Do Informal Forums Matter? Lessons from Nepal’s Local Policymaking

Abstract

This research empirically explores whether and how informal forums facilitate the participation of ordinary people in the local policymaking process. Using qualitative data generated from 2014 to 2016 in the Butwal Sub-Metropolitan City in western Nepal, it argues that informal forums are the most conducive participatory platforms for ordinary people and that these forums can bring positive influences on the formal processes of policymaking. Examined through the analytical framework of society-driven participatory institutions, findings of this research suggest that informal forums, if designed properly, can contribute to securing democratic rights of ordinary people by allowing them to participate to raise and deliberate their issues in the local policymaking process. In addition to broadening the existing knowledge about the role of informal forums in local governance, findings of this research offer new insights for local authorities who are passionate about participatory local policymaking.

Participation in Project Planning and Implementation

“…Nonetheless, study findings indicate that ordinary people with no institutional affiliation or limited knowhow in any policy sector have limited access to and impact in local development planning processes (Saguin, 2018). Evidence from the developing world implies that our knowledge of how far common people's voices are heard in actual development policy decisions is sparse (Bhusal, 2019). This essay will critically explore the theory of participation and discuss how it can improve the planning and implementation of projects in practice.…”

Five years of local democracy in federal Nepal (2017–2022)

“…The policy reflection of these findings is important to the study and practice of local democracy in Nepal and perhaps beyond. The research attests that local governments not only created foundations for practising social inclusion in the making of local budgets and programs, but also generated messages for future local leadership to establish linkages between what is deliberated in communities and what is decided by local councils (Acharya & Zafarullah, 2022;Bhusal, 2019). One limitation to note, the practice of social inclusion in local decision-making is less linked (compared to non-electoral period of local governance in Nepal) with actual performance of local governments (Pandeya & Oyama, 2019b); yet, many local governments (2017)(2018)(2019)(2020)(2021)(2022) in Nepal demonstrated their ability to introduce their own way of involving citizens of diverse identities and capacities in the making of local decisions and their implementation.…”

“…3.2.4 | Deputy-mayor/vice-chair Deputy-mayors/Vice-chairs perform more than ten key functions of local governments as outlined in the Local Government Operation Act (2017). The Deputy Mayor coordinates many of the participatory planning forums and leads several policy committees in informal, semi-formal, and formal settings 1 (Bhusal, 2019). At the council level, the Deputy Mayor functions as the annual budget and programme proposer.…”

Participatory local governance in rural Nepal: The primacy of informality

“…These offer spaces for ordinary people to participate and explore their preferences in informal, semi‐formal, and formal settings, and thus influence decision‐makers to prefer certain choices with the aim of improving their societies. Informal forums feature unrestricted public spaces in neighbourhoods; semi‐formal forums provide relatively limited official avenues; and formal forums stipulate spaces for selected representatives of ordinary people—which combine to create a participatory atmosphere at the local level (Bhusal, 2019). Whether forums individually provide better sociological insights than they do as a group is yet to be fully established.…”

“…This hypothesis is of particular concern when it comes to studying the local participatory mechanisms of a country with more than 120 local languages and over 100 ethnic communities. While most of the formal structures of municipal citizen participation programmes are uniformly devised by federal law (Bhusal, 2019), local sociological factors shape informal or semi‐formal participatory mechanisms in both rural and urban municipalities (Acharya & Zafarullah, 2022).…”