Development aid has been one of the main drivers of societal change in Nepal for the last sixty years. An increased amount of foreign money has been invested every year for the transformation of Nepal into a modern society. Sixty years have been passed under such developmental endeavor, but the social inequalities have remained the same and the living standard of people has gone down as a result of increased level of poverty and social disquiet. An assessment of the effectiveness of development aid, especially what has worked and what has not in terms of strategies and modalities, is urgently required not only to understand the paradoxical relationship between a long history of development aid and growing social inequality in Nepal, but also to provide immediate feedback to add governance system in Nepal.
Forestry sector has remained as one of the priority areas for the investment of international development aid especially since 1970s for the promotion of rural livelihoods through the conservation of Himalayan ecosystems. Tens of millions of dollars have been invested for the development of community-based forest management schemes across the country. International development funds have been channeled through government institutions, separate institutional arrangement of donor organizations (bi-lateral projects), and civil society organizations (especially the service providing NGOs). Amongst these, bilateral model of funding has remained prominent mode of aid management for more than thirty years. Time has come to critically review the various strategies/institutional modalities of aid management drawing the aid management experience of the past three decades in the forest sector. This analysis would generate useful insights (and hence help formulate strategies) through which any aid resources can be brought under the more direct control of local people and communities who have often been the intended beneficiaries of the aid.
In this context ForestAction Nepal has earmarked some funds to support two masters dissertation research that analyze the aid governance practices and identify critical challenges concerning the effective management and enhancing local people’s control over aid resources in Nepal. The studies may aim to:
- Analyze the amount invested, mechanisms used, and intended and unintended outcomes generated by development aid in forestry sector for the last four decades (1970 to 2010) in Nepal
- Analyze how aid performance vary according to various institutional configurations and strategies and identify modalities of aid governance that are pro-poor, efficient and locally driven
- Analyze the trends of emergence of actors at various levels and their changing roles, interests in development aid, old and new coalitions, and assess how all these affect the performance of development aid
- Identify and analyze constraints and potential of locally governed development aid in the forestry sector of Nepal
The focus of the review will be on: 1) financial amount invested in different headings (including administrative costs), 2) mechanism adapted, 3) institutional arrangements developed for the implementation of programs (including creation of new institutions), 4) major outcomes, 5) financial circulation/investment patterns (changes over time), and 6) decision makings, public accountability, innovations and policy politics. The review will be done by collecting information from five sets of different institutions at national level (government, bilateral and multi-lateral projects, INGOs, NGOs and community networks, and private sector) and also key informant interviews and focus groups at the community level.
If you are interested in the above mentioned study, please send a 2 page proposal outlining specific questions and methodology to Dr Naya Sharma ([email protected]) with cc to Dinesh Paudel ([email protected]).
Deadline for proposal submission – April 15, 2010.
