Nepal marked seven years of implementation of its constitution in September 2022. The first publication of the Survey of the Nepali People, which was published in 2017, coincides with the start of an ambitious process that Nepal undertook to restructure the unitary governance systems into a federal one.
Along this timeline, there have been two cycles of elections, several governments and a number of significant events, including the global COVID-19 pandemic, that had huge political and socio-economic impact on the people of Nepal.
Over the past three decades, Nepal has gone through multiple major transitions and has undertaken bold and comprehensive reforms. They demonstrate not only the resilience of the Nepali people, but also that positive change is possible if supported by the population.
However, as shown by the latest survey findings, the way ahead is still quite bumpy. Nepal continues to struggle in fully executing the mandates of the three spheres of government under the 2015 constitution. It may even take few more election cycles, significant reform efforts and much more effective mechanisms for inter-governmental coordination and dispute resolution to make government functions across all spheres operational and effective.
In my view, the last five years have been a phase of learning and establishing the basics, while the coming five years will be very crucial in the history of the country. It will be the time to consolidate the fundamentals of the constitution. The people’s perception will reveal whether the path forward is a success story or lead to more uncertainty.
This is an opportune moment for Nepal. The implementation of the constitution is a political answer to longstanding root causes of conflict in Nepal related to inequality, identity, geography, religion, gender discrimination and social exclusion. However, it is not yet guaranteed. Ideologies, identities and hard interests will continue to clash over it. It is important to provide facts and evidence based data to counter and check biases and narratives that undermine the execution of the people’s expectations.
The last five years have been a phase of learning and establishing the basics. Coming five years will be a crucial time for Nepal to consolidate the fundamentals of the constitution.
The value in conducting these perception surveys lies in the potential to understand the gaps and to make informed course corrections in time. Switzerland sees the Survey of the Nepali People as an important policy-tool, which is also used in our own reporting to assess the outcomes and impact of our development cooperation.
As an assessment tool, it is equally important to ensure that the questions asked do not influence the responses and trends, and in particular negative narratives. For example, while asking about service delivery, it is important to remain sensitive to the fact that all three spheres of government may not have equal service delivery mandates.
Switzerland supports the implementation of the constitution and emphasizes the importance of intergovernmental collaboration. However, in the absence of the federal civil service act, provincial and local governments are still not able to hire their staff, which constrains service delivery for the benefit of the citizen, and which unjustly fuels an anti-federalism narrative. Thus, the enactment of the federal civil service Bill is a prerequisite to make all three spheres of government more effective.
Switzerland is very pleased to be part of the Survey of the Nepali People 2022 (SNP 2022), fourth volume. I would like to congratulate the Kathmandu University, School of Arts for the publication of this survey that documents the views, concerns, and aspirations of the Nepali people against the backdrop of the tremendous transformation experienced by the country since the promulgation of the 2015 constitution.
I would like to extend thanks to The Asia Foundation for facilitating our partnership with KU. This collaboration is an excellent example of the coming together of the academia and development cooperation to build a shared understanding of the needs and expectations of the country on subjects such as federalism and democratic governance, social and economic development, public institutions, gender, and other governance issues. Nepal successfully completed the second local election last April and federal and provincial elections in November. I am sure these elections will further strengthen the foundation of federalism to implement the constitution of Nepal.
(The above article is based on the speech delivered by Silavana Hogg, Deputy Head of Mission, Head of Cooperation, Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation SDC, during the launch of Survey of the Nepali People 2022 in Kathmandu on Monday.)
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