Current Situation and Problems Concerning of Regional and Rural Development of Nuwakot District of Nepal By Narahari Baral Local Development Officer District Development Committee Nuwakot District Nepal

Presentation Outline Nepal in Brief Political and Admin Structure Overview of Local Governance Organizational Structure Nuwakot District at Glance Present Status Issues and Challenges Future Vision

Nuwakot District

Nepal in Brief A Landlocked small Himalayan kingdom in South Asia, the country of Mount Everest and Lord Buddha Multi-lingual, multi-ethnic and multi cultural country Agriculture is the mainstay of the livelihood. More than 80% people are rural inhabitants.

Political and administrative structure Nepal is country constitutional monarchy & multi-party democratic political system. The country is divided into five- development regions,14 zones and 75 districts. Nuwakot district is one of them Municipalities and Village Development Committees (VDC) are the lower level local bodies. There are 58 Municipalities and 3913 VDC at present.

Overview of Local Governance 1990 Constitution of Nepal has placed decentralization as an engine of rural & regional development. Local Self Governance Act (LSGA) 1999 is the backbone of decentralization with the objectives of good governance, institutionalization of the bottom up participatory planning process. LSGA 1999 has given authority to District Development Committee (DDC) to plan, implement, monitoring and supervision of the development activities at local level. It also focuses on inclusion of deprived communities and women in order to bring mainstream of the development agenda.

Organizational Introduction As per the provision of LSGA 1990, District Development Committee (DDC) is the upper tier of government in district level Whereas Village Development Committees (VDC) and Municipalities are the lower tier of local self-governance system. The DDC is the representative body of all VDCs and Municipalities, governing body of the DDC (chair, vice chair and members) are elected by the electoral college of all elected members of the VDCs and Municipalities. DDC is the focal institution of decentralized planning and coordination agency at the district level.

CONTD. DDC is an autonomous and corporate body, works as the educative of the District Council and to execute day-to day administration. The Local Development Officer (LDO) representative from HMG/N, who serves as secretary of the DDC, plays a crucial role in administration, coordination, planning, implementation, monitoring and reporting of the development activities in the principle of decentralization and self-governance system.

Organizational structure of DDC Office District Council DDC Various DDC committeesDDC president Secretary (LDO) Technical Section Administrative Section Planning SectionAccount Section

Nuwakot District at Glance Nuwakot is neighboring district of Kathmandu (capital city of Nepal) located at Bagmati zone, Central Development Region of Nepal. Population of the district is 288,478 (M % & F-50.52%). Population growth rate is Literacy rate of the district is 51.4% (M- 62.4% & F 40.7 %). The district has a District Hospital, 3 Primary Health Centers and 72 health posts, sub-health posts and clinics numbers of population per health institution.

CONTD. 991 telephone services, 3 local newspapers and government postal services. More than 71% populations are engaged in agriculture and rest of them are non-agriculture sectors. The economically active population is 64%. 26% population has the access to the electricity.

Present status Decentralized Financial Framework has been operationalized in order to regulate fund flow system and to promote the financial transparency at local level. Four sector devolution (education, health, agriculture & livestock and district technical office) has been started from 2001 under the one umbrella system of decentralization.

CONTD. Social mobilization strategy has been accepted as a backbone of rural development and resource mobilization. As per the spirit of LSGA-1999, Public Private Partnership (PPP) policy for Local Bodies is adopted to foster private sector involvement in rural development endeavor.

Issues and Challenges Absence of elected representatives in DDC and other local bodies. Poor participation of deprived and marginalized communities in decentralized process (planning, implementation, monitoring &supervision). Planning system at the central level is ineffective to integrate sectoral planning system with local level planning.

CONTD. The tie-up between annual District Development Plan and periodic plan with the central level planning has become more intricate. Despite the provision of inclusion for disadvantaged, marginalized and women at the local level, the participation and decision making process is not effectively implemented in development activities so far.

Future vision Poverty alleviation through social mobilization; 1.Meso level policy reform for pro-poor and disadvantages & marginalized communities. 2.Transformation of traditional agriculture systems. 3.Access to education and health facilities for all at local level.

CONTD. 4.Rural infrastructure development activities (road, electricity, communication, irrigation, water supply etc). 5.Creating employment opportunities at local level. 6.Empowering the disadvantaged and marginalized groups. 7.Building organizational capacity of the poor.

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