Nation Nepal faces a crisis of governance indeed!

-Mieko Nishimizu, Vice President, South Asian Region, World Bank

Minister, you and your like-minded colleagues have shared your scarce time with your development partners this week. We learned a great deal from you about Nepal's reform programme that is focused in bringing back good governance in the broadest of its meaning, and where you are heading. We also gained a much better understanding of what you have already done to date, and the significance—in Nepal's social, economic and political context—of these actions individually and collectively as the foundation to move forward. Most of all, we saw in your eyes, heard in your voice, and sensed in your presence-individually, and collectively as a team-your courage to lead the change process and your determination to succeed. For all that, I thank you.

Minister, I believe you and your colleagues have received three advice from the development partners at this Forum. Permit me to share it with you, from my own perspective.

First, the Nation Nepal faces a crisis of governance, indeed. The word "governance" invokes all sorts of images and can be elusive, until one gets to th bottom of its details sector by sector by sector. This Forum has enabled me to understand more deeply the ugly face and detailed nature of this crisis, and what it takes to get out of it. I will go home with a better informed perspective, but will also go home with an even greater sense of urgency than ever before, for you to keep moving fast forward to manage the twin crises. Hence, the first advice of your development partners: focus on implementation on the ground.

Second, listening to what was said and what was not said throughout this week, I "heard" cynicism and sensed scepticism about any government's ability to change truly, for good governance. I felt a palpable absence of trust between the people and those in any positions of power and authority. If true, these are information more powerful and frightening than any spoken words. The only way to change this sort of mindset is to: see actions, actions, and more actions; feel actions touch one's own personal lives; and realise the consistency of leadership's action with his words. Hence, the second advice of your partners: focus on implementation on the ground.

Third, I am also going home, with a far better appreciation of the fact that you have kicked off a learning process of change-a renewal of Nation Nepal for peace and prosperity. To sustain such a process demands three things:

# Champion at the top for the renewal;

# Change leaders, in the government at all levels and in the civil society be it village leaders or business leaders, who align strongly with the champion; and

# Change agents among common citizens, who empower themselves and participate as stakeholders in the renewal process.

It is early days yet, of course, and you do not have all the necessary ingredients in place. But, I admire, celebrate and honor your courage, in having seized a golden opportunity as change leaders. I believe that you have the sufficient authority and capacity to create a secure space, to enlist-from throughout the government, public agencies, and the civil society-fellow leaders and agents of change. I also believe that you can now look to your development partners, and recruit us to assist you create such a secure space. Hence, the third advice of your partners: focus on implementation on the ground.

Implementation, implementation, and implementation, were the three advice of your like-minded partners!

To this good advice, then, permit me to add my own. I have been thinking what it takes for you to broaden the circle of the like-minded at the political, administrative, and the popular level.

The philosophy of all great religions teaches us that change is the only constancy in life. Yet, it is too easy for normal human beings to resign to the sideline, to criticize others, and to dismiss somebody else's efforts. It is far more difficult to suspend disbelief or judgement, to admit that positive outcomes take time to emerge, and to empower oneself and join a national renewal as leaders and agents of change. To mobilize the like-minded means:

# To share, honestly and openly, hard economic and financial facts about the crisis;

# To share your vision and values, strategy and plans for action;

# To share implementation progress and create a real sense of forward momentum; and

# To communicate all this, constantly, relentlessly and repetitively.

Communicate, communicate, and communicate…till you are bored and sick of hearing yourselves, which is precisely when the penny drops and you are heard. Whether Nepal can sustain that renewal process you so rightly called for, depends to a great extent on your "boring communication"'—by each and every one of you, the change leaders, individually and collectively as a team.

I have been encouraging my staff at the World Bank to look for champions and change leaders in our work. We want to engage with such people as our counterparts, facilitate their work, and promote them with our corporate reputation, our global knowledge, and if necessary our financing. We also disengage, consciously and explicitly, when such leaders cease to exist.

It is my hope that we can work in this way, joining hands in a true teamwork with all development partners of Nepal. It is also my hope that such a teamwork among us would help fill a void of positive thinking to today's Nepal, demonstrating through our own actions, our conviction that changes we see are good and worthy of people's support. As such, as long as the process of change called the economic revival program keeps moving forward, our assistance to the nation building of Nepal can be much, much, bigger than any amount of financing we can bring.

Last but not least, I thank you Minister, and your colleagues, for taking the "driver's seat", preparing and managing this Forum yourselves-in the spirit of what we have come to call the Comprehensive Development Framework. I wish you well.

(Closing remarks made by Ms. Mieko Nishimizu at the NDF meeting on February 7, 2002-editor).

Nepal Development Forum 2002: Development partners back Nepal's poverty reduction plan

Nepal's development partners endorsed His Majesty's Government's poverty reduction approach and expressed support to the new Foreign Aid Policy that will be finalized within a month.

The development partners shared with Nepal the sense of urgency for improving the effectiveness of basic service delivery to the poorest of the poor and marginalised groups and stressed that implementation should focus on producing visible results on the ground and scaling up of successful initiatives. This will contribute to peace building, which should be integral, simultaneous components of the Government's development strategy.

The Nepal Development Forum held in Kathmandu and Pokhara, Nepal, February 4-7, 2002 was chaired by Minister for Finance Dr. Ram Sharan Mahat and co-chaired by Dr. Mieko Nishimizu, World bank Vice President for South Asia. The Forum was attended by delegations from 23 countries and international organizations.

The development partners recognized that Nepal was going through a difficult period in its development history and commended the government's efforts to face up to the crisis by re-invigorating development.

The development partners commended the participatory and transparent process leading up to the Forum and stressed the need for continuous information dissemination. Broad endorsement was given to the framework to be articulated in the forthcoming 10th five-year Plan, which will also be Nepal's Poverty Reduction Strategy, PRSP. The partners also commended Nepal's efforts to link these with the annual budgeting through implementation of the Medium Term Expenditure Framework, MTEF. It was felt that this will help to fine-tuning spending based on the larger poverty reduction vision.

The development partners expressed their support to Nepal to help meet the resource gap-estimated at about US$500 million annually-needed for implementing the poverty reduction plan. The support, however, depends on continued commitment, effective implementation and achieving results on the ground.

Describing the current difficult situation, the government asked development partners to extend additional support or flexibility by considering budgetary support. The government also proposed to redirect existing aid resources to national priorities. The development partners reacted positively to these proposals.

It was stressed that actual aid levels would depend on effective implementation of programs in an all-inclusive manner, creating space for the poor and marginalized groups, both men and women, to function as change agents taking full charge and ownership for their development. The need to implement the decentralization initiative as soon as possible was highlighted in this regard. The development partners also stressed the need for sharpening the benchmarks and indicators to measure program effectiveness. This will require institutionalization of an effective monitoring mechanism for continuously assessing results on the ground, through effective decentralization, devolution of resources and responsibilities to local governance units to make them self-reliant.

"The demand for effective implementation is very genuine. If we can't implement what we promise then we have no moral right to ask for additional external assistance," said Dr. Ram Saran Mahat, Finance Minister. "I'm confident that we can make it happen." Dr. Nishimizu strongly echoed Dr. Mahat's statement by emphasizing implementation as the central priority.

The Government's reform agenda builds on the commitments made at the NDF in Paris in April 2000. The proposed priority actions include initiatives to macro-economic stability, civil service reform, anti-corruption initiatives, decentralization, financial sector reform, private sector development, aid effectiveness and the role of civil society in development.

The development partners noted the good progress made on various aspects of the Priority Reform Actions and urged accelerated implementation where progress has lagged behind.

Sharing the government's sense of urgency for effective delivery of basic services and poverty reduction, the development partners noted that the actions envisaged in the reform agenda would call for enduring political commitment and stability, respect for human rights, building broad consensus and deeper partnerships. Nepal's development partners congratulated His Majesty' Government for leading an innovative process to identify and initiate a consensus-building process with representatives of political parties, private sector, NGO and civil society during the consultations leading to the NDF-2002.

The participants agreed that Nepal could do much better in improving revenue and public expenditure management, as well as the effective and efficient use of development assistance, while ensuring economic growth is broad-based and pro-poor. The Government assured development partners that the policy initiatives articulated at the NDF-2002 would be incorporated into the forthcoming budget.

Headline | 5 Question  | Editorial | 2nd Impression | International | Past