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Parliament Support Project
Summary
Parliament Support Project (PSP) has been providing technical support to the Federal Parliament (FP), the Provincial Assemblies (PAs), parliamentary committees, members of parliament (MPs), and the parliament secretariats to strengthen their parliamentary functions. The project supports core parliamentary functions including lawmaking through bill review, public consultations, law scrutiny and assessment; parliamentary oversight; outreach; openness; research and studies; and knowledge management. Apart from this, the project has been providing support for enhancing the capacities of women MPs, and MPs from the disadvantaged groups for their effective roles in the parliament. Promotion of human rights, anti-corruption and financial good governance, environmental protection, and sustainable development goals (SDGs) are also the priority areas of the project. The project is funded by the Royal Norwegian Embassy and UNDP
Background
Since 2008, UNDP has been supporting the Constituent Assembly/Legislature-Parliament in its task of participatory constitution-building through the Support to Participatory Constitution-Building in Nepal (SPCBN) project. After the promulgation of the Constitution of Nepal in 2015, the SPCBN Project was transformed into a more comprehensive Parliament Support Project (PSP) that is geared to provide support to the Federal Parliament (FP) and Provincial Assemblies (PAs) in order to strengthen their role as lawmaking oversight bodies that are representative of the people. The project focuses on supporting parliaments and their secretariats to strengthen their parliamentary functions for the implementation of the new Constitution and institutionalization of federalism in Nepal.
Major Achievements
- Enhanced the capacity of members of the federal and provincial parliaments (724 in 2018, 602 in 2019, 365 in 2020 and 500 in 2021) for their effective and participatory role in the parliaments.
- Enhanced capacity of staff of secretariats of the federal and provincial parliaments (193 in 2018, 230 in 2019, 168 in 2020 and 190 in 2021) in providing their support to MPs and committees.
- Supported expert reviews and public consultations of over 80 bills of the FP and the PAs, Post Legislative Scrutiny of 5 federal Acts and assessment of 25 Provincial Acts.
- Supported parliamentary committees for over 100 oversight missions that resulted in over 30 directives to the governments.
- Introduced and institutionalized outreach initiatives such as Meet the Speaker, Meet the MPs; sensitized over 115 MPs on openness principles; supported Video Conferencing Facility (VCF) for parliamentary openness and outreach.
Project Outputs
- Enhanced the capacity of the Federal Parliament and Provincial Assemblies to be effective and participatory.
- Enhanced the capacity of parliamentary secretariats to be capable and innovative in their support to MPs and Committees.
- Enhanced the capacity of the Federal Parliament and Provincial Assemblies to be open, interactive, and accountable to citizens.
- Built the capacity of women MPs and MPs from disadvantaged groups to be effective and parliaments at the federal and provincial levels to routinely engage with women, youth and other disadvantaged citizens.
- Enhanced the capacity of parliaments at the federal & provincial levels to routinely response to pandemic in the post COVID-19.
Gender & Social Inclusion Component
- A total of 150 secretariat staff of all seven Provincial Assemblies (20% women) enhanced their knowledge and understanding on various aspects of gender equality and social inclusion through a dedicated training with their commitment to appointing a GESI focal person in each PA.
- Provincial dialogues on representation of women from Dalit, marginalized and disadvantaged communities have been raised with political parties' commitment of ensuring 33 % of their representation as candidates in the parliamentary elections.
- The project produced dedicated radio episodes on the role of parliamentarians to promote gender equality and has been continuosly advocating for and addressing the rights of women, marginalized and disadvantaged communities in the parliaments.
- Expert consultations on the rape law and the law on criminal offence resulted in extension of statute of limitation on the rape law and change of some terminologies as per the change context (addition of “flammable objects” in the law) in criminal office law.
- The knowledge products on the best practices of women MPs, MPs from disadvantaged communities and Dalit MPs in their current parliamentary term served as handy reference materials for the new MPs.
- Engaged MPs with the targeted marginalized community resulted in allocation of budget by provincial governments for the most marginalized communities (for example: Bankariya, Chepang, Badi).
- The project's routine engagement with the Social Development Committee of Karnali Province on GESI issues and advocacy for GESI formulation policy resulted in formulation and endorsement of GESI Policy.
Related Materials
Project details:
| Project Status | Active |
| Project Period |
September 2015 - January 2018 (phase I) January 2018- December 2022 (Phase II) |
| Project ID | 00049635 |
| Focus Area | Democratic Governance |
| Source of Funding | Government of Norway and UNDP |
| Implementing Agency | UNDP |
| Collaborating Partners | Federal Parliament and seven Provincial Assemblies |
| Budget | US$ 5.2 m |
| Contact | CO Focal Point Ms. Kalpana Sarkar Portfolio Manager UNDP Nepal UN House, Pulchowk, Nepal Tel: 977-01-5523200- Ext: 1019 Email: kalpana.sarkar@undp.org |
Project Focal Point Dr. Raj Bahadur Shrestha Project Manager Parliament Support Project, UNDP Tara House, Sanepa Lalitpur, Nepal Tel: 977-01-5428018 Ext. 208 Email: raj.shrestha@undp.org |