Study on the Status of Socio-Economic Discrimination in Nepal

Team Leader: Madhusudhan Bhattarai Dr.

Team Members: Govinda Basnet Dr.; Damodar Bhandari; Ujjal Acharya; Narayan Ghimire; Manish Kokh (Shrestha); Narayan Babu Shrestha

Duration: April to June, 2018 (3 months)

Fund: NPR 2,474,813

Source: World Bank Group

Nature of Project: Independent study for the use of the National Natural Resources and Fiscal Commission/Government of Nepal

About the Project

There is a constitutional provision that the Federal Government of Nepal should provide equalization grants to provincial and local governments and the provincial governments also need to provide such grants to the local governments on the basis of revenue capacity and expenditure need. The Constitution of Nepal envisions the National Natural Resources and Fiscal Commission (NNRFC) as a focal institution to operationalize such equalization grants. The (NNRFC) Act 2074 has identified criteria for determining such grant, and one of such criteria is the status of economic, social, and other forms of discrimination. Along with this line, the NNRFC intends to conduct a detailed and consolidated analysis of socio-economic and other forms of discrimination among and within different sub-national governments which will provide the basis for developing fiscal transfer calculation criteria.

The Conservation Development Foundation (CODEFUND) though this proposal, submits its intention and methodology to undertake this assignment.  

The main objective of the study as stated in the Terms of Reference (TOR) is to recommend an appropriate socio-economic indicator for fiscal transfer which would provide a basis to address socio-economic and other forms of discriminations in the country. The specific objectives of this study are:

1. To identify socio-economic variables to be considered to address the status of socio-economic and other discrimination while designing formula for intergovernmental fiscal transfer.
2. To recommend a socio-economic indicator to calculate the share of fiscal transfer to provincial and local governments for fiscal year 2075/76.