Understanding Local Government Coordination: An Assessment of District Coordination Committees in Nepal

Abstract

This observational study of local government coordination brings fresh assessment of institutions and processes of District Coordination Committees (DCCs) in facilitating horizontal coordination across local governments and vertical coordination between federal, provincial, and local governments in Nepal. Necessary qualitative data – observational notes, interview transcripts and selected official publications – were generated based on researcher's two year's professional experience at the DCC in a remote district of Rasuwa in Nepal. Analysis is conducted in line with what John Halligan (2020) has explained as analytical elements of horizontal and vertical coordination. Findings suggest that although DCCs seem less effective local institutions in fostering both horizontal and vertical coordination, they are increasingly providing the most plausible avenues for politicians, administrators, and ordinary people to get together in materialising the constitutional thirst to implement cooperative federalism in Nepal.