 |
 |
 |
The Programme has extended support in developing a number of documents mainly guidelines, to the Ministry of Local Development as part of its policy support initiatives. Aligned with its strategic developmental orientation towards good governance and decentralization as per Local Self Governance Act (1990), RUPP has supported technically and financially to prepare a social audit guideline. The major objective of the guideline is not only to ensure legitimate rights of the TLOs or local communities on local development but also to enhance sense of ownership of the local communities on these efforts. Some DDCs and municipalities have followed the guideline in different projects. Similarly, the Porgramme has supported the Ministry of the Local Development in the preparation of an Integrated Property Tax Directive with the objective of helping municipalities not only to ensure the optimum utilization of internal resource bases in a structured manner but also to provide guidelines on the efficient mobilization of these resources in the form of collected taxes. The following are some of the notable publications of the year 2004: 1. Social Audit Guideline for Municipalities
Pursuant to its major objective of promotion of good governance, the Programme has adopted the strategy of ensuring inclusive development through participation of TLOs in all levels i.e. planning, implementation monitoring and evaluation of development activities of local authorities. RUPP, in this context, has been promoting PMDP (Participatory Municipal Development Planning Process) and PVDP (Participatory Village Development Planning Process) in its partner municipalities and Rural Market Centres respectively. These processes ensure TLOs decision-making roles in local development planning. Reinforcing further on TLOs participation on implementation, monitoring and evaluation, the Programme has published “Social Audit Guideline for Municipalities". This document has been prepared on the basis of experiences gained on TLOs participation in implementation and monitoring of local development activities. Upon the endorsement of the directives by the municipal councils of the respective municipalities, these directives will set concrete and binding guidelines to ensure legitimate rights of TLOs or local communities on the implementation and monitoring of development activities undertaken by the municipalities. Apart from that it is expected that this directive will be helpful to increase accountability of all the stakeholders and enhance transparency in execution of responsibilities of local actors.
2 Urban Social Mobilization Guidelines Building upon its extensive experiences of social mobilization in its partner municipalities, the Programme has developed and published a comprehensive Urban Social Mobilization Guideline. This Guideline is in essence a comprehensive RUPP directive for implementation of programme activities in the partner municipalities as it deals with both implementation and monitoring aspects of social mobilization, rural urban linkage, poverty reduction, good governance, urban services delivery, urban information centers, ICt initiatives, human resources development for urban development and other pertinent urban issues like HIV/AIDS and IDPs.
3 Integrated Property Tax Guidelines In line with the Local Self Governance Act (1990) which devolves authority to the local governments to mobilize local resources needed through the collection of Integrated Property Tax, RUPP along with Ministry of Local Development has published an “Integrated Property Tax Directive". Though the Local Self Governance Regulation (1991) has some stipulations on facilitating the collection of Integrated Property Tax, a need for comprehensive directives to guide the process has clearly been felt by the municipalities. This forms the context within which the Integrated Property Tax directive was developed. The main objective of the directive is to help municipalities not only to ensure the optimum collection of taxes in a structured manner but also to support for their efficient mobilization.
4 Municipal Partnership Development Fund- Model Bylaw
The establishment of Municipal Partnership Development Fund as a means of implementing Programme activities in the partner municipalities has been one of the key achievements of the Programme in terms of sustainability of its approaches. Over the years, the size of MPDF have grown significantly as number of enterprises receiving credit support from such funds are constantly on the rise resulting in regular repayments in the form of interest and principal. In fact, MPDF has provided means through which all development activities are channelized. This underscores the need to have a mechanism to strengthen and regulate the basic framework of operation of MPDF. It is within these contexts that the Programme has embarked upon initiative to provide a legal standing to MPDF. In this regards, RUPP with the help of Executive Officers of partner municipalities had prepared a Draft MPDF Bylaw in 2004. The MLD has, following a series of consultations, approved the model Bylaws, which was further distributed municipalities of Nepal for implementation. This is indeed an important step towards sustainability of the programme including that of RUP sections that have been created within municipal structures.
|
