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Local Views Matter
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Over the next 5 years, the people of Nepal—from farmers and workers, to teachers, health providers, and the socially disadvantaged—will have more say about how development projects in their country are planned and undertaken.
In its first major effort to put results management into practice—and in a fundamental departure from past practice—the Asian Development Bank (ADB)’s Nepal country strategy and program (CSP) has been devised to reflect and act more than ever on local views.
In an extensive series of workshops, organized by ADB’s Nepal Resident Mission and run by the participants, ADB staff spread throughout the country to collect ideas that would form the core of the 2005–2009 CSP. In particular, local needs and desires were used to design a results matrix linking specific goals with outcomes that can be monitored and measured.
ADB uses the CSP as its primary guide to development strategy in each of its developing member countries (DMCs). The experience gained in putting the Nepal CSP together will be used as a model for all ADB CSPs in the future.
“I would say that this (process) is not just a question of more intensive or extensive consultation,” says Nepal Country Director Sultan H. Rahman, who has worked on eight CSPs during his ADB tenure. “It is substantially different—it ended up reflecting the ideas of the people. All that came from our heads is the heavy-duty analysis.”
“…I can see a commitment from government reformers and that they understand the importance of the MfDR initiatives“
- Sungsup Ra
Senior Country Programs Specialist
ADB Nepal Resident Mission
The Nepal CSP was published in September 2004 and implementation began in January 2005. It has been a learning process for the Nepal Resident Mission from the start. “No one knows how to implement MfDR [managing for development results], but we are learning by doing,” says Sungsup Ra, Senior Country Programs Specialist in the Nepal Resident Mission.
According to Mr. Rahman, “We have to keep an open mind and visit and revisit the processes through the CSP update.”
Beginning in December 2003, ADB organized consultations in five regions in Nepal, and conducted parallel discussions in eastern regions of the country that included different castes and women representing several ethnic groups. Locals were asked to share their views about the causes of poverty, to recommend poverty reduction measures, to assess the development needs of their region, and to list the risks and opportunities (see Voices From the Field). Recommendations from the workshops were used to prepare the CSP. ADB only facilitated the meetings, while the participants set the agenda.
Importantly, government officials were included “from the word go” in preparing the CSP, says Mr. Rahman. They saw the seriousness with which ADB now treats results and, as a consequence, are beginning to recognize the need to reorient their own policies.
“I just met with Dr. Shankar Sharma, Vice-Chairman of the National Planning Commission,” says Mr. Sungsup Ra. (The commission coordinates government ministries in the preparation of their poverty reduction strategy paper.) “He proposed inviting other development agencies to an upcoming workshop designed to discuss progress in implementing the new CSP.”
“In this I can see a commitment from government reformers and that they understand the importance of the MfDR initiatives.” As implementation proceeds, it will be critical to continue working with government officials in developing new monitoring systems and establishing other procedures.
Organizers have created a poverty-monitoring and analysis system at the National Planning Commission to coordinate data collection and analysis from existing and new monitoring mechanisms. There are weaknesses in the quality of data, but the greater challenge will be to make full use of available information on the delivery of results to foster learning and guide development decision making.
ADB will harmonize its monitoring and evaluation efforts with the Government and with other development partners and stakeholders. In the CSP’s annual update, ADB will continue to tap local knowledge to assess progress toward the goals in the matrix and make suitable changes. The indicators were selected based on ease of collection and reliability of data, as well as their relevance to ADB’s support to Nepal. Baseline and target values will be part of routine monitoring.
The CSP update exercise will also evaluate Nepal’s shaky security situation. If security worsens and makes project implementation impossible, ADB will consider restructuring both the existing projects and the future project pipeline.
Significantly, however, people in the farwestern and western regions of the country—where the conflict is worst—said that development can proceed so long as the right approach, such as implementing programs that either ensure local participation or are demanded by local communities, is used. Importantly, the inclusive and results-oriented CSP will help make it easier to monitor the security situation and to make the right decisions.
Program planners also worry that the commitment to reforms may falter or be tempered by frequent changes in the Government. However, once again, by rooting its assistance firmly in local needs, ADB is mitigating such risk. Its assistance will help build partnerships between government agencies, local think tanks, the private sector, and civil society, so the program can be implemented.
ADB is helping the Government build on results management, with an emphasis on formulating better public policy, strengthening monitoring, and helping selected ministries and line agencies incorporate results-based planning and management approaches.
Mr. Rahman and Mr. Ra are convinced the new CSP’s focus on results makes ADB more effective and will contribute to achieving the Millennium Development Goals in Nepal.
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