Failed plans of Nepal

Nepal has started planned development approach since 1955 BS, but after over a century Nepal has reached nowhere.
Dr Jibgar Joshi in his book, ‘Planning Approaches in Nepal’ blames the foreign-educated professional without the ground reality of the country’s need, frequent changes in government, face-saving approach of professionals and donor-driven development agendas for the failure in the development.
The book – that has 10 chapters – goes through the concepts and definition of the planning, to national, regional and district planning, method of making plans and formulation of projects, land use and environment, tools and method of urban planning, provisions of infrastructure to the role of institutions in planning. The book is an eye-opener for the development planners, where they went wrong in the process over last five decades and helps take stocks of where they failed.
A new debate on Nepal’s development approaches has recently started and Joshi’s book will help both planners and government to revisit their past approaches.
As planning is a tool for change it must bring changes in the lives of the people. Joshi writes that the people at large for whom the plans are prepared are neglected in the planning and the gap between the planners and the people is the cause of the failure of plans. The result: after 10 five-year plans, the country – despite its huge potential – is still undeveloped and lagging behind the nations, that were at the same status at some point of time in the past.
Not only the professionals, the donor agencies have also spending a huge amount of resources experimented a lot, though they have now realised that the imported plans won’t give desired results. But the realisation came too late.
Apart from confusion over the role of development partners, the role of private sector and public sector is still not clearly defined. “In Nepal there is no clear demarcation of the roles between the role of private sector and public sector, which has weakened the planning process,” he rightly thinks. Such confusions persist on every front of development pulling the country backward.
At a time when questions have been raised on the whole process of planning and their implementation, Joshi’s book gives a pragmatic overview of the planning process. Being a planner himself, Joshi has not tried to cover the weakness on part of planners. He has also pointed out the need to integrate lower strata of the society in the planning process. “It is a futile exercise to try to make a radical change from the top,” he summerises.
The book has tried to give a deeper understanding on planning approaches in Nepal and will be worthy to go through at a time when the country is moving towards the federalism. The current development approaches that have not worked for the present state of the nation would definitely not work for the federal structure that country is looking forward. It’s high time, the planners start brain storming on the future course of development strategy that the book has missed.

BOOK REVIEW
Book: Planning Approaches in Nepal
Publisher: Mrs Lajmina Joshi
Author: Dr Jibgar Joshi
Pages: 162
Price: Rs 320