Research Study Abstract

Title: Service Delivery at the Grassroots: A case study in Nepal
Document Reference: researchstudy8.pdf

Executive Summary & Findings

Research: Service Delivery at the Grassroots: A case study in Nepal

Conflict affects countries at all levels of development. Conflict is also defined as
development in reverse. Institutions and agencies delivering services to the people rarely
escape the ravages of violent conflict. The conflict situation in the dcountry has
jeopardized effective service delivery system at the local level. Local institutions (VDCs,
municipalities and DDCs) have often beeen the targets of the rebel attack. VDC buildings
in many districts have already been demolished and VDC secreataries are either forced to
resing from their post or to stay at district headquarters. Similarly, sectoral offices of the
line ministries have not been able to deliver services, as expected, because of the conflict
situation.
Against this background, Institute of Governance and Development (IGD) decided to
assess the effectiveness of service delivety at the grassroots during this situation of
conflict. The agencies covered by the study are the Village Development Committees
(VDCs), Health Posts, Schools, Agricultural centres in particularly.
The major objectives of the survey are
 To undertake overall assessment of the public services delivered by local
bodies VDC and other sectorial agencies especially health, education,
agriculture at village level and impact of the ongoing conflict on them.
 To obtain information direct from the stakeholders regarding the present
situation of the various services begin provided to citizens by VDCs and other
services providing institutions.
 To obtain information on means and modality of basic services to be accessed
by local citizens from the public agencies at the grassroots level.
 To analyze the status of public goods and services provided by VDCs and
other agencies at the local level.

Methodology
Altogether ten districts from five development regions were selected to assess the
situation of service delivered are representative of the geographical regions one district
were selected while making selection of the VDCs within the district consultation was
held with the DDCs concerned. Care was taken to ensure that the VDCs selected cover
the social demographics of the district. Moreover, local users of the services were also
interviewed to gauge into the level of satisfaction from the services.

Structured questionnaires were prepared to reflect the provision of services provided by
various local institutions at the village level. Basic areas of services such as education,
health and agriculture were identified as major sectors for the survey and attention was
also provided to other services such as electricity, safe, drinking water, postal services
etc. In addition to the information received from the respective service providing
institutions a set of questioners were also administered to receive feed back from the

users. Check list was also prepared to collect secondary on how to build rapport with the
respondents, local citizens, the users administer the instruments. They were also briefed
on how to negotiate with the difficult situations, if any to be emanated from the conflict,
in the field and elicit relevant information from the respondents.

Major Key Findings
The key findings are:
 The most affected service to the public is that of the service provided by VDCs.
 Majority of VDC secretaries are providing services either from district head
quarter or from the place where they live.
 Majority of VDC building of the surveyed VDCs are destroyed.
 Absence of elected representatives have made local people reluctant to visit local
institutions (VDCs and DDCs) with their demands or needs
 The student pressure in government schools in rural areas is mounting.
 The scarcity of educational facilities including physical infrastructures in school
are common
 Free education virtually does not exist in government schools.
 Comparatively the service provision in health centers is found relatively better
 The number of farmers visiting to access services from agriculture centers is
decreasing

Policy Implications

Findings from this empirical study were presented at national policy roundtables and distributed to relevant ministries, parliamentary committees, and development partners to guide evidence-based policy making in Nepal.