The government to assess local economic progress.

Kathmandu: The ‘Local Economic Development Review Procedure, 2022’ was released by the Ministry of Federal Affairs and General Administration to help local governments in fostering local economic development through evaluation of overall aspects in their respective areas.

Three thematic categories for evaluating local economic development have been identified by the procedure. Economic policy and planning, infrastructure development for economic development, economic empowerment, and entrepreneurship and industrial promotion are among them. The District Coordination Committee must evaluate local economic development indicators either on its own or through a third party under this procedure.

The evaluation is carried out on the basis of details entered into the web-based system by the local levels concerned.

“The DCC will conduct evaluation on the basis of details received from the local levels and disclose the final results. The DCC may coordinate with representatives of industry and business sectors for evaluation,” the procedure made public by the MoFAGA says.

It mandates that the DCC complete the review by mid-January and post it on its website by mid-February for each fiscal, in addition to submitting it to the MoFAGA, the Office of the Chief Minister, and the Council of Ministers of the province in question. “The Chief Minister’s Office and the Council of Ministers will compile a consolidated report of the evaluation and make it public,” the report notes.

Similarly, the MoFAGA will consolidate report of evaluation results as received from the provinces and provide it to the Ministry of Finance and the National Planning Commission.

The government will implement capacity development programs at the local level in areas where evaluation results were determined to be lacking. The MoFAGA may additionally publicize and reward the names and other details of deserving local levels. The findings will be utilized to develop a variety of local-level programs.

The government had already issued the ‘Local Level Institutional Capacity Self-evaluation Procedure,’ which compels local governments to assess their overall performance every fiscal year. Its goal is to determine local governments’ strengths and weaknesses by assessing their performance and outcomes in order to make them more effective and successful.

Tags: Development, Economy, Evaluation, Government, MoFAGA, Policy