With the end of the conflict and the need to rebuild local government, a number of Nepal’s development partners are pooling their support to the national Local Governance and Community Development Programme (LGCDP), which was launched in mid-2008 by the Ministry of Local Development for an initial programme period of four years. The Government and development partners namely the Asian Development Bank, the Canadian International Development Agency, the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the UK Department for International Development, the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Swiss Agency for Development Cooperation have worked together to develop a common approach to project management and implementation. Six UN agencies comprising of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF), the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the United Nations Volunteers (UNV) and the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) have established a Joint Programme, entitled "Support for the Local Governance and Community Development Programme (LGCDP).” The UN Joint Programme (UNJP) is an integral part of LGCDP and is aimed at supporting local governance and community-led development in Nepal. Using a sector-wide approach, LGCDP contributes towards poverty reduction in Nepal through improved and more inclusive local governance and service delivery while promoting gender sensitivity and social inclusion (including child rights issues) in local government affairs. The UN Joint Programme of support to LGCDP builds on the experiences of the six UN organizations in the areas of decentralization, local governance, and community-led development.
Within the joint programme, the UN organizations provide technical and capacity building support in important areas which include: empowering communities and community organizations to participate in local governance, enabling local body capacity building, and enabling central government, NGOs and CBOs to support local government for effective service delivery and more inclusive local development.
The UN Joint Programme is using a combination of pass-through and parallel funding modalities, whereby contributions from development partners and participating UN organizations’ core funds are channeled into the Joint Programme. UNDP is the Administrative Agent for the UNJP.
