In past two decades, Nepal has witnessed a tectonic socio-political shift, which is reflected in its novel governance model. There has been wholesale realignment from a monolithic to a federal and markedly more decentralized system.
This administrative realignment at the grassroots level enables local communities to serve themselves through elected leaders, who need to meet their constituents’ aspirations. Such a model has led the individual Nepali to believe that the relocation of decision-making powers would provide for an efficient, convenient, and responsive public service delivery model.
A new conversation has thus arisen from such a paradigm leading to citizen aspirations of transparent decisions and an accountable local government mechanism. This new era of power dissolution while empowering local governments also renders them responsible to provide for agriculture extension, transportation, revenue generation/collection, and many similar citizen services.
The main objective of this study is to design novel pan-Nepali service delivery strategies and packages that will address inclusion, context, efficiency, and engagement for Local Governments (LG) (mohp.gov.np, 2019; mofald.gov.np, 2019). It will concurrently reduce transactional costs, render itself to fiscal viability, and mitigate inefficient processes.
The project’s specific objectives are:
- Assess the functions of LGs in accordance to the prevails Acts and regulations
- Assess the current status of public services by the LGs
- Assess the current status of infrastructure (including ICT) of the LGs
- Suggest areas of improvement and potential methods of improving the service delivery mechanisms of LGs
Study Framework
Out study framework consists of the following six steps as shown below. This diagram denotes the logical steps that were undertaken to achieve the project objectives.
There are six steps in the study framework. These include:
- Assessment of Local Government’s Functions
- Assessment of Public Services and Service Delivery Mechanism
- Suggest Areas of Improvement in Service Delivery Mechanism
- Current Trends of Service Delivery Mechanism
- Assessment of e-Readiness
- Service Delivery Strategy
Final Report Available on Request to info@ict4dnepal.org