Soil Conservation and Watershed Management (SCWM) programme was for the first time recognized as an important programme by the Government in 1974 when a new department, Department of Soil and Water Conservation was established under the umbrella of the Ministry of Forests. Later the name of the department was changed to Department of Soil Conservation and Watershed Management (DSCWM). In the Initial stage the Department implemented the programme by having a few Watershed Management Projects such as Phewatal, Bering, Khorke Itram, Kulekhani, and Bagmati Watersheds. Later soil conservation offices were established in a district basis. At present DSCWM is providing SCWM service to 55 out of the 75 districts of Nepal through District Soil Conservation Offices (DSCO).
Recently an Organisation and Management Study was conducted and the study recommended for switching to the Basin Approach from the existing political boundary approach for the implementation of the SCWM programme.
In June 2002 the Ministry of Forests and Soil Conservation formulated a monitoring and evaluation strategy in which there is strong recommendation for developing a Management Information System (MIS) by each department under the ministry including the DSCWM. Logframe can be regarded as a main ingredient of a MIS but the DSCWM had no comprehensive Logframe developed yet.
In this context the Department decided to prepare a logframe for SCWM programme in the Fiscal Year 2063/64. Logical Framework Approach, nicknamed as Logframe, is an analytical tool which helps to identify programme/project goals, purposes, outputs, activities, and their cause and effect relationship. It also identifies the indicators which can be monitored to know if objectives have been met. In addition, it pre-estimates the external forces which could have an influence over the programme/project success and failure.
It is presented in a four by four matrix in which first column is written with objective hierarchies (goal, purpose, outputs, activities), the second column is written with the respective “Objective Hierarchies” indicators, the third column is written with means and methods of verifying the achievements on the indicators, and the fourth column with the assumptions or the risk factors which should be considered for the logic to work.
