Mr. Navaraj Sharma Paudel is one of the most energetic Chairpersons of District Development Committees. He was elected as the DDC Chairperson of Myagdi in the local election held in 1996. The DDC oversees three UNDP assisted development programmes namely Rural Energy Development Programme (REDP), Participatory District Development Programme (PDDP) and Sustainable Community Development Programme (SCDP) in the district.

“The SCDP supported income generation activities have been contributing to poverty reduction” says Mr. Paudel, “ a number of works, which were difficult to assume to do have been successfully accomplished through adaptation of SCDP’s social mobilisation approach.” We talked with Mr. Paudel on how the programme is working in Myagdi. Abstraction of the interview is as follows:

Could you please outline the major changes occurred during the SCDP implementation in Myagdi? Do you think such changes contribute to the efforts made for poverty reduction?

The SCDP is implemented in seven Village Development Committees (VDCs) in two phases. We can see some tangible outcomes in the first phase VDCs but second phase VDCs are slightly back in the race. One of the major changes is generation of mass awareness and building positive attitude towards development. More importantly, If you compare the working pattern and methodologies applied before and during the programme implementation, you can see a positive change. The communities initiate natural resource management and social development activities for resource conservation. This has resulted the fast pace to social and economic development and has also helped develop self-reliance through various income generation activities. The programme increased access to the loan and technical assistance for micro enterprise development, which has concretely helped poverty reduction in the rural areas.

SCDP perceives the community empowerment a prerequisite for sustainable development. In other programme districts, the communities have increased feeling of ownership of self-initiated development activities. What are the Myagdi specific experiences?

Of course, the empowerment of communities and their institutions are instrumental in achieving sustainable development and we have also experienced the same. The sustainable development objectives would be hardly attainable if the communities left unempowered. Our thrust is to empower the communities so that they could feel the ownership over their development initiatives.

How do you evaluate the role of SCDP in preparing the ground for sustainable management of natural resources and watersheds in Myagdi?

I have found the SCDP’s role more significant in watershed management and preparing ground for sustainable development in Myagdi especially in formulating district level policy and implementation of conservation and sustainable use of and natural resources management activities. This has supported DDC and VDCs to integrate all activities in a holistic manner. A five-year periodic plan is under preparation that tends to divide the district into sub-watersheds. We will also prioritize the sub-watersheds for effective implementation of resource-base conservation and development activities. For instance, SCDP is working as a Natural Resource Management unit under the umbrella of DDC. The community groups have been aware of the destruction and damage of natural resources and this has encouraged the VDCs to prepare VDC level plan.

What do you suggest for the sustainability and promotion of the CBOs Initiatiatives in case of phasing over the programme? What are the possible roles of DDC and VDCs in such a case? Have you ever exercised for sustainability of the CBOs and their activities?

The community organisations look may passive and hardly they can sustain their programme activities if they lack leadership. The DDC, VDC and other local institutions are not involved in planning process, which is one of the major factors behind their untimely passive mood. More likely, the local institutions are left without creating a proper coordination and supporting mechanism. The absence of proper hand over policy has also hindered local institutions feeling ownership over the programme. I experience that the SCDP has been able to cross the barriers since its very inception.

The SCDP is implemented with the initiative of local governments and institutions and thus the coordination and support among and to the community institutions becomes a natural process. But generation of a strong feeling of ownership among the local institutions is equally important together with developing their leadership and preparing a workable hand over policy before entering into final phase of the programme.

The role of DDC and VDCs in providing direct leadership to the community institutions is vital. They should prepare local policies to continue the programme activities. The DDC should tap resources while VDCs should have a lead role in coordination and getting support from others for effective implementation of such sustainable development activities within the VDC. Let me inform you all that a by-law, considering Myagdi specific situation, has been endorsed by the DDC to internalize the programme benefits. We will table the by-law in the DDC Council for final endorsement. This is the process we tend to start for institutionalisation of sustainable development activities.

Do you have any remarkable examples of capacity building in SCDP implemented VDCs? If yes, have you found those replicable in other virgin areas? Do such programmes complement the DDC for effectively coordinate, use and manage unused or partially used resources?

We have a lot of examples of local capacity building. If you see in the most disadvantaged and remote VDCs like Mudi, there is a significant change occurred during SCDP intervention. For the replication and expansion of such sustainable development activities in other VDCs, exchange programmes and exposure visits are found helpful and therefore we have scheduled such programmes in our work plans. Many of the works, even difficult to assume to be done, have been accomplished. I feel, this is because of the identification and effective mobilisation of unused or partially used human and physical resources. In my opinion, credit goes to the SCDP’s social mobilisation approach.

Go Back