Local Governance and Its Capacity Building in Nepal‪.‬

Background Till the 1960s development theories reflected the view that the central government alone had the capacity to provide public services and implement the large-scale development projects (1). In the 1970s the Integrated Rural Development approach, with a view to addressing the needs of rural people in a holistic way, failed basically because of being top-down and more bureaucratic with the absence of decisive participation of local people and institutions as well. Central government officials had the whole responsibility of the decisions to design and implement the development projects. Communities were rarely involved or consulted. During the 1980s, some donor agencies began to shift their emphasis away from large-scale development projects to more modest and micro-level into which grassroot communities could be drawn as participants with the hope to making development sustainable. The universal wave of democratization during the late eighties exposed a gulf between the state and society that could no longer be attributed to autocratic or despotic rule. Along with these political changes, there had been moves towards decentralized local governance in new democracies as an inseparable principle of democratic polity, which created a basic environment to empower the grassroots people. Virtually, during the late 1980s and early 1990s decentralized local governance received more importance not only in new democracies but also in regimes ranging from monarchies to military, juntas to single party, systems to multiparty democracy in the changed context. (2) In recent years, various countries whether developed or developing, authoritarian or democratic and with government of the left, right or the central are trying to adopt decentralized local governance. It is widely believed that decentralized local governance increases popular participation in decision-making which makes people more accessible to; more knowledgeable about local conditions; and the local bodies more responsive to people's needs, demands and preferences.