ICePP affiliates Roy W. Bahl and Andrey Timofeev, along with the World Bank’s Serdar Yilmaz, recently released a working paper looking at outcomes of the newly established (2015) federal system of governance in Nepal.
With implementation beginning in 2018, the new system is composed of seven provinces and 753 local governments structured in a decentralized form of fiscal federalism. The Constitution assigns important functional responsibilities to provincial and local governments, and mandates that they have significant autonomy in deciding how services will be delivered. Sub-national governments will account for about one-third of total budgeted government expenditures in FY 2019, financed primarily by intergovernmental transfers. This paper describes the new federal system (now in its third year of operation), discusses the early implementation successes and challenges, and draws some lessons from Nepal’s experience.
Read the full working paper here.
About ICePP’s Working Paper Series
The International Center for Public Policy has published a working paper series since 1997 to disseminate academic research quickly and to stimulate discussion that can expand knowledge, instill optimal practice and build capacity in the public sector around the world to improve human well-being.
Our primary areas of interest are fiscal decentralization and local governance, tax policy, and public budgeting and fiscal management in the global context. Some papers may focus on the United States if the results have international relevance.
All views expressed in this working paper series are those of the respective authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the International Center for Public Policy, the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies or Georgia State University. All papers should be cited properly with reference to the author(s), institution and working paper series. Find all of our working papers here.