Development Planning
Focus On Decentralised Process

By Mukti Rijal

THE country is now discussing the tenth five-year plan as the ongoing plan period is coming to an end. Since the concept of planned development was initiated in the country during the late fifties, the nation has made tryst with a total of nine periodic development plans so far. None of the previous plans implemented in the country have achieved their targets. Nor the goals of the plan have been so designed as to see that the country is able to invest resources to address the real development concerns.

The focuses of the plans change with every periodic planning exercises, so the gains and achievements scatter across the sectors without reinforcing the process of fulfilling the goal. A focussed well-designed national development plan can make a big difference as had done in the then Soviet Union during the late twenties. In fact, the communist Soviet Union earned praise and the planned development concept got substantial support especially to give boost to the economy of the underdeveloped countries taking the achievements of the Soviet Union into account. Western liberal economists had revised some of their economic premises and made some adjustments in their approach to evaluate achievements of the planned development.

However, the centralised develop-ment paradigm strongly mooted and maintained in the Communist Soviet Union failed to sustain the pace of development, and the economy was forced to come to the stage of stagnation. The socialism practised in the Soviet Union failed disastrously which also gave support to the argument that the centralised and bureaucratised development cannot sustain to meet the economic aspirations of the people through efficient and appropriate allocation of resources. Milton Friedman in his book titled ‘Capitalism and Freedom" writes." In the Soviet Union, economic totalitarisms was combined with political totalitarianism. Even in the Russia under the Tsars it was possible for some citizens, under some circumstances, to change their job without getting permission from political authority because capitalism and existence of private property provided some check to the centralised power of the state."

It is also in order to quote John Kenneth Galbraith who in his book titled ‘Economic Development in Perspective’ writes. "For some, planning was the sine qua non of progress. For others, it was the quintessence of evil. Organisations and political parties have flourished to promote planning. Others came into existence to oppose it. He adds, "The theory of planning originated in close alliance with the theory of socialism-one of the reasons why the word planning was so long regarded in nonsocialist quarters with uneasiness."

We have the democratic form of government and people are both politically and economically free. The concept of planning and centrally planned development is said to be irrelevant in the modern democratic and neo-liberalist context. However, planning has a need and advantage in the context of the development for a poor country like Nepal where state should lead and encourage development through wise and efficient allocation and administration of the fund. Moreover, planning has been deemed necessary in the context of Nepal to prevent exploitation, ensure social justice and meet the national goal of development. It is also necessary to ensure that political power and would not be arrogated by the owners of the capital.

Though, the rationale of planning, as argued above, exists in Nepal, it should not be maintained in the form of centralised planning as part of the conventional straitjacket. It should be furthered in the form of decentralised planning so that central government has to prepare a vision for development and local bodies and institutions undertake the management and implementation of the development process. The previous plan documents, especially the Eighth Five Year Plan and Ninth Five Year Plan placed emphasis on poverty alleviation through decentralised planning of development. But if the achievements of the plans are evaluated and measured, not much has been accomplished. The participatory decentralised development planning is yet to be shaped and organised properly. The local bodies are yet to get capacity and mandates to shoulder the responsibility of development of the country. Since we are discussing the approach and modality of the Tenth Five-Year-Plan we should concentrate on how the process and mechanism of decentralised planning is strengthened. We have so far put emphasis on central targets and achievements, let us new shift our focus and give decentralised development a chance to bail us out of the crisis of poverty and underdevelopment.

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