The government has decided to phase out all the donor supported social moblisation programmes being conducted at local level under the Local Governance Community Development Programme (LGCDP).

The Ministry of Federal Affairs and Local Development on Friday decided to close the joint multi-donor funded programme starting from Sunday. Various social moblisation programmes have been implemented across the nation at the ward level with support from the United Nations and other INGOs since 2008. Joint Secretary at the ministry Resham Lal Kandel, who is also the national programme manager of the LGCDP, said that the decision was made as the local governments now bear the responsibility for the social mobilisation. The government has no fund for the programme as the donor withdrew their support, he said.

The Ward Citizens Forum (WCF) and Citizen Awareness Centres (CAC) formed at the local levels had been contributing to the planning of development works in the lack of elected representatives. The local bodies had been vacant since the five-year term of local representatives elected in 1997 expired in 2002. The WCF had been providing support to the programme, while the CAC had focused on empowering the women from the elected representative. The local NGOs were implementing the programme mobilising Social Mobilisers in the respective areas.

“The ministry would like to acknowledge role played by the programme in good governance, planning and local empowerment,” the ministry said in a statement.