Local Development Planning in Nepal: Does it Actually Reflect Citizen Participation?

Active participation and meaningful engagement of citizens in local development planning and discussion are the prime agendas of development governance in Nepal. Both state and non-state actors have placed great emphasis on citizen participation in local development planning and discussion through their plans, policies, and programmes. However, evidence shows that there is a low level of citizen participation and engagement. It is worrisome that these policies, plans, and programmes adopted by the state and non-state actors have not been able to deliver the expected results. In this regard, this paper aims to analyse citizen participation in local development planning and discussion. For this, it used the evidence generated by Nepal National Governance Survey 2017/18 and analysed the data using the logistic regression model. The results indicate that the degree of citizen participation in local development planning and discussion is relatively low. Nearly 30 percent of citizens reported that they participated in the local development planning and discussion in the past. It is remarkable to note that citizen participation varies according to their background characteristics.

Public Expenditure in Nepal: A Case of Transportation Sector

The rapid growth in public investment in various sectors was assumed after decades of conflict and an unstable political situation. With the declaration of the Federal Republic, Nepal is going to embark on accelerated economic growth. This has somewhat caused concerns among policymakers of its implication for economic growth. And the government investment in transportation infrastructure is one of the core strategies, called the ‘infrastructure of infrastructures’. The main aim of this study is, therefore, to explain the relationship between economic growth and public expenditure in the transportation sector in Nepal. Primarily, this study has focused on the distinction of expenditures in the five-year development plans in three systems (Panchayat, Democratic, and Republic). This study used time series data collected between 1975 and 2016. The statistical and econometric tools have been used for the study. The result shows that the trend of government investment on public expenditure has increased in the Republic system. This study reveals that the variables are stationary on the first difference. The obtained regression model is satisfactory by diagnostic tests (errors are normally distributed, no serial correlation, and homoscedastic). The data explain the positive and significant influence of Transportation Capital Expenditure on Gross Domestic Product, and, hence, it is contributing to economic growth. Furthermore, the results show short-run unidirectional causation from Transportation Capital Expenditure to Gross Domestic Product.

Impact of Foreign Exchange Reserve on Economic Growth in Nepal

This study primarily focuses on the analysis of the contributions of foreign exchange reserve to the economic growth of Nepal by using time series data obtained from the year 1975 to 2018 A.D. In order to assess a relationship between these variables, statistical procedure of unit root test, cointegration and Vector Error Correction Model (VECM) are applied. In addition to the t-statistics, Wald-test for joint significance of coefficients is applied and VECM is performed for testing the impact of the past values of foreign exchange on dependent variables which show the nation’s economic growth. Based on the statistical outcome; Johansen cointegration test indicates the existence of the long-run relationship among variables. The Vector Error Correction outcome and Wald statistics confirm that the past values of foreign exchange have a positive contribution to the economic growth; and foreign exchange reserve has contributed to the economic growth of Nepal.

Remittances and Development in Nepal: A Disaggregated Analysis

Remittance flows into low/middle-income counties are on a continuous rise and this trend is seen in Nepal as well. There is a constant increase in the number of the Nepalese workers migrating for foreign employment and that has been instrumental to boost the remittance inflow into the country. Remittance is contributing significantly to Gross Domestic Product and is emerging as a backbone of the country’s economy. However, the ways remittances contribute to social development necessitates that many facets of development be explored because they affect the country’s development in multiple ways. This study attempts to analyse the possibility that remittance positively contributes to social development, considering health and educational development as its proxies. Based on the latest available disaggregated educational enrolment and nutrition data of 2009 A.D. by districts, this study analyses the impact of the remittances on school enrolment and improvement in health status of families who remain at home. The results show a significant relationship between remittance and school enrolment but it also shows an insignificant relationship between remittance and health. The findings may be of interest to the countries and the policy makers with remittance being the dominant source of foreign currency. As the results of this study have indicated that remittances may serve as a contributing factor to the educational enrolment for social development.

Seeking Theoretical Common Ground: An Integrative Framework of Understanding Accountability for Service Delivery in the Community School in Nepal

Existing literature provides ample evidence on how people understand accountability in different contexts. However, little attention has been paid on the integration of various theoretical perspectives about understanding accountability for education service delivery. Discussing theoretical premises against the empirical evidence from the community schools of Nepal, this article explores common ground of various theoretical perspectives about understanding school actors' accountability. It provides a framework for understanding accountability by integrating the ancient principle of 'karma-yoga' and modern theoretical ingredients of structure-agency and knowledge-power. The article argues that both ancient and modern streams of theoretical perspectives are not mutually exclusive rather they share a common ground of process-based accountability which is embedded in broader concept of responsibility. Finally, the paper contributes to existing literature of accountability in education arguing that the school head’s agency rather than working structure of the school played a significant role in creating an accountable space between the school head and other actors in the community school.

The Prospect of Accountability in Local Governance in Nepal

Government accountability is intrinsic to democracies, as citizens can choose public officials through their popular vote and accordingly exercise some control and oversight over the officials. But elections held in periodic intervals do not allow the scrutiny of the decisions and activities that are conducted on a daily basis. This article examines how to confront this challenge of holding the governments to account, by looking into local governance in Nepal, where citizens have limited knowledge of the government decisions, activities, procedures followed, and their outcomes. This article is developed from the review of policies and laws and semi-structured interviews with elected leaders, civil service personnel, and other stakeholders in select local governments in Nepal. It argues that accountability in local government requires attention not only to laws, but also the practices of civic interaction and the willingness of elected officials and citizens in these engagements. It starts by establishing how the country’s new Constitution of Nepal (2015) espouses a local social contract in view of its division of jurisdictions. It then identifies and analyses the main approaches and tools on government accountability. These encompass broad constitutional provisions to specific legal, institutional and technocratic measures to hold officials to account. It then reveals recent local level experiences around the use of accountability tools and shows that the legacy of widespread collusion and misuse of power continues to be a bottleneck. It concludes that there is a need to foster greater civic demands on accountability and foster measures for deliberation at the municipal level on a more regular basis. Overall, local government accountability should be envisioned as a work-in-progress pursuit and should be coupled with systems of local planning and implementation and vitalization of local democracy.

Forest Governance in Nepal: Rationale for Centralised Forest and Wildfire Management

Numerous inter-related social and institutional factors are causing concern as to effective responses to the increasing number and severity of forest and wildfires in Nepal, due in similar measure to socio-cultural, politico-bureaucratic as well as global climatic issues. Our binational team of multisectoral field practitioners in bureaucratic as well as natural resource and fire management compiled and verified background information to more clearly discern the issues affecting improved fire governance and thereupon has made supportive recommendations for the belated establishment of a dedicated unit within the Government of Nepal Ministry of Forests and Soil Conservation to coordinate, administer and manage a comprehensive forest fire management programme.

Provincial Comparison of Development Status in Nepal: An Analysis of Human Development Trend for 1996 to 2026

The present study examines the status of Human Development Index (HDI) for 1996, 2001, 2006 and 2011 for seven provinces of Nepal and projected for 2016, 2021, 2026. Base data are obtained from Nepal Human Development Reports (HDR)1998, 2004, 2009 and 2014. The HDI value for the Province 1, 3, 4 and 5 are relatively higher than national average and that for Province 6 is least followed by Province 2 and Province 7. The largest HDI value for 1996 is 0.499 for Province 1, in 2001 is 0.508 for Province 4, in2006 is 0.558 for Province 3 and in 2011is 0.560 for Province. The estimated value for 2016 is 0.578 for Province 1, 0.60 in 2021. Province 1 will continue to lead with 0.622 in 2026. Meanwhile Province 5 will join the club in 2021. Similarly, the lowest HDI value for 1996 is 0.364 for Province 6 and it is lowest for Province 7, in 2001 with value of 0.364. HDI is 0.44 for Province 6, in 2006, and same province is at the lowest rank with value of 0.463 in 2011. Estimated lowest HDI value for 2016 is 0.486 for Province 6, and it will be 0.509 in 2021, and it will be 0.531 in 2026 for this Province. There is smooth growth on HDI over time i.e. impact of investment for development have positive result in Province 3, Province 4 and Province 6, followed by Province 1 and Province 7. Inconsistent growth is observed in Province 5 and Province 2.

Corruption in Nepal: Level, Pattern and Trend Analysis

The Government of Nepal has adopted various policies, plans and programs to curb corruption over the years. However, Transparency International (2015) showed that there is a high level of corruption in Nepal. Bearing such aspect in the mind, the study aims to analyse level, pattern and trend of corruption in Nepal by analysing the cases published by Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority in its annual reports from 2005 to 2015. Applying descriptive and bivariate analysis, it draws a level, trend and pattern of corruption and improper conduct using the disaggregated level data. Similarly, it seeks to analyse the relationship between corruption and gender as well as a position of a public official and working place of officials. Findings of this study showed that Nepal has relatively decreased the global corruption index of 2015 compared to 2013 and 2014. It is interesting to note that corruption cases lodged decreased dramatically from 2006 to 2008, however, it started to increase from 2008 onward. Similarly, it is seen that there was no significant fluctuation noticed in the number of complaints received and resolved in the Year between 2006 and 2015. During the Year between 2005 and 2015, the Central Development Region had the highest annual number of corruption and improper complaints registered, whereas the Far-Western Development Region had the lowest. Similarly, Tarai districts recorded the highest number of corruption cases complaints between 2005 and 2013. During the Year 2005 to 2015, Mahottari was repeatedly listed in the top 10 districts registering highest number of corruption and improper conduct's complaints. Additionally, this study also showed a significant relationship in gender, position, working place, and types of corruption with small to moderate effect which offers a new and conclusive perspective in a debate in the scientific community regarding their association.

Fiscal Decentralization and Human Poverty in Nepal: A Causal Analysis

This paper examines the contribution of fiscal decentralization on reducing human poverty in the districts of Nepal. Development landscape of twenty-first century has changed with more focus on human-centric development under the umbrella of human development. Accordingly, the broader goal of development is not only to increase the economic growth but also to enlarge the choices of people. The key finding of this paper is that the ongoing efforts on fiscal decentralization are supportive to reduce the human poverty in the districts. However, fiscal decentralization does not support to improve every dimension of human development. The paper also finds that urbanization is good for reducing human poverty.