipalies are presented in Annex
6.4 in Annex Volume)
23
A comprehensive household Survey, ALSCs and Educational Survey plus interaction with the respective personnel
were carried out in 8 districts representing mountain, hill and Terai region.
Page 64
GRDCP Final Report
‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
Table 6.1: Selection of VDC and Municipality for Piloting
S. N VDC Municipality District
1 Parroha Siddharthanagar Rupandehi
2 Dullu Dailekh
3 Nele Solu
4 Hemja thLekhna Kaski
5 Jhalari Mahendranagar Kanchanpur
199. Pilot tests were done in areas selected from among the neglected fringe areas of
VDCs/Municipalities, where the poor and marginalized communities live. This strategy worked
very well in roping in and actively involving the poor and marginalized communities in the pilot
tests. The methodological steps followed in piloting are as follows:
1: Sensitization meetings with DDC/Municipal officials, district line agencies and leaders
of political parties;
2: Discussions about the area selection and the piloting activities in DDCs and
Municipalities;
3: Reconnaissance visit of village/municipal wards for cluster and program identification
4: Finalization of pilot program consisting of ideas/initiatives in service delivery and the
implementation modality with VDC/Municipal officials;
5: Formation of an inclusive Program Coordination Committee;
6: Selection, recruitment and training of Technical Social Mobilizers for community
mobilization;
7: Introduction of Citizen Report Card system for assessing the status of service delivery
before pilot program intervention;
8: Community mobilization and identification of infrastructure and income generating
activities;
9: Monitoring and Supervision;
10: Evaluation of Pilot program through Citizen Report Card system to assess the
improvement in the service delivery provision of municipality; and
11: Draw lessons from pilot-tests and recommend replication nation-wide in other VDCs
and Municipalities.
A. Formation of VDC and Municipality Program Coordination Committee
(PCC)
200. A VDC and Municipality Coordination Committee for overseeing the piloting activities etc.,
was constituted in each pilot area as follows. The Committee was made inclusive by ensuring
representatives from women, indigenous and Dalit population.
Executive Officer, Municipality/VDC Secretary Chairman
Active Political Parties’ Representatives Member
Agriculture Service Center Representative Member
Livestock Service Center Representative Member
Women Representative Member
Indigenous and Dalits Community Representative Member
NGO Representative Member
Page 65
GRDCP Final Report
‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
B. Upgrading of VDC Secretary
201. As an element of the pilot test, it was proposed to depute Non-gazetted Class I staff as
VDC Secretary. Upgrading of VDC Secretary to non-gazetted class I level was felt necessary to
suit their responsibility as a CEO of the DDC heading all development matters in the VDC and
coordinating with CLA officials. This upgradation was made by decision of the GRDCP TA
steering committee.
203. Based on the suggestions from the VDC and Municipality officials, the services of TSMs
was outsourced on contract with local NGO. A qualification of School Leaving Certificate (SLC)
pass and training in agriculture and livestock services from the pilot VDC/Municipality itself was
set for TSMs, with preference given to women candidates. The TSMs were given short training to
orient them about their role in GRDCP TA piloting and to build their skills in social mobilization.
D. Fund Flow
204. During the baseline survey/interactions with VDC representatives and other stakeholders,
three things were distinctly observed. First, the present procedure of budgetary release to VDC is
most time consuming because the VDC secretary has to waste time in visiting DDC repeatedly
for it. Secondly, DTCO releases budget to VDCs only after getting statement of expenditure
(SoE) of previous trimester from DDC. But, in most cases it is released on the basis of just a
letter from DDC vouching that it has recieved SOEs from VDC. Third, CLAs receive very little or
no budget for programs at the grass root level and they function independently with little or no
coordination with the VDCs.
205. To improve on these issues, the TA team requested respective DDC and District
Treasury Office, in the pilot districts, to channel funds meant for ASC/LSC and VDC directly to
the Village Development Fund (VDF), suggeting that it will be later distributed to the agencies
based on the program approval by the VDC program coordination committee. Given the distinct
advantage in direct fund release to VDC, GRDCP TA took initiatives and got approval from the
Steering Committee headed by the Chief Secretary, at the OPMCM and based on that
approached the MoLD and the MoF for so release in the pilot VDCs. The Fund was operated
through joint signature of the Chief of the ASC and the VDC Secretary/Chairman.
Page 66
GRDCP Final Report
‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
207. Three financing windows were designed within the Fund: (i) Interest-free loan window, (ii)
Grants window, and (iii) Technical support window. In all piloted VDCs and Municipalities,
resources for piloting programs relating to poverty were focused on infrastructures and other
poverty alleviation and social inclusion programs.
G. Program Monitoring
209. Supervision and monitoring format was developed and TSMs trained on using it. TSMs
were required to complete the format every month and submit to GRDCP TA office. TA team
members also monitored the piloting activities once in two months.
Page 67
GRDCP Final Report
‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
C. Establishment of NGO Desk
215. With an idea to improve coordination and relations with COs and NGOs in planning and
program implementation, GRDCP TA pilot-tested a NGO-desk in VDC/Municipality for
registration, documentation, coordination and monitoring of NGOs/COs activities to create an
environment favourable for strategic relationships between VDCs and local NGOs/CBOs for their
village development. NGO/CO representatives are also included in the VDC coordination
committee for the purpose.
219. In addition, TA support was also extended for preparation of VDC profile – a
Geographical Information System (GIS) based VDC profile illustrating VDC boundary, road
networks, population distribution, natural resources and main economic activities etc. for
maintaining and updating database in the VDCs.
Page 69
GRDCP Final Report
‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
farmers to upgrade their knowledge about developments in agriculture farming, specially those in
relation to high value crops and off-season vegetables.
Page 70
GRDCP Final Report
‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
B. Grant Support for Participatory Drinking Water and Toilet/Sanitation
Programs
231. The program was targeted to the poor and marginalized people of the piloted municipality
and VDC. This was done on a participatory basis with the beneficiary of the services providing
labor and some construction materials etc. The scheme was lauched in two wards of
Mahendranagar and one ward in Siddharthnagar Municipality and Parroha VDC as a pilot case.
The program was very successful and demand for such program was overwhelming.
234. The GRDCP TA pilot program used CRC to assess the perceptions of the service
recipients with regard to service delivery improvements felt in the pilot VDCs. An exit interview
was carried out in the respective service outlets (i.e. VDC office, ASC and LSC).
235. Four types of service recipients were identified and interviewed to understand their
perceptions on service delivery: (i) visitors to VDCs for services; (ii) visitors to ASC and LSC for
services; (iii) Social security services recipients and (iv) users committee members. The
response in the CRC is presented inTable 6.2
Mahendra
Lekhnath
Parroha
Hyamja
Jhallari
Nagar
Nagar
Dullu
Nele
Page 71
GRDCP Final Report
‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
Livestock Service Center Exit Interview 15 15 15 15 12 15 15 14 114
(LSC)
Total 89 75 75 80 59 75 75 60 588
236. The findings were shared in the coordination committee meeting. It was an eye opener to
the service providers (VDC, ASC, and ALC) as the findings showed how the service recepients
perceived the value of the services and transparency and openness in service delivery. The
members took the findings positively and initiated steps to make the service delivery more user
friendly.
Key Findings
238. Knowledge of the people about the types of services available from the VDC is quite
good. From as high as 97% respondents of Hyamja VDC to 81% of Parroha VDC were aware of
the services provided by the VDC. Knowledge about the documents required for obtaining the
services was high and uniform across all pilot areas except in Parroha VDC where this was quite
low (46%). Similarly, knowledge about the fees payable for services is also reasonably
satisfactory except in Parroha where it was 22% only. Findings about the ease or difficulty in
receiving services were mixed across the pilot areas. 82% of Jhallari VDC recipients perceived it
easy, while in Hyamja VDC about two-thirds perceived it difficult.
239. Service satisfaction perception varied largely across the pilot areas (Table 6.3). The
proportion reporting “not satisfied” varied from as low as 4.2 % in Jhallari VDC to highest of 40 %
in Lekhnath Municipality (Details presented in Annex-6.5 in the Annex Volume.). Proportion
reporting “not satisfied” was higher in urban areas compared to rural areas. Every two in five in
urban area and two in ten service users in rural area reported “not satisfied”. Service users in
rural areas were four times more likely to be satisfied with the services of VDCs than their urban
counterpart (Odds ratio = 4.48).
Page 72
GRDCP Final Report
‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
240. Lack of sincerity and cordiality of the officials, lack of adherence to rules and regulations,
lack of transparency in the books of accounts, partisan politics in service delivery and absence of
citizen’s desk etc. were some of the points of dissatisfaction expressed.
C. Perception on Corruption
242. Interestingly, the level of perceived corruption in distributing these allowances were
reported as low as 5% and below. Most of the recepients suggested to increase the allowance
and arrange for distributing in their own home or atleast in the respective ward.
Key Findings
243. Interestingly, more than 50% of the respondents reported "unaware" of the program of
ASC/LSC. It was highest in Nele (67%) and lowest in Jhallari (33%). More than half of the
respondent reported "not satisfied" with the services of the ASC/LSC. Those reporting
“unsatisfied” were highest in Hyamja (69%) and lowest in Dullu (37 %). Interestingly, as high as
77% respondents expressed their concerns about ASC /LSC program in the VDC.
244. Perceptions about the role of JTAs were mixed across the pilot area. Three-fourths of the
respondents from Nele observed that JTA in their village never communicated about the
program. However, in Dullu three-fourths of the respondents were positive about the service
rendered by JTAs. Majority of the respondents (51%) reported that ASC/LSC have not been able
to contribute significantly in agriculture and livestock promotion, while one in every six service
users stated that ASC/LSC provided no service at all. There was, however, significant variation
across the VDCs with Jhallari and Dullu VDCs reporting a more positive perception of “good
service”.
245. When asked about the reasons for “not so good” or “no service”, the prime reason
mentioned was “lack of required equipments” in the service centre. Other reasons stated were:
“unavailability of technician at the service centre” and JTA’s “lack of adequate knowledge”.
Consistently, large majority of respondents from all the VDC and Municipalities stressed that
JTAs should be fully trained and Service Centres should be adequately equipped to ensure
quality in services. Other commonly suggested improvement were, more frequent visits to
communities by extension workers and timely diagnosis and remedy of livestock diseases.
Page 73
GRDCP Final Report
‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
Key findings
247. Larger proportions of the urban residents were found satisfied with local development
work by User’s Committee (UC) while more than half of the respondents of Dullu and Nele VDCs
were not satisfied. Contrary to the common belief on project selection process by the UC,
majority of the respondents (32% against 9% urban respondents and 50% against 21% rural
respondents) reported happy with the project selection procedure except in Hyamja VDC, where
about three-fourths (72%) of the respondents reported "not satisfied".
248. Quality of works, both in rural and urban areas, is reported having serious problems. With
few exceptions, such as, in Lekhnath and Jhalari VDCs, all others expressed concerns over the
quality of works. In Hyamja, 80% of the respondents were not satisfied with the quality of works
done. Similarly, maintenance and supervision of the works by UCs were reported as quite poor.
249. Value of UCs in rural infrastructure development work has been greatly appreciated by
beneficiaries as well as secondary/support stakeholders e.g. LB staffs, CBOs/NGOs in all pilot
areas. Majority of the people expressed satisfaction in the UCs formation process and in carrying
out the development works through UCs.
250. Rural respondents were less likely to be “satisfied” with the UCs formation process than
the urban respondents (Odds ratio of 0.67). Similarly, rural respondents were less likely to be
having “positive attitude” towards development work (odds ratio of 0.59) through UCs than the
urban respondents (Table 6.4).
251. Lack of democratic election process in UCs formation, absence of women and
marginalized groups of people in the UC, excessive influence of political parties and non-
transparency in the budget allocation and expenditures as well as weak monitoring were some
points cited by the respondents as reasons for their dissatisfaction on UCs. The appointment of
Page 74
GRDCP Final Report
‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
contractors by the UCs for the UC works was reported as the most objectionable activity of UCs.
The respondents strongly suggested a mandatory provision of basic project management and
accounting training for UC members and also to form UCs mainly from among the actual
beneficiary group.
1. Experience of pilot VDCs in Hemja and Parroha has shown 1. Promote VDC as focal point for all
improved working relationship developed among VDC, CLAs, development activities and service
NGOs and CBOs, by pulling resources, experiences and delivery, as far as practicable.
avoiding duplication of work. This positive behavioral change
from the earlier culture of working in isolation has improved the
working relationship among actors and improved service
delivery.
2. The upgradation of VDC secretary to non-gazetted 1st class not 2. Upgrade VDC secretary position to
only improved protocol of the secretary but also boosted at least non-gazetted class I.
confidence in coordinating activities.
3. Fund flow of line agency budget through Village Development 3. Channelise all fund flows, including
Fund (VDF) actually improves coordination in planning and that of CLA, to VDF for saving
programming. Moreover, such practices put pressure on the collection time, better reporting
VDC to realize its responsibility in the overall development of the (SOPs), programming and
VDC and giving priority to basic service needs e.g. education, budgetary discipline.
health, and social inclusion and poverty programs.
Page 75
GRDCP Final Report
‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
Page 78
GRDCP Final Report
‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
References
ADB (2006), Nepal: Preparing the Governance Reforms and Decentralization Cluster
Program – 1.
ADB/ADBI (2007): Improving Local Governance and Pro‐poor Service Delivery: Citizen
Report Card Learning Tool‐Kit, Asian Development Bank, Asian Development Bank
Institute.
Asian Development Bank (2003) Infrastructure and Poverty Reduction, What is the
Connection Manila.
Department of Livestock Services (DoLS) Guidelines for Formulation of Program and
Budgets ‐ 2063, MoAC, GON.
DFDP/UNDP Local government infrastructure and service delivery: A case study of the
decentralized financing & development Programme – Nepal.
Draft for Discussion (June 2007) A Donor coordination framework for Rural Infrastructure
Reconstructive and Rehabilitation, 2007.
Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) (2002): Country Profile: Nepal, Urban Sector
and Municipal Governance, FCM/MuAN.
GoN (July 2007) Rural Infrastructure Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Plan, Kathmandu.
HLCIT (2005): Newsletter Year 1, Issue 5, High Level Commission for Information
Technology, Singh Durbar, Kathmandu.
LAFC (2000), Local Authorities Fiscal Commission Report, Local Authorities Fiscal
Commission, MoLD, Kathmandu.
Law Book Management Board (December 2000), Local Self Governance Act, 2055 (1999),
Nepal.
Law Book Management Board (July 2005), Local Self Governance Regulation, 2056 (1999),
Nepal.
Ligal, P.R, Shrestha, D.P, Chapagain Y, and Bista K.K (2004): ʺExpenditure Assignment Study
(Nepal)ʺ, LBFC/DASU/DANIDA, Kathmandu.
Ligal, P.R, Shrestha, D.P, Chapagain Y, and Bista K.K (2004): ʺExpenditure Effectiveness of
Local Bodies and Assessment of Expenditure Needs of Devolved Tasksʺ,
LBFC/DASU/DANIDA, Kathmandu.
Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives (MoAC); Guidelines for Implementation of
Devolved Programs in Agriculture Sector, 2059.
Ministry of Local Development, ʺDecentralization Implementation Work Plan (DIP), 2057
B.S.ʺ (in Nepali), His Majestyʹs Government of Nepal.
MoAC, National Agriculture Policy (2061), Nepal Agriculture Research Council;
Implementation Guidelines for Agriculture Technical Working Groups, 2058.
Page 79
GRDCP Final Report
‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
MoAC (2006), Study Report on Devolution/ Decentralization Model of Agriculture Service
Delivery in Nepal.
MoLD (2004), Local Infrastructure Development Policy, Kathmandu.
MoLD (2007), Project Document Local Governance Community Development Programme
(LGCDP), Nepal.
MoLD/DoLIDAR (September 2005), Integrated Rural Accessibility Plan, Kathmandu.
MoLD/DoLIDAR (September 2006), Strategy Action Plan on Local Infrastructure
Development, Kathmandu.
MoLD/DoLIDAR (September 2006), Working Process Manual, Kathmandu.
NPC/MoLD (March 2002), A National Framework Document for Decentralized Governance
and Capacity Building.
NPC (2007), Three years Interim Plan, Nepal (2064/65‐2066/67).
Paul, Samuel, Citizen’s Report cards: An Accountability Tool, ADB, Manila.
Pokharel, J. C. (2005), Report on Decentralization and Sector Devolution in Nepal; DRMN,
Lalitpur.
Pokheral, J. C (2006): “Devolution of Central Government’s Tasks and Functions to Improve
Service Delivery in a Conflict Situation” in Ligal and Maharani edited book Conflict,
Governance Reform and the Role of Non‐State Actors in Service Delivery A Seminar
Proceedings.
Proceedings of National Agriculture Extension Workshop (2005); Directorate of Agriculture
Extension DoA).
Progress Repots of Various Years, MoAC, DoA, DoLS and the District Offices of Agriculture
and Livestock Services under study.
Public Expenditure Review Commission (PERC) 2000/01, HMG/Nepal.
SDC, An Assessment of HMG Decision Regarding the Introduction of DIDO in Light of
LSGA Provisions, Nepal.
Shah, B. P (2005): Telecenter is not a cow: High Level Commission for Information
Technology News Letter, Year 2, and Issue 6.
TEAM Nepal Pvt. Ltd. & Infocom Pvt. Ltd (2002), Feasibility Study Report for e‐Governance
in Mechi Zone, Nepal, Enabling State Programme (ESP), DFID, Kathmandu.
TEAM Nepal Pvt. Ltd/TCG International USA (2007), Good Urban Governance in South Asia
(GUSA) Nepal, USAID Regional Development Office for South Asia.
Upadhaya, GR Raj and Diebold, A (eds): Proceedings of International Conference on ICT and
Development (ITCD) 2001, 29‐30 November, Kathmandu, Friedrich Ebert Stiftung.
World Bank (2000): Nepal Public Expenditure Review Volume I The Main Report.
World Bank (Undated): Nepal Development Policy Review: Restarting Growth and Poverty
Reduction, World Bank South Asia Region, Report No. 29382 – NP.
World Bank, Poverty Reduction and Economic Management Unit South Asia Region.
Page 80
GRDCP Final Report
‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
GRDCP TA Consultation Workshop
Consultation with Political Parties
Page 81
GRDCP Final Report
‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
Vegetable Farming Tailoring Training ‐ Dullu VDC, Dailekh
Toilet Construction ‐Siddharthanagar Municipality Training on Awareness Campaign for Women ‐
Siddharthanagar Municipality
Study Tour to Andra Pradesh, India
Page 82