ADB_book_18 April.qxp - Himalayan Document Centre - icimod

issue. These deficiencies stem from the generalweakness of the public administration system itself—over-staffing, low salaries, political interference inappointments and transfers, inadequateperformance recognition, and others are systemic.These in turn affect resource management. Thecapacity to monitor the implementation of laws andpublic expenditure is weak at all levels. Inadequatesupervision, poor financial management, dilatorygovernment procedures, and lack of coordinationamong government entities all lead to poorperformance generally and to a serious neglect ofenvironmental issues in particular.Nepal needs to build up its capacity for nationaland regional development so that it can participateeffectively in the global economy. There is a need tostrengthen the public and private sectors,institutions, systems, processes, procedures, andpractices that support development efforts. Improvedcapacity is needed to entrench and sustain goodgovernance, design and manage effective policiesand programs, manage the environment, addresspoverty, and apply science and technology todevelopment problems. Capacity is also needed toaccelerate regional development and for Nepal toparticipate with other regions as an effective partnerin the global economy.Policy ReformsNepal began its work in environmental protectionand conservation of natural resources in the 1970s.However, the policies, strategies, plans, andprograms of the ensuing 30 years have not beenoverwhelmingly effective. The policies themselveswere unable to address cross-cutting issues;continuous interference by political parties, theinability of national level advisory bodies to functionproperly, and the inability of policy-level institutionsto implement policy due to lack of fundamentalresources all contributed to this failure. Key nationalagencies like the NPC and sectoral ministries havenot been proactive in implementing approvedpolicies and programs, and the Government hasfailed to attract the participation of the private sector.These shortcomings in policy planning andimplementation should be addressed quickly by (i)reviewing all existing policies on the environmentand updating them as needed to make them relevantto present needs, (ii) revisiting monitoring andimplementation mechanisms, (iii) attracting thebroader participation of private sector institutions,NGOs, local bodies, and community-basedorganizations (CBOs) in the process, and (iv)coordinating national environmental policies withdonors’ policies where possible.Institutional StrengtheningStrengthening environmental institutions involvesovercoming existing endemic weaknesses andrevitalizing institutions. In this regard a TechnicalAssistance (TA No. 2847-NEP) on InstitutionalStrengthening of Ministry of Population andEnvironment was provided by ADB. One of therecommendations from this Technical Assistancewas implemented as the Integrated EnvironmentManagement Program and funded by DANIDA. Inspite of this, various other aspects still need to beencouraged.Major stakeholder institutions in theenvironment sector include public sector bodies,corporate bodies, and others operating outside of thepublic sector (see Appendix 14.2). The unsatisfactoryperformance of these institutions is due largely totheir lack of capacity. These institutions are weakand their organizational structures often do not fullycorrespond to their mandates. Advisory bodies oftendo not perform professionally, and policymaking andcorporate bodies are often not held accountable.These institutions also suffer from a lack of skilledprofessionals, lack of funds, shortage of technicaland logistic facilities, weak interagency coordination,and conflicting and overlapping mandates. At thesame time, the Government has failed to empowermunicipalities and to creatively engage privatesectororganizations such as national andinternational NGOs, local bodies, and communitybasedorganizations in meaningful dialogue.MOEST is already overburdened by its role offormulating and implementing policies, plans, andprograms. It might be possible to alleviate some of thisburden and to streamline the environmentalmonitoring process by empowering and strengtheninglocal bodies and institutions to take over some of theroutine monitoring tasks. MOEST would remain themain coordinator of these efforts without having todirectly implement them, and could encourage agrowing pool of environmental experts to superviseimplementation of measures to mitigateenvironmental impacts. As the expertise of this groupgrows, they will increasingly be able to give field-levelfeedback to MOEST and to advise it on environmentalpolicy. Similarly, district development committees(DDCs) and village development committees (VDCs)can be empowered to act more autonomously withinthe framework of local self-governance and can begiven the tasks both of bringing environmental andnatural resource management concerns to theattention of MOEST and of carrying out some localenvironmental monitoring. Involving the VDCs wouldgo a long way to ensuring that information acquiredthrough broader public consultation was brought tothe attention of policymaking bodies.212 Environment Assessment of Nepal : Emerging Issues and Challenges