NATIONAL 5 (Spotlight Weekly)]

Municipal March

The umbrella body of Nepalese municipalities fosters discussions on local development

BY AKSHAY SHARMA

Democratic governance in Nepal is underpinned by the national commitment to empower people at the lowest rungs of society both politically and economically. Despite the existence of institutional mechanisms to promote local governance, Nepalís record in encouraging local communities to become the driving force of development has much room for improvement.

The experiences and challenges faced by municipalities in Nepal in the process of promoting local governance and community participation came up for discussion at two recent workshops organized by the Municipal Association of Nepal (MUAN).

People participation: Human resource is the key

In May, MUAN organized a workshop on Municipal Resource Mobilization in Dhulikhel jointly with the New Delhi-based Urban Management Programme. Representatives from 21 municipalities of the country, the Ministry of Local Development, national and international non-governmental organizations, and the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industries participated in the discussions.

MUAN held a consultative workshop on the Local Self-Governance Act 1999 on August 9-10 at Nagarkot to gather input from stakeholders on the major issues and difficulties faced by the municipalities while implementing the SGA and regulations. The consultation process is expected to shed light on important issues needed to be addressed by the central government and the municipalities reinforcing their partnership. These consultations are also expected to enable MUAN to evolve a comprehensive strategy to influence policies, laws, rules and regulations at the central level.

MUAN and the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) have established a strategic partnership for municipal development in Nepal. The process includes facilitation of decentralization, good governance and inter-governmental relations, among other things.

"The FMC stresses governance systems by fostering local ownership and delivering development results that have an impact at both the local and the nation levels," said Subani Thapa, highlighting the activities of the organization. "This program has been taking a collaborative approach to international municipal development. Its program has been taking a collaborative approach to international municipal development. Therefore, its programming and policy involve a range of local, international and Canadian partners."

MUAN was formed about four years ago to unify the municipalities of the country and to make them constantly active for their own development. The organization works towards attaining its objectives by promoting coordination and understanding as well as attaining functional unity among municipalities, including the sharing of experiences for all-round development of urban residents. MUAN has been working to enhance the rights of municipalities in maximizing the involvement of the urban population in their development work and in self-governance through decentralization. It is also actively engaged in providing physical infrastructure and services and facilities at the local level.

Over the years, MUANís projects have focused on such areas as the country framework for infrastructure development, institutional strengthening, study of water optimization in Kathmandu Valley through integrated water resources management, strengthening of municipal government in Nepal, municipal capacity building for improvement, and coordination and facilitation of a Canadian team's bid for the management lease contract for water supply and sewerage facilities for urban areas of Kathmandu Valley.

The reports of the two national level workshops are available at MUAN's Website <http://www.muannepal.org/documents.htm>