Oped»
Things have changed
MAY 12 -
It used to be assumed that the job of governing was the sole responsibility of the government in the belief that a central government could perform the job in the best way. Because of growing disenchantment of the ordinary people with government institutions, declining capacity of these institutions to respond to diverse expectations, growing alienation of the poor and marginalised from the elite-dominated institutions of government, continued persistence of problems of social exclusion and marginalisation, growing importance of private business interests and globalisation and resultant increased civic awareness, the very concept of government has now changed. It now implies that governance and development is not just the responsibility of the government. It has become a joint obligation of state actors, civil society, the private sector and ordinary people.
The government of Nepal is committed to bringing about tangible changes in local governance and community development as envisaged by different policy and legal frameworks. To support the government, many development partners have been working with the Ministry of Local Development, and the Local Governance and Community Development Programme (LGCDP) was launched in July 2008 as a national programme. It is managed and implemented by the Local Development Ministry and supported by a wide range of development partners. It strongly supports the Local Development Ministry’s long-term vision of local development and self-governance to bring pro-poor governance and development interventions to the people by maintaining fiscal discipline and correcting mismanagement, delays and non-transparent procedures and practices. The LGCDP’s over-arching goal is to contribute towards poverty reduction through inclusive, responsible and accountable local governance and participatory community-led development.
Challenges for LGCDP
Absence of elected representatives at the local bodies since July 2002 has created a leadership vacuum and severely affected the very functioning of the local government system. This has greatly constrained the scope for interaction between the local bodies and communities. It has minimised the scope for institutionalising downward accountability to citizens which has resulted in a low level of participation of the poor and vulnerable groups in development endeavours.
Efforts to translate the commitments of the political parties to strengthen local self-governance, state restructuring and the engagement of local bodies with communities have been an uphill task for LGCDP implementation at the local level. The overall post-conflict situation throughout the country is having a direct impact on the LGCDP. Making local governments more sensitive to the needs and aspirations of the poor and other historically marginalised groups is another challenge.
The absence of elected political representative at the local levels and undertaking all the activities of the local bodies through a so-called political mechanism comprising the major political parties without clearly defined roles and responsibilities and accountability mechanisms is regarded as a big risk. Due to the absence of elected representatives, many functions and provisions made in legal documents such as the Local Self-Governance Act have been neglected. As a result, news of misuse of funds and corruption at the local level is being reported frequently. Thus, transparent functioning of the local bodies and public accountability at the local level are perhaps the most critical issues at this juncture of time.
Capacity development of local bodies in different guidelines and manuals prepared by the LGCDP, participatory planning process, social mobilisation, social and environmental safeguards, promotion of IEC materials and accountability mechanisms, MC/PM assessments and other results based monitoring tools with the set quality standards is challenging. Similarly, effective coordination, facilitation, monitoring and evaluation from the centre is difficult without which broad-based and targeted community interaction with the local government and promotion of downward accountability besides addressing the predicaments of the historically marginalised and excluded segments of rural society cannot be fulfilled.
Moreover, inadequate communication and dissemination of information at all levels, unrealistic and top-down local development planning process, conflict of interests, domination and control of the programme by the local elite as well as politicisation, lack of commitment due to the poor level of awareness about strategic planning, decision-making and management, lack of uniform understanding among different stakeholders as to how the community participation can achieve the programme objectives are the challenges for successful implementation of the LGCDP.
Opportunities for LGCDP
There are opportunities to implement this programme successfully. The major political parties of the country have expressed their commitment to state restructuring to ensure decentralised, accountable and democratic self-governance to end all forms of discrimination, exploitation and to address the needs of the disadvantaged groups by ensuring their participation in every state mechanism. In addition, the top authority of the Local Development Ministry has expressed its full support and commitment to take full ownership of the LGCDP and implement it as the government’s own programme.
There are also opportunities to make local governments more effective, transparent and accountable not only by strengthening them but also by enabling rural communities to have a greater say as to how they would like to shape their development plans. There is an immediate need for timely dissemination of information and training activities on participation in local planning, implementation and monitoring so that compliance with the rules of the process and guidelines is accomplished.
While implementing its programme activities through CSOs, users’ committees and other groups, the LGCDP should take every step for inclusive and equitable committee formation in order to include as many users and beneficiaries as possible from the poor and marginalised groups in key positions. Special attention should be given to promoting participation of poor and vulnerable groups. Also, there is a need that the LGCDP ensure information sharing, dissemination and transparency in all its operations. Coordination, cooperation and communication among the different departments of the Local Development Ministry should be further improved for its ownership of the programme as well as to expedite implementation of the LGCDP.
Promotion of local governance and community development is a prerequisite to institutionalising democracy and establishing a pro-poor governance system in the country. The LGCDP is a huge government programme with substantial support from the development partners for promoting and institutionalising local governance and community development in the country. Everyone is, therefore, keenly watching its implementation to accomplish its perceived goals. It is thus fair to say that any future support from the development partners working in Nepal largely depends on its success. In view of this, all the concerned state and non-state stakeholders right from the central to the local levels should work collectively for its expanded impacts and successful implementation.
[Lama is affiliated with the Ministry of Local Development’s Local Governance and Community Development Programme (LGCDP)]
sangramlamapri@hotmail.com
Posted on: 2010-05-13 08:48
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