Abstract
Sajhedari-Support to Federalism (STF), a six-year United States Agency for International Development (USAID)/Nepal funded Activity, implemented by Abt Associates and its consortium, aims to empower local governments, civil society, and the Nepali people in ten municipalities within two provinces to institutionalize effective, accountable, transparent, responsive, and inclusive local governance systems and practices. This mid-term performance evaluation is meant to inform STF?s ongoing implementation as well as similar programming. The evaluation?s qualitative methodology included document review, key informant interviews, and focus group discussions to identify findings addressing USAID/Nepal?s evaluation questions. STF?s primarily output-level progress across all three objectives and gender equality and social inclusion (GESI) integration indicates more is required to ensure higher-level outcomes are achieved. As federalism was new when STF started, STF focused its first two years on capacity building and basic outputs. Having implemented several key lessons, STF steadily improved synergies with the Nepali government and similar donor-funded activities. Despite being an important resource for financial management, GESI, and policy development, STF could engage more within its consortium and possibly at the provincial level. Lack of clear consensus about STF?s design suggests maintaining the current model is best, while simultaneously working to extend STF?s reach by adopting the proposed model municipality approach by ensuring that successful policies, processes, tools, and approaches are shared across Nepal?s municipalities. Qualitative stakeholder feedback indicates that all groups appreciate and value STF?s many efforts and indicate STF is providing value in terms of efficiency, effectiveness, economy, and equity. The report provides nine recommendations for STF and USAID/Nepal?s consideration.