March 14, 2024 (Thursday), 16:30 – 18:00 JST
IDEC Large Conference Room (in-person only)
About the Lecture
With adoption of the new constitution in 2015, and after two successions of local, provincial and federal elections in 2017 and 2022, Nepal is streaming ahead with the implementation of federal governance system. However, its effectiveness in making the federal processes and practices politically, administratively and economically viable for the country has been subjected to numerous criticisms in recent times. Mainly, simultaneous execution of 761 government units in three tiers, each exercising exclusive as well as concurrent rights with proactive law-making, planning, and implementing roles, has fostered conditions for intergovernmental conflicts. It is imperative to understand the dynamics of intergovernmental conflicts, and to find policy and pragmatic solutions to each of these conflicts. It is suggested that jurisdictional problems instigated by lack of clearly defined laws, policies and institutional arrangements, power struggles and competitions between different units of government, identity struggles for coexistence between distinct levels of government, and poor approaches to dealing with conflicts are some of the core factors behind the occurrence and emergence intergovernmental conflicts. This is further escalated by the provision of exclusive as well as concurrent rights. When different layers of governments lack coordination and collaboration while formulating policies and programs it creates impacts beyond the territories of each government. Furthermore, self-centric interpretations of exclusive and concurrent rights have also increased the chances of intergovernmental conflicts, which are aggravated by resource and policy dependency among the government units, especially when they subsist against the interests of a particular government. Moreover, power holders’ perspectives and understanding of the new governance system and their flexibilities and interests in collaborating with other governments, has the potential to contribute to intergovernmental conflicts in federal Nepal.
Intergovernmental conflict is a common phenomenon that is observed when a country adopts a new governance system with the provision of multiple layers of governments, each exercising exclusive and concurrent rights. Such conflicts are even more common when different layers of governments have to operate with the principles of coordination, cooperation and coexistence. Also, post-conflict and post-movement governance arrangements have the potential to increase intergovernmental conflicts, as they are formed under the power sharing arrangements between the agitating parties and interest groups, which may not necessarily be constructed with the best satisfaction of all parties. What is required to tackle this problem is robust conflict resolution structures and mechanisms along with a clear strategic mindset and political will to confront the challenges.
About the Speaker
Prakash Bhattarai is the Director of Centre for Social Change (CSC), a non- profit research and advocacy institute in Nepal working on issues around education, governance, migration, labor, peacebuilding, and civic engagement. Bhattarai holds a PhD in Peace and Conflict Studies from the University of Otago, New Zealand. He also holds master’s degrees in Population Studies (Tribhuvan University, Nepal) and in International Peace Studies (University of Notre Dame, USA), and has been a visiting research scholar (April-June 2013) at the Department of Peace and Conflict Research, Uppsala University, Sweden and at Peace Research Institute Frankfurt (PRIF), Germany (May-June 2017). He is also a 2018 Asia Global Fellow at Asia Global Institute, University of Hong Kong. He has published articles in peer reviewed journals such as International Negotiation, International Journal of Conflict Management and Journal of Peacebuilding and Development. Dr. Bhattarai has more than 20 years of professional and leadership experience on issues surrounding governance, peacebuilding, development, migration, labor, gender and youth with his association in a number of national and international organizations as well as the UN agencies.
