Covid-19 Nepal: Federalism fared badly as politics and pandemic collided. What next?

Formal institutional reforms, such as decentralisation and a transition to federalism, do not necessarily mean immediate or significant changes in the actors with political power or capital, the power of the government as a whole, or the power of interest groups to block reforms. However, the transition to federalism needs to have more, and different, effects on the decision-making mechanism. Decentralisation needs to increase the importance of organised opposition as the governments need to pay more attention to the communities that are under their jurisdiction. There is a need for working from both ways: national to local and local to national levels. This is possible only through massive inclusion, creative dialogue and interaction among all concerned units and stakeholders.

For this, relevant authorities should nurture policy dialogues among leaders of all sectors and levels. So, the policy process should be seen as a collective process for all Nepali people equally. The deconstruction of an elite-controlled, centralised and top-down policy process into the bottom-up approach to ensure multi-dimensional participation is a way of solution. It will help to generate the ownership of stakeholder in related policy that will be productive in accelerating the activeness and ensuring sustainability.