FAULTY PROGRAMMING

The Himalayan Times

9 April 2010

Faulty programming

I found your news report “Plan formulation concept goes topsy-turvy” (THT, Apr 7, Page 1) praiseworthy and it deserves appreciation. It has given good picture of how the development programs are formulated and implemented at the local level. Thanks to Ministry of Local Development (MoLD) for carrying out monitoring of the implementation of development programs in ten districts and bringing out the findings. It is not only surprising but very sad to know that the plans and policies were found completely in contrast to the Local Self-Governance (LSG) Act-2055/56.
It is very discouraging to know that the government and the National Planning Commission (NPC) responsible for enforcing the LSG act are undermining it by applying “top down planning and implementation approach”. This is completely against the good spirit of “bottom up” planning approach where the beneficiaries of development programs are involved in identifying, prioritizing, formulating, and implementing development programs and activities to address their local level needs.
Unless the government, the concerned departments, ministries and NPC take full responsibilities for enforcing LSG policies and engaging local level development stakeholders in the bottom up planning and implementation approach, the materialization of development programs targeted for the rural poor remains a dream that will never be fulfilled. The huge amounts of funds funnelled for the program implementation go un-accounted for and the rural poor people continue to be poorer.
Rai Biren Bangdel
Maharajgunj, Kathmandu