INTRODUCTION
Nepal started development planning in 2013 BS, after the demolition of the Rana Regime which has been considered as the first turning point in economic development of Nepal. As the plan had envisioned a socio-economic environment allocating national resources for the wellbeing of the Nepalese people. However, the plan could not achieve its objectives as anticipated due to the lack of proper knowledge about planning process, broad idea about economic development, institutional arrangement, and the vested interest between the power centers.
The overall patterns of plans up to fourth development plan regarding the setting and nature of objectives, formulation strategies and policies, allocating the expenditure and exploring the source of finance are found almost the same. For the first time, a change was introduced in the pattern of fifth plan. Hence, one can take fifth plan as the first major turn in the process of planned development in Nepal. The purpose of this type of change was realized to make the plan some more realistic, people oriented, practical, regional and effective (NPC, 2032, preface).
The next change in planned development of Nepal took place after the peoples’ revolution/movement in 2046 BS. The eight-plan, with new vision, started in 2048 BS in order to address the spirit of the movement. The plan aimed to point out the fallacies of previous plans and correct them by stablishing interrelationship not limiting to goals, objectives, priorities, strategies, programs and among others.
Another turn prevailed in development plan of Nepal in 2062/63 BS with the end of Monarchy System. The 11th plan had reflected the picture of Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal in its objectives, policies and programs. The election for Constitutional Assembly, the new constitution from the Assembly, restructuring of the country, all were under huge debate among the major political parties and other socio-geo-political stakeholders. Due to the uncertainties, the NPC was not able to introduce a full-fledged five-year development plan, it only had to which was necessary to address the changing context of Nepal. However, the NPC prepared a three-year ad-hoc/preliminary plan that introduced a consensus among the leading political powers in an unprecedented manner.
The resources allocated for most of the planned development for past many years are rarely utilized, in most of the cases either they are underutilized or totally unspent. The 14th plan has also been brought into implementation during the initial phase of the institutionalization of the federalism. It has been believed that the 14th plan is able to correct the past drawbacks appeared in the development plans, has transparently allocated the resources with clear role and responsibilities among Federal Government, Provincial Government and Local Levels and is focused on the balanced development of Federal Nepal.
The Constitution of Nepal 2072 BS changed the governing system of Nepal from unitary to a three-tier federal structure constitutionally deriving the role and responsibilities of each tier. The 753 Local Levels have been formed after successfully completion of the local election in three different schedules. The Federal and Provincial Governments are fully institutionalized in operation, they have started their parliamentary business and formed respective governments. The elected peoples’ representative had announced an ambitious development plan in their territories under the jurisdiction of their respective governments. The Provincial and Federal Governments are in immense pressure in formulation of long term and short-term development plans based on their respective manifestos. The Constitution has empowered the Provincial Government and Local Level duly entitling them to exercise political powers along with a certain degree of financial and full magnitude of development autonomy.
Under the present process of state transformation, the detail role and responsibilities of all tiers of governments are well defined by constitution. The need of the provincial and local level planning entities for the guidance for preparing development plans and supervision during their implementation is essential. The linkages between NPC and all tiers of governments during the preparation of development plan and their implementation is also equally essential to be outlined.
The present capacity of the National Planning Commission might not be sufficient to address the above outlined roles. Therefore, the establishment of the provincial as well as local level planning entities, with clear role and responsibilities, is imperative to play a significant coordinating role between the NPC and all tiers of the governments.
OBJECTIVES:
i. To review the current planning process and suggest future a planning process at all levels.
ii. To identify and analyze the structure of planning institutions at all levels.
iii. To identify the vertical and horizontal linkages for coordination, planning, implementation and monitoring & evaluation among the NPC and other planning entities under the state and local governments.
FINDINGS:
The structural planning process in Nepal was initiated way back in 2013 BS. The planning process had to be upgraded and readjusted thoroughly many times until the formulation of the fourteenth planning in order to address various changes taking place across in country’s social and political domains over the period. Nepal has now fully adopted the political system of federalism through implementation of the new constitution. Hence, the planning process also needs to be constantly redefined and readjusted in order to reflect the political/social/economic changes. This is simply crucial to keep up the development spirit by setting national goals and objectives down to the lower tiers of government. So, it is pertinent to clearly define the roles and responsibilities of all stakeholders involved in the country’s planning process. This study has tried to address those issues by explaining the functional role, planning process and interrelationship related to the planning units at each tier of government.
The chief objectives of this study are to enlist and define functional responsibilities of sub-national governments, identify and recommend structural and functional role of planning entities at local level and identify the vertical and horizontal linkages among the planning entities at the central, state and local levels.
The methodology used to undertake this study is a descriptive method reviewing the literature and documents with limited field work. Several consultative meetings with planning experts and bureaucrats have been conducted to get acquainted with the planning and execution process and also potential difficulties during the implementation of projects/ programs.
A total of 838 elected political units currently exists in Nepal; out of the total number, 761 are elected from direct general election while the remaining 77 District Coordination Councils are elected from the electoral vote of the elected representatives from their respective districts.
The constitution of Nepal has clearly marked the status of the government at each level. For instance, local political units include metropolis, sub-metropolis, municipality and rural municipality. The local governments have distinctive guidelines and are accountable towards public service delivery. Similarly, the state governments are indispensable in monitoring the lower tiers of government in conjunction with the NPC.
A circular plan preparation procedure will prevail under the national development goals. The National Planning Commission has to interpret or integrate such goals into the government’s annual policies and programs and forward them to the state governments for further analysis and process as per the requirements. The local governments prepare their own plans and policies in line with the directives issued by the NPC and send the plan documents to the state and provincial governments. A two-way algorithm of the planning process both top-down and bottom-up will be applied and it is adjusted as and when necessary.
The NPC formulates an indicative planning on the basis of national goals and objectives set by the National Development Council and classify the national, state and local projects. The NPC does not detail out the broad goal, it leaves unit and activities wise classification to sub national level governments; however, it does provide guidelines and framework for the plan formulation and execution at each tier.
Strong vertical linkages between the plan formulation, execution and evaluation, and monitoring will be established. Each entity shall be well acquainted with the plan implementation at each and every stage.
RECOMMENDATIONS:
The existing National Development Council should be restructured according to the basic tenets of federalism. The provincial governments’ representative should be included in the Council. Their role, responsibility and priority should be clearly defined.
The meeting of the Council should be held twice in a year. The NDC should have addressed national goal in three layers. Along with the comprehensive National goals they should come up of provincial and local level government development goals separately.
NPC’s roles and responsibilities will be limited to the national policy guidelines and knowledge transfer to the sub-national governments. Therefore, the NPC with a team of the maximum number of five members will be ideal in the Federal Nepal.
The bylaws for operationalize the sub-national level planning units would define their limitations, accountability, role and responsibility should be formulated by the NPC and should established horizontal connectivity in organizational string.
An annual budget and planning calendar should be made available to all level of the planning units and the ministries and offices being involved in budget preparation process.
The present capacity of the National Planning Commission might not be sufficient to play the above outlined coordinative role. Therefore, a province level planning entity with clear roles and responsivities is imperative to play a significant coordinating role between the NPC and all three tiers of government.
