Rapid Assessment Report Baseline for Indicator Numbers 11 and 27

The main objectives of Sajhedari are to create and implement sound policies and legislation that empower, finance, and regulate provincial and municipal governments, to make targeted provinces and municipal governments more responsive, inclusive, accountable, transparent, and effective in decision making and delivering priority services, and to increase participation at the local level. The project has two performance indicators based on the Local Government Institutional Capacity Self-Assessment (LISA) process. The indicators are: Performance Indicator 11, which measures the percentage change in local government public sector management performance metric score, and Performance Indicator 27, which measures the percent of USG-assisted organizations with improved performance. The project conducted a rapid baseline survey to assess the LG public sector management performance metric score and measured the two indicators. The data collection team was led by governance specialists who are experienced in the LISA process. Each of the 10 municipal coordinators (MCs) collected data from his or her working municipality. The assessment process is different from the actual LISA as the assessment is done by MCs based on LISA indicators and tools. This is an external assessment of LGs conducted by Sajhedari. The overall scores from the surveys is 222 from a total possible score of 440, which is 50.4 percent. The scores achieved by each municipality are as follows: Bheemdatt (24.25), Bitthadchir (20.00), Dangisaran (22.50), Dhangadi (24.00), Dipayal (21.50), Gauriganga (21.50), Ghorahi (26.25), Punarbas (23.75), Shikhar (18.00), and Tulsipur (20.00). Ghorahi achieved the highest score (26.25) among the 10 project municipalities, while Shikhar had the lowest score (18.0). The findings suggest that there is room to improve in the four thematic areas. Sajhedari should support comprehensively in some municipalities to improve specific sectors. Data show that there is scope for improvement in annual budget and planning process and social inclusion sectors. Sajhedari will continue to gather data in the same process next time, September 2021, and will also compare the data to LISA findings (conducted by government) of the municipality if available. The thematic values of each municipality are as follows: Bheemdatt (7.25, 9.75, 5.25, 2.00), Bitthadchir (3.75, 7.25, 4.25, 4.75), Dangisaran (4.00, 9.00, 4.75, 4.75), Dhangadi (6.25, 8.50, 5.50, 3.75), Dipayal (4.75, 7.75, 4.50, 4.50), Gauriganga (5.25, 7.75, 5.50, 3.00), Ghorahi (7.00, 9.00, 6.00, 4.25), Punarbas (5.00, 9.75, 5.50, 3.50), Shikhar (4.50, 6.50, 3.25, 3.75), and Tulsipur (4.00, 7.75, 4.75, 3.50).