• Asia Media Forum
• Apr 1, 2021

Training on ‘Local Governance and Federalisation Process’

Asia Media Forum, Nepal (AMF-Nepal), in partnership with International IDEA, organized a training on ‘Local Governance and Federalisation Process in the context of Covid-19 pandemic and evolving political context’ from March 29-31, 2021. The three-days training was focused on broadening the understanding of journalists in federalisation and governance, discussing how Covid-19 context is affecting current federalisation and governance processes, possible impacts of House of Representatives dissolution and its reinstatement by the Supreme Court in February, volatile politics, conducts and behaviours of the political parties on federalization process, among others.

Total of 25 journalists were provided training on the following topics: Review and reflection of journalists from previous course and lessons they learned, dissolution of House, reinstatement by the Constitutional Bench of the Supreme Court, political context and its impacts on federalism, ongoing federalization process, Covid-19 and local governance, the effects of Covid-19 on media, sharing and learning from international experience on federalism and experience sharing with the elected representatives of municipalities.

The AMF conducted orientation training for the new participants at a breakfast meeting on March 25, 2021 for the total of 10 new participants who had to be trained on the subjects of the training because they had not participated in the 2019 training. The AMF shared the learning of the last training and informed the new participants about the objectives of the training.

Apart from that, a separate session entitled ‘review and reflection of journalists from previous course and lessons they have learned, and their expectation from the training’ was organized by the AMF office bearer on the first day of the training so as to understand the participants’ expectations.

Journalists from all national media outlets participated in the training. Renowned experts and analysts were invited to train the journalists on diverse range of issues. On the first day, Mr Budhi Karki spoke on “Ongoing federalization process: Positives, challenges, and additional challenges added by Covid-19,” Mr Subhash Ghimire (the editor-in-chief of Republica) made a presentation on “Covid-19 and Journalism: How media sector is affected and how it failed to cover the issues of local spheres during Covid period” and Dr Bipin Adhikari made a presentation on “Constitutional provisions and uniform understanding on federalism.”

On the second day, renowned political analyst and scholar Hari Sharma imparted training on the subject “Dissolution of House, reinstatement by the Constitutional Bench of the Supreme Court, current political context and its impacts on federalism: What next for federalism in Nepal?” Dr. Gopi Krishna Khanal, Joint-Secretary and National Program Director, of Provincial and Local Government Support Program (PLGSP) of Ministry of Foreign Affairs and General Administration spoke about inter-relation among three spheres of governments, Mr Bishnu Adhikari shared experience and learning from international experience on federalism and Mr Phanindra Adhikari shared insights on strengths, weaknesses and challenges seen in local government sphere.

On the third day, Mr.Balananda Paudel, Chairperson of National Natural Resources and Fiscal Commission provided class on fiscal federalism. Mr.Hari Bahadur Thapa, Editor-in-Chief of Ekagaj spoke on ‘Covid-19 and Local Governance: challenges for the journalists and media and Ms.Hari Prabha Khadgi, Deputy Mayor of Kathmandu Metropolitan City shared her experience of working as a local representative during the Covid times.

Each of the 25 participating journalists was provided fellowship in form of field expense and they were assigned to write and publish stories based on their learning during the training in their respective media outlets.