Multi-scale politics in climate change: the mismatch of authority and capability in federalizing Nepal

Khatri, Dil; Nightingale, Andrea J.; Ojha, Hemant; Maskey, Gyanu; ‘Tsumpa’, Pema Norbu Lama

doi:10.1080/14693062.2022.2090891

Cited by 8 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 38 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Additionally, there is a discrepancy between the authorities granted and the institutional capabilities and capacities of provincial and local governments to implement the policies and plans [ 87 ]. The 2015 Constitution of Nepal establishes a framework for intergovernmental relations that allows the federal government to guide or assist local governments directly or through provincial governments.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Integration of urban ecosystem-based adaptation in Nepal: A policy landscape analysis

Sherpa

2024

PLoS ONE

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA) is an ecologically sensitive, cost-effective, and locally adaptive climate adaptation strategy to strengthen the climate resilience of vulnerable communities. While many studies on EbA have been conducted in rural and mountainous regions or within the natural sciences realm, there is a lack of comprehensive research that assesses how urban EbA measures have been incorporated into existing policies and plans in Global South, including in Nepal. Ecosystem-based adaptation is in the early stages of its establishment as a fundamental component to address climate adaptation and sustainable development in urban environments. Accordingly, effective integration strategies, challenges, potential focal areas, and entry points have yet to be extensively studied. To address the literature gap, this paper analyses the types of EbA interventions and the extent of urban EbA integration within Nepal’s climate, urban, and sectoral policies and plans. Direct content analysis and a qualitative scoring system were used to evaluate the plan components and assess the level of EbA integration. The findings indicate that the policies and plans recognise the importance of conserving, enhancing, and managing ecosystems for climate change adaptation, and EbA measures are mainly included in action-oriented sections. However, the results also reveal inadequate EbA integration, particularly in the information base, vision and objectives, and implementation aspects. The implementation component notably lacks comprehensive provisions for budget allocation, responsible authorities, definite timelines, and clear roadmaps. The breakdown of EbA integration in the policies and plans suggests that climate and urban plans substantially integrate urban EbA measures, but discrepancies exist with climate and urban policies and sectoral policies and plans. These findings collectively emphasise a pressing need to enhance the recognition and integration of urban EbA measures within policy frameworks with a view towards strengthening climate resilience and mitigating climate-related hazards in urban environments.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Integration of urban ecosystem-based adaptation in Nepal: A policy landscape analysis

Sherpa

2024

PLoS ONE

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…While federalism, as now stipulated in the Nepalese constitution, has raised expectations and trust among citizens, local governments have faced criticism for their inefficiency in areas including social welfare, public service delivery, employment creation, and good governance (Chaudhary, 2019). Many local governments have focused on securing narrow political interests deeply connected to bureaucracy and trade unions rather than expending significant energy on providing quality public services (Acharya & Scott, 2022), and are performing poorly in areas such as regional resource allocation and management of competitive public demands (Khatri et al., 2022). According to Acharya and Scott (2022)ʼs interview with public officials and politicians, local governments in Nepal lag behind in terms of efficiency, effectiveness, and accountability.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In particular, the newly promulgated Nepalese Constitution adopting federalism in 2015 allows for three levels of government—federal, provincial, and local, and has granted unprecedented powers, roles, and resources to the sub‐national governments (Bhusal & Breen, 2023). At these local government levels, authorities exercise significant powers such as formulating and implementing new laws and policies, preparing and executing annual budgets, among others (Khatri et al., 2022). The rationale behind empowering local levels such as metropolitan cities and municipalities with such strong authority has been to expand the opportunities for citizen participation, induce democratic practices, reduce administrative costs, enhance efficiency, foster fair competition, and politically empower citizens (Acharya & Zafarullah, 2020; Bhusal & Breen, 2023).…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Local governmentsʼ accountability and public trust in Nepal: Does participation make a difference?

Han,

Aryal,

Hwang

2024

Asia & Pacific Policy Stud

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This study developed an analytical framework enabling a better understanding of the relationship between accountability and public trust through the moderation effect of public participation. To test the relationship empirically, a cross‐sectional survey was conducted in three local governments of two provinces in Nepal. The results demonstrated that the constructs of transparency, responsiveness, and public participation were significant predictors of public trust in Nepal, whereas liability and controllability were not significant predictors. These findings suggest that trust in the government depended on the governmentʼs performance and cultural aspects of people in Nepal, with performance aspects being more influential. These findings have theoretical and practical implications. The study contributes to the “performance‐trust model” presented in the existing literature by adding the moderating effect of perceived public participation.

show abstract

“…Although the establishment of the federal structure has opened a way to devolve authority to local governments, studies have highlighted there is a lack of institutional capability to undertake the roles entrusted to them (Khatri et al, 2022). Consequently, the governing institutions at multiple scales lack the ability to regulate haphazard urbanisation and associated risk production.…”

Section: Conclusion and Policy Recommendationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Urban governance, particularly in the newly declared urban areas, frequently lack institutional capacity, illustrated by a lack of authority, knowledge and access to resources (Khatri et al, 2022), particularly in relation to the disaster preparedness, exposing dwellers to multi-hazard risks (Aryal, 2014). Additionally, the exposure to multi-hazard risk and effects of disasters on residents vary based on class, caste/ethnicity, gender which is co-shaped by social stigma and uneven capabilities to access and influence the disaster management policies and praxis in the country.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Urbanisation and Disaster Risks in the Himalaya

Poudel¹,

Shrestha²,

Khatri³

et al. 2022

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Haphazard urban expansion and poorly planned infrastructure development have increased and intensified disaster risks in the geologically fragile Himalaya. Against this backdrop, consolidating and interpreting the findings from four articles included in this special issue on “urbanisation and disaster risk in the Himalaya”, this paper analyses the interrelation between urbanisation and disaster risk in rapidly urbanising areas of Nepal Himalaya. The key findings that we pull together from the papers are: (1) large-scale construction activities, including the real estate boom in peri-urban Nepal, increasingly delink traditional communities from their land and culture; (2) disconnected policies and contradicting implementation in the informal to formal transitions have sustained informality and deepened risk in urban Nepal; (3) institutional inertia sustains poor coordination between stakeholders in relation to knowledge sharing, technology and resources which hinder proactive disaster management at the community level; and (4) operational and knowledge gaps emerge from failures to delineate authority, responsibility and accountability between concerned institutions, and weak institutional capacity between agencies, impeding the adoption of early warning and action system in Nepal. Based on these findings, we conclude that while the political restructuring and decentralisation of the local governments have provided authorities with the legitimacy to devise disaster management policies, enhancing overall institutional capability in terms of access to and mobilisation of knowledge, technologies and resources is needed to reduce disaster risks in the Himalaya.

show abstract

Multi-scale politics in climate change: the mismatch of authority and capability in federalizing Nepal

Cited by 8 publications

References 38 publications

Integration of urban ecosystem-based adaptation in Nepal: A policy landscape analysis

Integration of urban ecosystem-based adaptation in Nepal: A policy landscape analysis

Local governmentsʼ accountability and public trust in Nepal: Does participation make a difference?

Urbanisation and Disaster Risks in the Himalaya

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About