Kushal Pokharel

• Masters in Development Studies
• Faculty, Research Methods and Skills at Silver Mountain School of Hotel Management

Nepal's transition to decentralised governance has placed more responsibility in the hands of provincial and local governments. But fair fiscal management has proved difficult. Structural flaws in funding allocation mechanisms have led to a misallocation of resources and an underspending of local government budgets. Yet increasing reliance on condi...

Melamchi, 76 kilometres from Nepal’s capital Kathmandu, was bouncing back from the massive 2015 earthquake when the flood in 2021 brought further devastation. The ravaging flood also severely damaged its ambitious water supply project which had taken nearly three decades to be operational. Climate Change made its presence felt as many lives were lo...

This case study delves into the potential for advancing Water, Energy, Food, and Ecosystem(WEFE) nexus governance within Nepal’s federal structure, with a specific focus on policy and institutional dimensions. Centering on the water sector, the article explores the emerging opportunities for championing a nexus approach in the federal governance sy...

Nepal's federal democratic republic system, focussing on decentralised governance, continues to receive mixed reviews regarding its effectiveness and impact. Despite public trust skewed towards local governments, obstacles like political parties' failure to orient cadres to the federal structure and the hindrance of local governments by the federal...

Nepal’s entry into federalism in 2015 resulted in a decentralised governance structure with constitutionally mandated legislative, executive and judicial functions for local governments. Existing research shows that devolving discretionary authority and resources to local governments is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for effective local...

The limitations of existing institutional and social structures and their discrete approaches to water management call for a holistic, trans‐disciplinary, and multi‐stakeholder approach to addressing water security concerns with a focus on water equity and justice. The need for forging partnerships and strengthening positive and meaningful cooperat...

A growing body of research analyses institutional dimensions of adaptation and disaster risk management at the local level, highlighting the positive role of local institutions. However, the question of when institutions could also limit adaptation is much less explored. Drawing on the case of a landslide in the Nepal Himalayas, this paper advances...

This chapter unfolds the fascinating story of struggles and triumphs of the evolution of Dhulikhel's attempts to secure urban water supply. The aim of the chapter is to familiarize the readers with the emergence and evolution of the community-based water resource governance system in Dhulikhel and reflect on the key insights that can be amplified t...

This paper locates the issue of water security within the larger discourse of Environmental Justice which has become more encompassing and broader in scope, forms and processes penetrating the issues of political, economic and cultural distribution of resources. The concept of urban governance and water security is inextricably tied as the need of...

Despite widespread participatory governance reforms in the forest sector in Nepal, how forest administration can be re-organised at multiple levels to enable community based forest management remains unexplored. Forest governance reforms in Nepal have involved numerous forms of collaboration and contestation between the state agencies and community...

This paper locates the issue of water security within the larger discourse of Environmental Justice which has become more encompassing and broader in scope, forms and processes penetrating the issues of political, economic and cultural distribution of resources. The concept of urban governance and water security is inextricably tied as the need of...