1. INTRODUCTION
The Sustainable Community Development Programme (SCDP) is also known as the Nepal Capacity 21 Programme. It is a joint undertakipg of the National Planning Commission (NPC) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Launched at the end of 1996, SCDP was established to support His Majesty's Government's efforts to promote sustainable development.
The development objective of the SCDP is to enable a broad cross-section of Nepali society to engage in development activities that are sustainable economically, ecologically and socially SCDP works at the grassroots level and aims to develop the capacities of Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) and Community-based Organisations (CBOs) to engage in sustainable development. The Programme provides technical, financial and institutional support to NGOs and CBOs.
SCDP is now in the final phase of its first 3-year term, and project activities have been successfully implemented in three districts of the Mid and Far-Western Development Regions of Nepal. The focus of the final stage of the" Programme is information sharing. This includes documenting the process used to implement SCDP's activities so that NGOs and other development agencies can learn from SCDP's experiences, and adapt the SCDP approach to their own development initiatives.
This document outlines the general approach and components of SCDP, and explains the procedure through which SCDP has promoted sustainable development in impoverished and underdeveloped areas of Nepal. This document is meant to serve as a guide to the Nepal Capacity 21 Programme, and should be useful to NGOs and other development agencies that wish to implement similar types of activities to promote sustainable human develoment.
There are 5 Sections in this document. Section 2 provides a brief overview of the SCDP Programme, including the overall project rationale and basic information regarding Programme activities and finances. The general procedure that SCDP followed to implement its activities in Nepal is explained in Section 3. Section 3 is further divided into 6 subsections that provide detailed information about the preliminary activities of the programme and the five phases of the SCDP Programme. Examples of Programme activities are provided in Section 4. The impacts and effects of the Programme are included in Section 5.