LocationsFAQs European Union Support to Inclusive Federalism (EUSIF)
What is EUSIF?
The European Union Support to Inclusive Federalism (EUSIF) is a model project in Karnali Province implemented by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and funded by the European Union. EUSIF is complementary to the Government of Nepal’s (GoN) flagship programme, the Provincial and Local Governance Support Programme (PLGSP), which was launched in 2019. The Delegation of the European Union to Nepal has provided €2m for local government (LG) capacity development in addition to its €28m basket funding to PLGSP.
How does EUSIF contribute to inclusive federalism?
Nepal’s Constitution guarantees equal rights and participation to all sections of the society. However, the federalization process that began with the constitution’s promulgation in 2015 is still in a nascent phase with key provincial and local institutions facing capacity gaps related to laws and policies, planning and execution and harmonization of intergovernmental efforts. EUSIF supports participatory planning and budgeting, evidence-based decision-making and well-targeted and executed local government investments. EUSIF especially supports LG’s inclusive and effective basic service delivery, mainstreaming of gender and social inclusion (GESI) and transformative behavioral change of the civil service and communities. The project also supports LGs with the integration of social accountability tools to make them accountable and responsive towards the diverse needs of their constituents. An important way to scale effective LG capacity development and to make it sustainable is through EUSIF’s collaboration with the Karnali Provincial Centre for Good Governance (PGCC), which will be supported in utilising good practices for LG capacity development packages.
How EUSIF complements to the PLGSP objectives?
EUSIF’s objective is to “provide impetus to strengthening the inclusiveness and responsiveness of Provinces and Local Governments to the diverse needs of people, especially women, historically excluded and marginalized groups, and to augment PLG provision of inclusive, good quality and sustainable basic services.” EUSIF’s strong focus on ‘inclusion’ thus provides an additional driver to PLGSP, as the GoN’s umbrella Federalization project, through complementary efforts in enhancing inclusiveness, accountability, and sustainability of PLG basic service delivery systems and decision-making processes with an additional emphasis on Green, Resilient and Inclusive Development (GRID) approach. EUSIF works closely with the PLGSP at the Ministry of Federal Affairs and General Administration (MoFAGA) and the province, PLGs of Karnali and the LG associations.
Why is the Project modeled in Karnali Province?
Karnali Province has some of the most challenging development contexts with its difficult mountainous terrains, weak connectivity and sparsely populated areas, as well as high vulnerability to climate change impacts. Karnali’s socio-economic indicators are one of the lowest among seven provinces. The province has the highest multidimensional poverty of 39.5 % percent of its population followed by 25.3% in Sudurpashchim Province and 24.2% in Madhesh Province (Multidimensional Poverty Index 2021, National Planning Commission of Nepal). Gender gap remains high in almost all sectors. Nepal Human Development Report 2020 presents Karnali’s Gender Inequality Index (GII) at 0.558 against the national average of 0.479 (GII value ranges from 0 to 1). Participation of women and other marginalized social groups such as Dalit in political and administrative decision-making is low. These indicators point to institutional gaps in the delivery of accountable, inclusive and effective governance.
EUSIF aims to capture and scale successful community development approaches and capacity development packages for LGs, which need to be applicable in a diversity of local government contexts and organizational capacities including in the most remote areas of the province. The diversity of Karnali, combined with a strong existing presence and network of UNDP and EU are therefore important assets for EUSIF. Building upon existing networks is especially important as EUSIF depends on experience and good practice of other development projects and partners as it has a relatively short project duration.
EUSIF is to test and document effective approaches and to embed such practices and learning within PLG systems and processes and within LG basic service delivery systems. Successes from the Karnali model will be scaled nationally through the PLGSP and other development partners in other provinces.
What are the Project approaches?
The project aims foremost to enrich the implementation of PLG systems and procedures for institution building and to initiate a multi-stakeholder learning process for accessing and scaling already available good practices. The project therefore will (I) work closely with the ongoing federal reform process at provincial and local government levels to ensure pragmatic and relevant action in support of deepening inclusive federalism, (II) capture and translate good practices into the present reality of provincial and local government functioning, (III) create intense collaboration and cross-learning with the Provincial PLGSP technical assistance teams to strengthen and embed overall federalization support efforts; and (IV) facilitate ‘structural transformation’, ‘leaving no one behind’, ‘systems thinking’ and ‘new cultures and ways of working’ with GESI at the core of every intervention.
What are the Project results?
The project has following four result areas which, in their combined form, are meant to strengthen inclusiveness and effectiveness of LG service delivery, addressing the diverse needs of people, especially women, historically excluded and marginalized groups.
Result 1: Inclusiveness, community benefit and sustainability of local government and ward basic services enhanced in line with Green, Resilient and Inclusive Development (GRID) objectives
Result 2: PLG data management, monitoring and reporting systems are evidence-based and enable achieving PLG GRID objectives
Result 3: Capacity of Provincial Centre for Good Governance (PCGG) attuned to PLG GRID objectives and Basic Service Delivery
Result 4: Capacity of Local Government Associations enhanced for evidence-based advocacy and representation of Local Government Voice.
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