Under the “Strengthening gender-responsive local governance of Nepal” implemented by SAP Nepal with support of UNDEF, to enhance the gender-responsiveness of the local governance and accountability towards the target marginalized population, Citizen Report Card (CRC) assessment was conducted in August 2022.
A Citizen Report Card is a simple and commendable research tool which provides systematic feedback to the public agencies about the aspects of their service quality and performance. It is also an effective tool to exhibit weak accountability and corrective action needed to improve the services for public. CRC is conducted in target four municipalities (Haripur, Barathawa, Chandranagar and Basbariya) of Sarlahi district of Nepal. The scope of study includes municipal offices of four target municipalities: Haripur, Chandranagar, Barathawa and Basbariya of Sarlahi. While the main objective of the study is to assess participation, access, opportunities and service conditions of the state services in the perspective of marginalized women, and responsiveness of the local government towards the marginalized community.The information were collected by the consultant through survey, observation, and Focus Group Discussion and Key Informant Interview methods. The major findings of the CRC assessment were:
- Based on the analysis of the Of the total municipal budget of last three year, it shows that no directly gender responsive budget has been allocated in any of the four target municipalities
- There is no participation of Musahar community is any program and budget spent by the local government in the last 3 fiscal year
- The FGD results with Mushar women groups shows that the services users do not have knowledge of the gender responsive budget or any local government program and budget
- In the last five years, the no Musahar women reported to have visited ward or municipal services to demand for their rights and services
- Analysis of program and budget of fiscal year 2078/79 of local government of Terai Madesh also shows that it has failed to reach or benefit backward Musahar community.
The report towards the end also comprises of the SWOT (Strengthen, Weakness, Opportunity and Threat) analysis of each of four municipalities to achieve goal of strengthening gender-responsive local governance.