Measuring local governance capacity in Nepal
Can decentralizing government power to local officials remedy long-standing political and economic inequities? The Research and Evidence for Nepal's Transition (RENT) program is building a practical evidence base on what works to enable more inclusive economic development.
Local Government Capacity and Responsiveness
Nepal's transition to federalism empowered new political actors with the potential to be responsive to the voters in their communities, but early evidence sheds light on substantial variation in local governments' legal, administrative, planning, and budgeting capacities.
In the context of crises like the Covid-19 pandemic and accelerating climate breakdown, a responsive local government with the ability to implement adaptation plans becomes even more critical.
What is enabling or constraining inclusive growth, state capacity, public services, private sector activity, civic engagement, and transparency and accountability? How can development partners use their limited resources to support political and economic inclusion?
Since 2019, researchers at Inclusion Economics - in collaboration with colleagues at the London School of Economics, Bocconi University, Stanford University, World Bank, and Indian Institute of Technology, Gandhinagar – have conducted multiple rounds of nationwide phone surveys with government officials, and analyzed this data in connection with administrative data on citizens’ policy priorities; development partners’ implementation assistance; and other measures of local implementation capacity in infrastructure planning, disaster response, and climate adaptation.
Highlights
Related Publications
Case Study: Local Government Policy Priorities
- January 2020 Policy Brief: Assessing the Performance of Nepal's Local Governments in 2019
- May 2022 Policy Brief: Understanding the Preferences and Perceptions of Young Voters
- April 2022 Policy Brief: Local Government Official Priorities and Responsiveness
Case Study: Local Governance During the Covid-19 pandemic
- March 2020 Policy Brief: Deploying Social Programs to Distribute Covid Cash Transfers
- July 2020 Policy Brief: Covid-19 and Nepal’s Health Financing
- August 2020 Policy Brief: Health Capacity and Local Covid Response
- September 2020 Op-ed in myRepublica: We recommend a new funding model to address COVID-19 and floods
- June 2021 Policy Brief: Local Government Covid-19 response
- July 2021 Policy Brief: Data Management to Enable Nepal's Covid-19 Response
- December 2023 Technical Report: Local Governments' Response to the Covid-19 Pandemic in Nepal: Findings from a Nationwide Panel of Government Officials
- 2023 Dataset: COVID-19 Local and Provincial Government Survey (LPGS)
Case Study: Infrastructure Planning, Disaster Response, and Climate Adaptation
- April 2022 Technical Report: Infrastructure and Governance in Nepal
- September 2023 Policy Brief: Building Resilience through Local Climate Adaptation Plans
- December 2023 Policy Brief: State Capacity and Climate Change Adaptation in Nepal
About the Project
Principal Investigators:
Research Partner:
Implementation Partners:
- Nepal Administrative Staff College (NASC)
- Evidence for Policy Design (EPoD) at Harvard Kennedy School