Local Government Outreach Programme

Nepal’s transition to a federal system granted provincial and local governments constitutional rights; however, limited experiences, budgets, expertise, and legislative clarity challenge the implementation of these rights, which include key public service deliveries. In this context, KU-NCCS, as a research institute under the Kathmandu University School of Arts, has been keen to understand and contribute to local and provincial governance.

In November 2025, UNDP and KU-NCCS partnered for the Local Government Outreach  Programme (LGOP). The primary objective of the programme is to contribute to the spirit of the Provincial and Local Governance Strengthening Programme, Nepal’s Flagship programme, by reaching out to 60 local governments in Madhesh, Karnali, and Sudurpaschmi provinces.

Most of the capacity development support for local governments has been supply-driven and largely focused on technical training that often delivers short-term results. Traditional training and expert-led technical assistance often overlook local knowledge and expertise, creating dependency on external actors and weakening local ownership, ultimately impacting service delivery. The LGOP promotes a demand-driven opting-in (Opt-in) mechanism through a mentoring approach that contributes to sustainable support and strengthens local governance systems and processes.

The programme will recruit 60 young graduates with a couple of years of relevant experience and train them in concepts such as federalism, governance, political economy analysis, thinking and working politically, laws related to local governance, inter-governmental relations, local government processes, and other required soft skills. Trained and selected fellows (a helping hand to LGs) will be deployed in local governments, where they will provide hands-on mentoring support to local government representatives, particularly in challenging and remote contexts. They will build collaborative relationships with local governments supporting learning and sustainable governance. Unlike traditional expert-led hierarchical approaches that limit innovation and engagement of LGs, YFFs will provide unbiased support respecting local strengths and capacities in LG processes and LG representatives’ roles, which will enhance LGs’ ownership in their processes and roles. YFFs encourage inclusive and formal decision-making processes in local governance through a facilitative process.

The design and implementation of the initiative will be executed in close coordination with the respective Provincial Research Training Academies (PRTAs). Increasing ownership of PRTA and enhancing their strengths to lead the outreach support to LG will be another crucial part of the programme. The programme envisions the approach being continued in the future by PRTAs and other relevant government institutions. The programme will partner with Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) such as universities and colleges to offer these fellowship programmes to the youth.