Prepared by : Mr. Ratan Bahadur Rawal (SUSASAN Project)

The project SUSASAN was started in the right time that the newly elected people's representatives were just starting their work at the municipality with the slogan of improving the quality of public service delivery through tangibly changing in governance system. But, no one had concrete idea or plan about how to bring changes in governance system. Some limited tools and mechanisms of governance were in practice though they were not effective. In the mean time, Malika Development Organization (MDO) Nepal, consulted to the new mayor of Saphebagar Municipality and discussed about the project "Sustainable Use of Technology for Public Sector Accountability in Nepal-SUSASAN" and the possible area of the assistance. During consultation meeting discussed about integrated technology (online and offline) that can be introduced for the improvement of governance and accountability. This new concept was appreciated by the mayor and other elected representatives because this was matched with their idea. But, the municipal representatives were not familiar with the technologies therefore it took time to initiate the action.

Indeed, the expectation of citizens towards newly elected representatives was very high, so on the one hand they were in pressure to address the diversified demand of citizens and on the other hand the data or information of the municipality was not updated systematically and regularly. Considering the situation, Saphebagar Municipality Mayor started to work proactively for the improvement of overall management of information system (MIS) along with quality service delivery system. He has been seeking support for the development of tools and mechanisms to enhance accountability and to promote citizen state engagement.  In this regard, SUSASAN project proposed  to identified possible common fields for collaboration to improve accountability through the introduction of integrated technologies and made Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) accordingly. In line with MoU, SUSASAN assisted to the municipality in the development of municipal data portal and e-profile. Under these platforms, the policies and important decisions along with program and budget of the municipality are digitized for public access. Similarly, for public use group messaging tools, point of interest (detail of public concern institutions) and municipal voice (statement of elected representatives on different theme of public interest) are developed and linked with data portal of the municipality. It has been helping significantly to the municipality on the improvement of governance. In addition, these tools have been promoting transparency and accountability of municipality. All the information related with the municipality has been posted in the web portal saphebagar.susasan.org. The municipality is moving towards to digital governance by introducing technology base service delivery systems as well proactive disclosure of public information.

Executive member of municipality Ms. Jayanti Bogati: "Now we are using group SMS system in our best to invite our members in the meeting and also to share meeting agenda. We have been learning about the use of technologies and we are sure that the SUSASAN portal will support in the delivery of quality service of the municipality".

Chief Administrative Officer Mr. Laxmi Prasad Sharma: "We are very happy that recently we informed to the Ministry to obtain all necessary information from SUSASAN portal. Besides, the citizens are also happy when they access all required information in the portal".