Abstract
The Strengthening Political Parties, Electoral and Legislative Processes (SPPELP) project operates on the hypotheses that: (1) strong electoral institutions and processes are fundamental to an inclusive, stable and lasting democracy in Nepal; (2) if parties were more representative and able to implement effective competitive electoral campaigns and the population had access to better information of policy differences, the political parties can better contribute to the democratic process in Nepal; (3) more comprehensive election monitoring and better informed media to cover election related issues will enable civil society initiatives to more effectively contribute to transparent electoral processes; and (4) more effective reviews and deliberation of bills of the Constituent Assembly (CA) incorporating input from constituents will make the the legislative process more transparent and will help the CA more effectively fulfill its democratic functions. With the SPPELP, USAID thereby tried to address: (1) what was perceived as weaknesses of the young Nepali democracy; (2) the capacity of political parties to run party organizations and to participate in competitive electoral campaigns; (3) the capacity of civil society to have better oversight of the political process; and (3) the institutional capacity of the CA and the Election Commission, Nepal (ECN). The summary of key evaluation questions are: (1) given two-and-half years of the program, do the objectives of the project remain relevant to Nepal's political development [and] are there new challenges which are not addressed by the program [and] what adjustments to the program are recommended; (2) to what extent is the project on track to reach its intermediate results and overall goals; (3) how effective is the program in engaging women, youth, Dalits, and other marginalized groups to contribute to development of national politics; (4) how effective is the relationship between the Consortium of Elections and Political Processes Strengthening (CEPPS) partners and key stakeholders? The evaluation showed that the SPPELP project is still on track to reach its goal even with the challenges that the political situation in Nepal has provided. (Excerpt, modified)