Local Governance
Enabling Framework

Mukti Rijal

DECENTRALISATION is not an easy process. It is more difficult in situations where institutions, mechanism and process are centralised. The society becomes more unjust if power is captured by a coterie of the elite. Nepal fits into the category of the nations where centralism has been consolidated over the years. The decentralised practices are weak as they are not instituted and strengthened properly. Though Nepal has attempted decentralisation for many decades, the outcome has not been encouraging enough.

Motivating Factors

There are several motivating factors for a country to pursue decentralisation and implement the process of dispersing power monopolised by the central authorities. Dispersion of power is a global trend. Some countries establish federal structures to ensure that power is dispersed to and shared with federating units. The federal scheme of power sharing is envisaged in the basic law of land – the Constitution. For example, in countries like the United States and India the federal scheme is spelt out in the Constitution. The others respond to the aspirations of the people in a certain territorial enclave or region by granting autonomy or the right of self-governance. The decentralised governance is also pursued in a plural society where the need of accommodating heterogeneous ethnic identities, cultural interests and aspirations are very high. Decentralisation is, therefore, a process of strengthening participatory governance and ensuring that people are the be-all and the end-all of development.

Efforts towards strengthening decentralisation and enhancing of people’s participation in Nepal have received more impetus especially after the restoration of multiparty democracy in 1990. The top-down development strategy had failed to deliver. A majority of the people in Nepal are bound to live in poverty. The problem is not just growth, but development. Development is growth plus change. Change in turn is social and cultural as well as economic, and qualitative as well as quantitative. The key concept must be to improve the quality of people’s life.

Development can thus be conceptualized as a set of desirable societal objectives which society seeks to achieve. Nepal is a country of villages. Around 80 per cent of the people live in the village. Nepal’s development means development of the rural societies. Rural development connotes overall development of villages with a view to improve the quality of life of rural people. In this sense, it is a comprehensive and multidimensional concept and encompasses the development of agriculture and allied activities, socio-economic infrastructure, community services and facilities, and above all, the human resources in rural areas.

In the words of Robert Chambers, "Rural development is a strategy to enable a specific group of people, poor rural women and men, to gain for themselves and their children more of what they want and need. It involves helping the poorest among those who seek a livelihood in the rural areas to demand and control more of the benefits of rural development".

Institutional design is an important aspect to usher in development whether it is rural or urban development - and effective governance. The Constitution of the Kingdom of Nepal 1990 was promulgated keeping in view the rising popular expectations. It incorporates some conceptual provisions relating to decentralisation and local governments. The directive principle of the state policy (Article 25 (4)) provides a conceptual framework for decentralization. It shall be the chief responsibility of the state to maintain conditions suitable to the enjoyment of the fruits of democracy through wider participation of the people in the governance of the country and by way of decentralization. The second provision (Article 46) is associated with the creation of an electorate for fifteen members of the upper house of the Parliament. The provision stipulates that the electorate for this purpose consists of elected chiefs of village, municipal bodies and members of district bodies. The creation of elected local bodies at these levels is a constitutional mandate and the local governments of Nepal indirectly derive legitimacy from this provision.

As measures to strengthen legal framework, the government elected immediately after the restoration of multiparty democracy in 1990 enacted three separate acts for Village Development Committee (VDC), Municipality and District Development Committee in 1992. These acts allowed the continuity of overlapping and parallel roles of government agencies and elected bodies at each level. Voices were raised against shortcomings of the new decentralization and local government arrangements. As a consequence, a high level committee chaired by the Prime Minister was formed to recommend changes and improvements in the legal and institutional framework of local governance and decentralization. Based on the recommendations, the Local Self Governance Act was drafted and enacted in 1999. Accordingly the Local Self Governance Rules was formulated and adopted in 1999.

The Local Self-Governance Act, 1999 is the most important law affecting the governance system in Nepal. It has legally endorsed the principle of Local Self Governance.

Accelerate

The Act has developed wider sectoral functions to LGs provisions. The Act has also provisioned for the creation of Local Government Financial Commission. The Act has introduced the concept of revenue showing between the centre and local government. The Act has institutionalized participatory bottom-up planning process. Provisions such as periodic plans, building information base, resource maps are made mandatory for the local bodies. However, the pace of implementation of law is slow. This needs to be accelerated in order to achieve decentralized governance in the country.

Climate Change And Its Impact

By Dr. Bidur Pd. Upadhyay

THE scientific evidence is now mounting that man-made greenhouse gas emissions are having a noticeable effect on the earth’s climate. This change is leading to a change in the composition of the earth’s atmosphere. Greenhouse gases which protect earth against cooling have increased considerably as a result of the burning of fossil fuels, industrial activities and deforestation. The most important green houses are carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and hydro fluorocarbon. Besides, ground level ozone, a green house gas that is generated rather than emitted into the atmosphere can have detrimental effects on human health and the environment. Each green house gas has a different capacity to cause global-warming, depending on radiative properties, its molecular weight and its life time in the atmosphere and this capacity is called as global warming potential. Since the industrial times, the concentration of green house gases has increased by more than 50 per cent. Most of this increase has taken place in the last forty years.

Impact

Though in the past world experienced various forms of climatic stress resulting in climatic variability, episode of the Sahel drought of 1968-73 alerted the world of the possible consequences of climatic fluctuation and its impact on regional scale on man and his society. In 1988, World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and United Nation Environment Program jointly set up the inter-governmental panel on climate change (IPCC) for the assessment of the state of the science of climate change. Finding of IPCC provide the scientific background to negotiation and controls on carbon dioxide emissions under UN umbrella. The UN general assembly meeting in 1990 recognised the importance of global climate change and initiated the process for Inter-governmental Negotiations Committee for a Framework Convention on Climate Change. After a series of negotiations and conferences, involving most of the UN members, a Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was drafted whose final version was adopted and signed on during the UNCED conference in 1992 in Rio (Brazil) by the world community including Nepal.

Nepal enforced it on 31st of July of that year.

Global warming due to climate change means a bleak future for man’s kinds. These could occur in terms of variations in the quality of successive rainy seasons, occurrence of droughts and impacts on agriculture production and bio-diversity conservation. Since all species exist within a complex web of interaction between them and climate, global warming will affect entire plant kingdom in unpredictable ways. The most direct effect will be physiological involving temperature or moisture changes. Some plants will not thrive or set seed if it is too hot and too dry, as higher temperature will lead to more evaporation increasing likelihood of drought. For example, in southern slope of Kathmandu valley due to rise in temperature in excess of 40o C evaporation has increased as high as 190 per cent during summer season and consequently 70 per cent of the indigenous vegetation of the Valley has been replaced by exotic plants and only xerophyte have been found on the footholds of naked northern slopes.

Some of the effects of this change especially on economy and agriculture have already been observed in Nepal. This fact is reflected by the decreasing trend of maize yield from 1890 kg/ha in 1975-76 to 1600 kg/ha in 1994. This negative trend is more serious in midwestern and far-western region of Nepal where decreasing trend ranges from 100kg/ha/ decade in the inner Tea to over 500 kg/ha/decade in the western hill region such as Baitadi, Doti, and Dadeldhura districts. If this trend continues, it will take 30 to 60 years to convert these districts into desert.

Annually in Nepal, natural hazard causes loss of 500 lives in average and property worth of several millions. Majority of these losses occur due to hydro-climatic disaster such as torrential rain, floods and soil erosion landslides. Forested hill slopes are now in the process of turning into bare hills due to excessive soil erosion cause by rains. The process would then finally intensify desertification. In such a disaster prone scenario increase of monsoon precipitation may add more catastrophe in the country as there is an increasing trend of monsoon precipitation in most of the Terai districts, exceeding over 60 mm per year, have been reported. Twenty-four hour’s extreme precipitation analyses indicate the whole of the Terai, which is food bowl of Nepal, is susceptible to flood. The flood disaster of July 1993 in central Nepal was one of the worst in history when over 1300 people died and property worth billions was damaged. Besides, global climate change model has predicated that rainy season in Nepal will be extended with the maximum shift to June from July and winter will be drier. As a result, cropping pattern will be changed along with cropping season; and more water stress will occur during winter and spring crop season.

Changes in the position of glacier terminus reflect the mass balance conditions of past years, and a general tendency of glacier fluctuation indicates a corresponding change in climate. Study of glacier in Nepal revealed that 66 per cent of observed 494 glaciers had retreated during 1958-92. Gradual increase in atmospheric temperature since 1970 in Kathmandu airport suggests that recent retreats were caused by general temperature rising If these glaciers, which are the sources of our principal rivers (Kosi, Gandaki and Karnali), will keep receding in such a fashion, they might no longer remain perennial.

On the other hand, the amount of water, from melting glacier, released into the ocean will have a drastic effect on man and other species due to sea level rise.

Human health may suffer as well due to climate change. A direct impact could be deaths due to heat stress or respiratory diseases due to air pollution, while indirect effects could include increased food and waterborne diseases resulting from changes in rainfall pattern. There could also be an increase in vector borne diseases—such as, malaria and encephalitis- a change in temperature will increase the availability of suitable breeding habitats for the vector. Besides, with the anticipated climate, there will be an expansion and shifting of the malaria transmission zone to areas that are hitherto free from malaria. This scenario may bring catastrophe in Nepal as malaria cases are currently increasing which had previously been eliminated with vector control measures.

From forgoing discussion it is clear that Nepalese environment, which is highly vulnerable to natural hazards and disaster, could face serious impact due to climate change. This will make the national efforts towards sustainable development even more difficult. Besides, Nepal being a signatory of UNFCCC, it needs to pursue some adaptation measures in order to minimise the climate change effect.

Utilisation

However, commitment made in the UNFCCC calls for extension of the cooperation, from the developed countries to the developing countries for transfer of technologies, practices and process that control, reduce or prevent anthropogenic emissions of GHGs from different sectors. Nepal should utilise this opportunity extending cooperation to the global community in order to minimise the climate change effect and seek some financial support and transfer of technology for the same.

REMINISCENCE
Wrongfully Punished

By Shreedhar Khanal

IN my life I was punished once for my innocence. I was a science student at Tri-Chandra College in 1948. Once we were waiting for a new Indian professor of physics. He was to take the class for the first time. A peon from the science department brought some science apparatuses and put them on the table before the teacher came in. The professor had not come yet and we were keenly looking at the spatula, beaker, pendulum and other materials placed on the professor’s table. One of our friends in the front row became curious about them and approached the table. He stretched out his hand across the table and swung the pendulum on the other side. Unfortunately, the pendulum hit the beaker and broke it into pieces. The students were scared.

Strict discipline was imposed on students at Tri-Chandra College during those days. It was Narendra who broke it.

Narendra proudly strode back to his bench and took his seat. The manner in which he acted was extremely regrettable. Meanwhile, the new professor entered the class-room. But before he took his seat, he saw the broken pieces of glass on his chair. A few pieces were also scattered on the table. The smile that was lurked in lips before a minute vanished. He looked at us and sternly asked, "Who made this mischief?" No one spoke. The professor again asked the question and waited for two minutes. None of us dared to mention the name of Narendra. The professor mildly urged us not to be afraid of telling the truth. I pinched Narendra’s back meaningfully from behind. But he kept quiet. He did not have courage to admit his guilt. The new professor waited but he did not get response from the students. He bade us to sit down and said, "I am asking you lastly, tell me, who broke the breaker? Do not you have courage to accept your fault? Answer me, please." But no one responded.

That was the moment I made up my mind to prove myself the boldest student. I got up and said, "It is I, sir, who broke the beaker. I did not intentionally do it. Out of curiosity I swung the pendulum before you entered the class and it hit the beaker." I am very sorry, sir, for my misbehaviour. I pledge to buy a new beaker and bring it tomorrow in the class. The professor kept mum for a few seconds and said, "If you had answered my question the first time I had asked, I would have promptly pardoned you. Instead, you wasted my time and energy. So I am bound to punish you for your imprudence, mind it, not for swinging the pendulum and breaking the beaker. I, hereby, restrict you from joining my intoductory class today. Please get out of the class and do not forget to bring a new beaker tomorrow.

Then only the students told him that Narendra had broken the beaker and I was innocent. But the new professor was adamant that I must leave. I was punished for my friend’s offence.