Brief description of the assignment

The undertakings of the assignment will be based on His Majesty's Government of Nepal's recently published Information Technology Policy 2000. The basic objective of the policy is, inter alia, to make information technology accessible to the general public and by this means stimulate local business and economic development, and increase employment opportunities. Consequently, the Feasibility Study will, in support of HMG/N's policy, ascertain the potentials of ICT as an instrument for effecting human development, and egovernance and e-commerce in particular. More immediately, the Feasibility Study, and subsequent Strategic Plan of Action, will further the on-going efforts of the Rural-Urban Partnerships Programme (RUPP) in demonstrating the benefits and use of ICT in practice. In effect the experiences of RUPP to date will be used as a spring-board to develop, test and refine the final Strategic Plan of Action. The result will be a proven set of operational modalities, procedures, and techniques: with some successful model examples of the beneficial results of ICT in development. An additional result will be a set of policy recommendations that will contribute to upstream development efforts in Nepal.

The assignment will result in the following outputs:

• A refined Feasibility Study on the use of ICT as an instrument for facilitating and promoting social and economic development; with a particular focus on the poor and on women, e-governance and e-commence in a rural-urban setting.

• A refined and agreed Strategic Plan of Action for pilot-testing and then implementing ICT as an instrument for facilitating e-governance and ecommerce to stimulate pro-poor rural-urban linkages.

• A report analysing the preliminary results and outcomes, impact and benefits derived from the application of success indicators during pilot-testing the Strategic Plan of Action.
  

Harnessing RUPP experience and current undertakings

His Majesty's Government of Nepal in 1999 enacted the Local Self-Governance Act 2055 to facilitate decentralised local development. The Act provides for a participatory approach to municipal management through delegating specific responsibilities to the wards operating at grass-roots levels. Municipalities thus became responsible for social and economic development as well as for the provision of infrastructure and services. The newly delegated responsibilities required the acquisition new skills and the development of fresh methodologies and tools. Meanwhile, the Rural-Urban Partnerships Programme (RUPP), initiated to redress seemingly intractable poverty in rural, and increasingly urban areas, was designed to do so through capacity building in municipal offices, and through social mobilisation as an effective means of economic development. The RUPP approach produces rapid and tangible results because it shows how municipalities, by enhancing the mutual interests and linkages between rural and urban areas, can stimulate the natural dynamics of trade between producers and markets; thereby and enhancing economic xchange.
One of the important elements of the RUPP initiative, which was endorsed by the recent evaluation of programme, is the development and implementation of an information system accessible across municipalities and beyond. RUPP piloted the installation and use of Urban Information Centres (UICs). Now the programme is busy with the establishment of Community Resource Centres with two-way communication facilities linked to the municipalities' UICs as a means of promoting e-governance and e-commerce. Another important aspect of this work is the creation of homepages about public affairs that will enhance transparency and information flow for all citizens.