Nepal: Supporting the integration of SDGs in local planning

Nepalgunj Sub Metropoliton - © GIZ

City WORKS- digital work aid for implenetation of global agendas on local level - ©GIZ

Supporting the integration of SDGs in local planning and service delivery

Status

completed

City

Dhangadhi

Main actors

Local Government

Project area

Whole City/Administrative Region

Duration

2019 - 2022

City WORKS is a web-based toolkit that aims to support the implementation of global agendas at the local level. It seeks to enable urban stakeholders in realising, analysing and tackling the implications of global agendas in their specific context and according to their needs. Offering a process-oriented approach, its corresponding steps and tools can be easily integrated into typical planning cycles.

The City WORKS approach has been implemented across 16 municipalities in Nepal with the objective of reviewing and adapting project activities and processes for facilitating local-level planning and inclusive service delivery and linking them with the SDGs.

For further information about the case study, click here.

Sustainable Development Goals

City information

City

Dhangadhi, Nepal

Size and population development

According to the 2011 Census conducted by Nepal’s Central Bureau of Statistics, the population of Dhangadhi was 147,181 and was comprised of 50.28% females and 49.72% males The city covers an of area of 261.75 km2 resulting in a population density of 780 people per KM2. The CBS estimated the population in 2021 at 204,788.

Population composition

The 2011 Census data recorded that the largest ethnic group is Tharu, who account for 37% of the population, Chhetris with 21%, and the Hill Brahman population is 17%. Other groups include Thakuri (6%), Kami (6%), Magar (3%) and others various ethnic groups make up (12%) of the population. The 2011 data revealed that 36% of the population of the city spoke Tharu, 31% Doteli, 22% Nepali, 2% Hindi, 2% Maithili, 1% Magar, and 6% spoke other languages. The main religion followed is Hinduism with 94% of the population with the remaining % divided between Christianity, 2% Buddhism and other religions 2%.

Main functions

Dhangadhi is located in the Kailali District, Seti Zone of Far Western Development Region Nepal. It is located at the altitude of 109 m above sea-level and 750 KM from Kathmandu, the capital City of Nepal.

Sources for city budget

Local governments receive conditional money from the federal and provincial governments along with revenue raised from city services including housing, transport, recreation amenities etc.

Political structure

Local government in Nepal is the third level of government and is administered by the provincial governments which in turn is beneath the federal government. Municipalities are divided into three categories: Metropolitan municipality (500,000+ population), Sub-metropolitan municipality (200,000+ population) and Municipality (10,000+ population).

Administrative structure

Dhangadhi is a sub-metropolitan city with 19 wards. The Constitution of Nepal has provisions for a Municipal executive within each local level. The executive is headed by a mayor who is elected by first-past-the-post voting. First-past-the-post voting is also used to elect the vice-chairperson or deputy mayor and ward chairperson for each ward in the local district who are also members of the executive. Four women members and two members from the Dalit or minority communities are also elected to the executive by the Village or Municipal Assembly among themselves. A Judicial Committee is also formed in each local level that is led by the vice-chairperson or deputy mayor of each local level and two members elected by the assembly.

Website

http://www.dhangadhimun.gov.np

Background and objectives

Nepalese urban areas have been marked by considerable administrative changes over the past years. Local governments exercise comprehensive functions related to service delivery and development; hence they play a central role in implementing the SDGs.

To help local governments in this process, the project “Strengthening the decentralised government structure in Nepal”, or Capacity Development Support to Governance (CD-SG), was implemented. Funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and implemented by Nepal’s Ministry of Federal Affairs and General Administration (MoFAGA), its main goal is to strengthen inclusive service provisions in sixteen elected municipalities in provinces of Nepal. The envisioned output of applying the City WORKS approach is the integration of the SDGs in the 7-step local planning process and an inclusive service delivery in different sectors.

Implementation

During initial scoping and internal capacity development sessions, different entry points and links to project outputs and City WORKS tools were identified and assessed. Extensive workshops were conducted with the project team (including technical and regional staff seconded to work also directly with municipalities) to train team members in the overall methodology of City WORKS. This included application of selected tools and focus-group work between workshops. An important milestone of this step was achieving a detailed application structure and roadmap for implementing City WORKS on the ground. For this task, a national consultant was engaged and mentored by the CD-SG team.

A task force was established to review existing efforts of the municipality in terms of the localisation of SDGs. This step focused on understanding indicators and monitoring mechanisms for selected goals and targets, as well as identifying gaps and areas of interventions to minimise these gaps, also backed up by the SDG wheel exercise. Moreover, participants had the opportunity to perform a detailed stakeholder analysis and cause-and-effect mapping, as well as an exercise to link identified potential strategies for the localisation of the SDGs to new intervention areas with their current Periodic Plan, Mid-Term Expenditure Plan & Annual Plan., A localisation action plan for the municipality was then drafted and reviewed. The document was presented to the municipal executive council for approval, after which activities were initiated.

Financing and resources

The project was conducted through the Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) and the Nepal's Ministry of Federal affairs and General Administration (MoFAGA). The project was funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).

Results and impacts

Using City WORKS strengthened communication between the different partners and improved the localisation of the 2030 Agenda at the local level.

Barriers and challenges

Although highly committed, local governments are not well-equipped and need support in implementing the necessary reforms to be effective and fully functional. Moreover, the government agencies are in need of strategies, guidance and support in preparing the extensive reforms at both the national and local levels.

Lessons learned and transferability

From these experiences, several lessons can be drawn. The creation of multi-disciplinary expert teams within city administrations to lead the whole process as a taskforce, under the guidance of a steering committee headed by the City Mayor was successful. Senior municipal staff should be a key part of the task force since they are responsible for the preparation of the annual programme and budget. Experts/consultants that help facilitate the work of such a taskforce can be quite essential, while also providing technical inputs. This proved to be an effective format to build ownership for the localisation process from the very beginning.

Experiences from pilot applications of some of the City WORKS tools are availabe from many different countries. See the City WORKS Factsheet in the References section for more information.