Nepali academics and development practitioners have said that the public policy-making process in Nepal should be more participatory, accountable and people-centred.

They had come together at the soft-launch of the Policy Leadership Program (PLP), which is organised by the Nepal Policy Institute (NPI) and the Kathmandu University School of Management Police Lab (KUSOM Policy Lab), at the KUSOM Hall in Balkumari, Kathmandu on Monday.

The PLP will include pre-residency, residency, and post-residency components, according to organisers. The residency component is planned for March of next year, said KUSOM Policy Lab Director Dr Purna Nepali.

Speaking at the soft-launch event, Dr Gopi Krishna Khanal, a former government secretary, emphasised the need for a more participatory policy-making process in Nepal. “If we had strictly enforced building code policy, we could have saved many lives during disasters,” Khanal said, stressing the need for programmes to empower policymakers and generate resources for policy actors.

Meanwhile, Dr Gambhir Bhatta, adjunct faculty at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore, said that Nepal still needed to come up with several federal statutes required to properly implement federalism, such as on civil service, police services, and education.

“Effective institutional and policy reform requires coming to grips with the political underpinnings and the drivers that shape how institutions develop, how decisions are made, and what the incentives and constraints are of all actors,” the former NPI executive director said.

Former global chief of Action Aid International Ramesh Singh stated that the public perception regarding leadership has changed over the years, while also adding that Nepal was yet to make progress in terms of political quality despite witnessing an improvement in people’s quality of life.

Similarly, Khagendra Dhakal, chairman of the NPI and Adjunct Professor at King Mongkut’s University of Technology, North Bangkok, underscored the role of critical thinking in policy-making. He also added that the NPI was committed to leveraging the large pool of Nepali diaspora towards a more inclusive and well-rounded policy development process.