Himalayan News Service

Kathmandu, June 17:

Bad governance, weak rule of law and fragile accountability have been the hallmarks for weak development and sustainable democratic polity that have greatly affected people’s livelihood and development’. “Bad governance has ultimately increased the number of poor,” they said. Experts have strongly stressed that a strong democratic system relies on the participation of the people, and demanded transparent and accountable policies. Shovhakar Budhathoki, an advocate for good governance, rule of law and accountability said that the state’s political, economic and social practices are still deeply rooted in feudal and conservative society that retains the social inequality, economic disparity, discrimination based on caste and gender and unemployment in the past further exacerbated by wide sweeping globalisation. Such factors became the root causes of destroying the principles of good governance after the restoration of democracy and with state authorities continuing

the bad practices of the past by engaging in institutionalised corruption and undermining rule of law, he said. Budhathoki was presenting a paper at a preparatory meeting for South Asia Alliance for Poverty Eradication (SAAPE) to be held in Sri Lanka organised by SAAPE itself. SAAPE’s meeting will focus on social, human rights, and governance and to economic issues in the SAARC region.

“Institutionalising principles of good governance, empower people so they can have sufficient freedom to set priorities for development needs according to their own specific socio-economic and cultural circumstances,” said experts. The issues such as changing perceptions and building local capacity, networking, policy formulation, documentation and information sharing, public participation in decision making, transparent and conflict resolution are some of the issues to be taken care of, according to him. Dr Rishi Adhikari, director of Rural Reconstruction Nepal (RRN), also spoke on coming event of SAAPE. Gopal Siwakoti ‘Chintan’, on the occasion, said that corruption and weak implementation of policies, rules and regulations have affected people’s lives at large.