NATIONAL 5 (Spotlight Weekly)]

Power To The People

The Participatory District Development Program proves successful in enhancing the capabilities of local bodies

By A CORRESPONDENT

With the implementation of the Local Self-Governance Act 1998, the role and status of local institutions have undergone drastic change. But how will Village Development Committees (VDCs) and District Development Committees (DDCs) launch programs on their own through old institutional structures?

Nepal has a long experience of managing village- and district-level programs. Even during the Panchayat days, the government focused its attention on institutional building in such bodies. Because of their continual presence at the grass-roots level, governments that came to power following the restoration of multiparty democracy in 1990 did not have much to worry about.

Despite basic institutional set-ups, a large number of VDCs and DDCs do not have technical and other capabilities to execute the new act. The districts and villages supported by the Participatory District Development Program (PDDP) - a project implemented by National Planning Commission and United Nations Development Program at the district level to promote decentralized local development and sustainable human development - have many advantages.

The districts supported by PDDP project are now proving their efficiency in project implementation and execution as well as in formulating periodic plans in accordance with the Local Self-Governance Act.

In the first phase of experiment, the PDDP has been able to build institutional mechanisms to go along with the principles of the Local Self-Governance Act. Although the project was implemented only in six districts at the beginning, it has gradually expanded to 30 of the country's 75 districts.

Funded by the Norwegian development agency, Norad, and the UNDP, the PDDP has shown that it is the participation of people that can ultimately bring desired change. The success of the PDDP has also encouraged other agencies to replicate program approach in other districts. The program offers support to DDCs to establish a district-level Local Trust Fund to implement and expand the social mobilization process in villages.

The PDDP supports the government to develop the capacities of the established decentralized governance structures to institutionalize participatory and sustainable process for management of local development initiatives and to enhance equitable access to development resources. The Ministry of Local Development has also been launching similar programs in other districts.

One of the objectives of the PDPP is to empower people to take increasingly greater control over their own development and to enhance their capacities to mobilize and channel the resources required for poverty alleviation. The PDPP works simultaneously at the local and central levels.

"The PDPP has played a very important role in strengthening local capabilities and institutional set-up," says Dr. Jagdish C. Pokharel, a member of the National Planning Commission. "In the second phase of its implementation, the project needs to focus more on poverty alleviation and formulation of periodic planning according to the actual needs."

The project provides support for improving the governance system and social empowerment process at the village level through the development of self-governing community institutions. It also supports the strengthening of development program and management capabilities of the DDCs.

"The project helps to enhance the capability of the local bodies and strengthen their institutional set-ups," says Sanjaya Adhikary, national program manager. "In the first phase of the program, the PDPP focuses more in enhancing the institutional capabilities," says Adhikary.

The PDDP shows the way how to encourage the people in grass-roots areas to enhance their capabilities for their own development and the importance of social mobilization to bring change in the particular areas. The program thus fits into the social realities of the country, providing greater momentum to development attuned to requirements the targeted beneficiaries themselves feel they need.