Rural communities are the ultimate partners of all development work supported by Helvetas in Nepal. The strengthening of farmer groups, village-level cooperatives, district level cooperatives or associations and national associations has been a continuous effort for many years. Non-governmental organizations have been essential partners of Helvetas Nepal over the last decades for implementing development work in remote areas and over 56 districts. Central and local government bodies remain the main partners in coordinating and facilitating development works. More recently, Helvetas Nepal has started to formally integrate human rights-based approach into its development work.

Sector policy development

·      The involvement of Helvetas in the implementation of field-level projects in various sectors over many years has been and remains till today a solid source of experiences for sector development. Experiences in trail bridge building (TBSSP), in rural water supply (WARM) and in agricultural extension (e.g. SSMP) have contributed to sector-specific innovations and policy development. Such sector-specific excellence needs to be maintained to be a credible development partner in the future.

·      Over the years, partnership in projects has broadened from the initial very close collaboration with the central government towards an increasing involvement of civil society actors and private enterprise. However, as the role of the central government actors has changed towards setting policy frameworks and coordinate, plan and monitor overall development, Helvetas has maintained for all projects coordination with the respective central government bodies. 

Civil society

·      Civil society organizations are providing at present three important services: advocacy on issues of public interest, deliver services to people complementary to governmental agencies or private enterprise, and strengthening the representation of communities at the local level to demand for and receive support services. Helvetas has supported all three of these functions with an increasing emphasis on the latter over the past years. Accountability of local organizations to local people has been of particular importance.

·      Civil society organizations emerged over the past decades mostly as an alternative and sometimes in opposition to governmental bodies. The changing attitude of many governmental bodies and the decentralization of governmental functions require now an increasing emphasis on the collaborative effort of local government bodies, civil society organizations and private enterprise for local development (see LISP, LLINK). Helvetas projects have been instrumental to foster such linkages in rural infrastructure, district level planning, drinking water systems, and agricultural extension over the past years. This needs further strengthening under the ongoing decentralization.

 Decentralization

·      Most Helvetas projects have direct working relationships with district level bodies. These projects operate under umbrella agreements which ensure coordination with central level bodies of GoN. This links decentralized implementation with sector expertise and policy development. District level bodies are partners in implementation of rural infrastructure, agricultural extension, forest management and small enterprise development. Future efforts need to strengthen their capacity as facilitators of local development in collaboration with civil society organizations and private enterprise.

·       The development of district level and VDC level perspective plans and annual work plans have been supported (e.g. LISP). Participatory planning, public audit, stakeholder workshops were supported for supporting the emergence of credible and accountable local governance. The lack of elected bodies has weakened the engagement over the past year, however, Helvetas remains committed to again work closely with district level bodies once elected ones are again in place. The development of district and VDC level monitoring mechanisms is essential, which reflect the PRSP goals and provides disaggregated data on social inclusion. The experiences of Helvetas with its LTM framework are an excellent basis for supporting districts in the future.

·       The credibility and accountability of local government increases as it develops its capacity and authority to allocate and manage financial resources for priority projects. Helvetas projects in rural infrastructure (TBSSP), drinking water (WARM), agricultural extension (SSMP) request co-funding from local government for project implementation. In some cases, project funds for road construction (RAP) or agricultural extension are provided to the respective local bodies for management. Additionally, special funds have been created at local level for infrastructure maintenance and for farmer-to-farmer extension (SSMP). The explicit allocation of VDC or DDC funds to poverty orientation has been achieved in several districts through linking local advocacy organizations with governmental bodies (e.g. LLINK, LISP). The further strengthening and formalization of such processes is required.

 Role of actors

·       Processes, institutions and policies have shifted towards multi-actor approaches. An increasing number of local service providers (non-governmental organizations, private enterprise, local resource persons, ...) are offering their qualified services. Local government bodies need to shift their role from implementation towards facilitation, monitoring and strategic development guidance. Helvetas will support these shifts through its increasing emphasis on strengthening decentralized governance and cross-sectoral coherent planning at local level. The development of local funding mechanisms and the support to social inclusion monitoring form part of these efforts.

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