Project description

Title: Poverty alleviation in selected rural areas of Nepal (PASRA)
Commissioned by: German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ)
Country: Nepal
Lead executing agency: Nepalese Ministry for Local Development (MLD)
Overall term: 2005 to 2011

Context

Poverty, discrimination, illiteracy and a lack of sources of income determine the lives of the population in the rural areas of western Nepal. People are often unable to change their economic and social living conditions without outside help. The situation is compounded by the insufficient number and quality of public and private services in rural areas and by the impacts of more than ten years of conflict.

Objective

The conditions for the social and economic development of the poor population have improved in selected rural areas of Nepal.

Approach

The programme focuses on the areas social inclusion, poverty reduction and good governance in five districts in mid-west Nepal and is part of the national Local Governance and Community Development Programme (LGCDP), which is being promoted by several donors.

The programme provides advisory services to a number of actors at local, regional and national level to close the supply gap in the region and hence improve economic and social conditions for the population. The advisory services cover the improved provision of services by public-sector providers, such as local authorities and agriculture and animal husbandry authorities, and by private service providers. Particular attention is paid to the needs of the rural population and to mechanisms and instruments to promote transparency and accountability. The programme also helps strengthen marginalised groups and promote their integration into the development process and supports poverty reduction measures.

This is supplemented by short-term, peace-stabilising measures for immediate employment promotion and the reintegration of the population affected by the conflict and by long-term measures to secure peace and promote socio-economic development.

Results achieved so far

The programme promotes efforts to enhance participation in public life by women and marginalised groups in more than 800 self-help groups. There is a direct link between the 100 learning centres initiated by the programme for illiterate women and marginalised groups and the documented increase in school enrolment rates. The women who take part recognise the importance of education and therefore enable their children to go to school. The national Local Governance and Community Development Programme (LGCDP) is interested in the reproducibility and dissemination of the approach promoted by the programme to strengthen marginalised groups.

As a result of decentralised structures being strengthened, the local authorities promoted have been implementing participatory planning processes and public hearings/audits in collaboration with their communities for the past two years. Around 90 per cent of the citizens now take part in these affairs. This has given them the opportunity to voice their interests and have a direct influence on the annual budget planning and implementation and hence on the development of their communities.

The economic conditions have also improved for the rural population. This can be seen for instance from the up to EUR 470 increase in the annual income of the target group’s households compared with 2007. This is the result of specific training measures in the agricultural and non-agricultural sector and of improved advisory services from public and private service providers. An impact study showed that almost three quarters of the households thought that the services offered by their local authorities had improved since 2007.

Around 300 infrastructure measures have been implemented so far to make a direct contribution to peace-building. These have led to an improvement in the food situation by up to two months, above all for the households affected by war.