NEST has continuously assisting local bodies in Kaski as a local service provider for social mobilization in communities of rural and urban areas. The LGCDP has identified social as its major mobilization component for increasing participation and empowerment of poor and disadvantaged people in local level was planning and decision making. The main goal of LGCDP is promote efficient and effective local governance service for poverty reduction. During the year the NEST has facilitated the social programme in mobilization programme in 11 village development committees and 14 ward of Pokhara Lekhnath Metropolitan City in Kaski. There are 2 social mobilization coordinators and 24 social mobilizers successful mobilized  implementationfor and reporting of programme. Major intervention concentrated institutionalization and capacitating of 41 Citizen Awareness Centre and 113 Child Networks forWard Citizen Forums, 25 community development and child friendly and environment friendly local governance activities. The total beneficiaries reached through programme are 3749 (M=1653 and F=2096). The following are few major achievements through programme implementation in Kaski.

• Altogether 2881 Ward Citizen Forums (WCFs) members were mobilized for citizen need, empowerment and  increasing accountability of development actors in Kaski.
• 16 CACs were involved in implementation of Livelihood Implementation Plan (LIP) and 123 poor households involving in income generating (IG) though goat keeping, poultry farming, boutique and pig farming and agricultural activities;
• Social mobilizers were involved in field data collection and reporting and engaging in VDC capacity building and local level planning;
• DAG mapping through social/resource maps, well-being ranking and poverty mapping’s completed and facilitated the participatory local level planning and project implementation in 11 VDCs and 14 wards of Sub Metropolitan City;
• More than 1650 REFLECT classes were run in Citizen Awareness Centers (CACs) and regular monthly meeting of WCF organized in communities;
• Social mobilization coordinators regularly visited in field and backstopped social mobilizers, WCF and local bodies staffs and support to implement livelihood improvement plan in CAC;
• Regular support for Child Friendly, Environment Friendly Local Governance, GESI and Right to Information, Public Service Delivery and other citizen services to local people.

Social Mobilization Programme under the Local Governance and Community Development Programme (LGCDP) 2017-18

NEST has continuously assisting in programme planning, community mobilization and backstopping people’s organization formed by local authorities in Kaski as a local service provider. The LGCDP has identified social mobilization as its major component for increasing civic engagement and participation in local decision making and implementation. The main goalof LGCDP is promote efficient and effective local governance service for poverty reduction. During the year the NEST has facilitated the social mobilization programme in 11 village development committees and 14 ward of PokharaLekhnath Metropolitan City in Kaski. There are 2 social mobilization coordinators and 24 social mobilizers mobilized for successful implementation and reporting of programme.

 Major intervention was concentrated post back-up and follow-up support to Citizen Awareness Centre and exit of Ward Citizen Centre. The total beneficiaries reached through programme are 3749 (M=1653 and F=2096. The programme has worked with 41 CACs for implementation of Livelihood Implementation Plan (LIP) and 113 Ward Citizen Centre for planning and local development support in community. In addition, social mobilizers and coordinators were involved in assisting to local authorities for facilitating Child Friendly Local Governance, Environment Friendly Local Governance, GESI and Right to Information, local election, profile formation and increasing accountability and transparency through public audit, public hearings.

Social Mobilization Programme – LGCDP/DDC Kaski 2068-69

Introduction:
As a Local Service Provider (LSP), NEST began implementing the Social Mobilization (SM) programme on 2067/07/28 by signing an agreement with DDC Kaski. In the fiscal year 2068/69, the programme extended to include one more VDC, supported financially by LGCDP/UNDP and DDC Kaski. The Social Mobilization Programme aims at community empowerment and promoting governance through transparency and accountability of public service providers. The target beneficiaries include Dalits, women, Janajatis, and disadvantaged people in rural communities.

Objectives of the Programme:
The major objectives of the Social Mobilization Programme are:

1. To apply transformational social mobilization methods.
2. To use the Right, Voice, and Choice method in the programme.

Major Activities Performed:

• Staff selection for the new VDC, Hanspur, and contract extension for social mobilizers in the other five VDCs to continue facilitating social mobilization activities.
• Meetings held in each project VDC with the VDC Secretary to build mutual understanding and foster ownership of the LGCDP-supported activities.
• Field visits by social mobilizers to build rapport and analyze community situations.
• Participation in meetings with all LGCDP LSPs for sharing experiences and improving project implementation.
• Conducted a three-day Social Mobilization Programme training for social mobilizers covering topics such as community transformation, roles and responsibilities, poverty and power analysis, advocacy, REFLECT circles, governance under LGCDP, situational analysis, WCF formation, PRA reporting, and monitoring. This training provided social mobilizers with practical knowledge to effectively facilitate the programme in their respective VDCs.
• Data collection and updating baseline information for each project to identify beneficiaries, their locations, and coordinate with VDCs for better implementation.
• Formation of Ward Citizen Forums (WCFs) with social mobilizers’ assistance, ensuring inclusivity and representation of all social strata, especially women, disadvantaged people with disabilities, minorities, and senior citizens, to increase their access to public goods and services.
• REFLECT classes conducted in each project VDC to raise awareness of citizens’ rights, education, and health facilities provided by the government. Women and Dalits, as primary target groups, have benefited from improved access to services from VDCs, sub-health posts, and schools.
• A three-day training for social mobilizers on CAC management and REFLECT class facilitation methods. Trained social mobilizers have applied their learning effectively, demonstrating improved performance in the field.

Major Achievements:

• Thirty-five Ward Citizen Forums (WCFs) were formed in coordination with VDCs and local stakeholders. Regular meetings have been held to support VDC planning, project implementation, and monitoring. In the absence of elected representatives in respective wards, WCFs played a crucial role in improving transparency and accountability in VDC-level development activities.
• Nine REFLECT classes facilitated by social mobilizers across all six project VDCs contributed significantly to increased participation of women, Janajatis, Dalits, and disadvantaged groups in resource allocation and community decision-making, in coordination with WCFs.
• Women and disadvantaged people’s participation in social mobilization programmes has significantly increased. Both WCFs and REFLECT classes have empowered beneficiaries to raise their voices in community and ward-level decision-making forums and local governance structures, such as school management committees, health post management committees, and community forest user groups.
• Poor families received financial support to start businesses, while Dalit and Janajati farmers were provided training and piglets to improve their livelihoods.
• REFLECT classes have been instrumental in empowering women who previously lacked the confidence to advocate for their rights. The programme focused on groups who are economically weak, have limited resources, and are often voiceless.

Social Mobilization Program / LGCDP 2071-72

The Local Governance and Community Development Program (LGCDP) is being implemented with the goal of contributing towards poverty reduction through inclusive, responsive, and accountable local governance and participatory community-led development.

One of the key outputs of LGCDP is to actively engage communities and community organizations in local governance processes. This includes their active participation in planning and budgeting processes, as well as decision-making related to the implementation and oversight of local government actions and activities. LGCDP has identified social mobilization as the principal means of empowering communities and organizations. The social mobilization intervention focuses on building the capacity of communities and marginalized groups to articulate their needs and priorities and to exercise their rights regarding local government and administration.

The programme aims to contribute toward achieving this goal by accomplishing its three major Programme Outcomes:

1. Citizens and communities hold their local governance actors accountable.
2. Local bodies are more responsive to citizens’ demands.
3. All citizens are provided with efficient and effective local services.

Major Achievements of the Program:

• A total of 99 Ward Citizen Forums (WCFs) have been formed and are functioning well. A total of 2,261 people have participated in these 99 WCFs, including 1,188 males, 1,073 females, 405 Dalits, 754 Janajatis, and 1,102 others.
• Social mobilizers (SMs) were involved in field data collection in their working VDCs. All field data has been analyzed and incorporated into the VDC profiles of the working areas. Social/resource maps, well-being rankings, and poverty mapping findings are being used in the processes of need identification, planning, and program design within the community.
• The Disadvantaged and Marginalized Group (DAG) mapping exercise was completed before finalizing the communities where REFLECT classes are conducted.
• A total of 13 REFLECT classes are functioning well. The classes are conducted regularly, approximately every 5 days. A total of 336 individuals have directly benefited from the REFLECT classes, with women’s participation remaining higher in all working VDCs.
• Social mobilizers have facilitated WCFs in various community meetings to raise their voices in local decision-making processes. Similarly, different users’ committees have been formed to link WCF and REFLECT class members with livelihood support programs run by different local stakeholders.
• The Livelihood Improvement Program (LIP) has been implemented in all 11 CACS, engaging members in various economic activities with a total of 210 beneficiaries.
• Small Income Generation Programs for CACs have been implemented in 9 VDCs, benefiting 1,300 participants.

Recommendations:

• Local Service Providers (LSPs) are key agents in making the social mobilization program successful at the local level. Therefore, the DDC should issue clear guidelines to involve LSPs and empower them to deliver quality services.
• Refresher trainings and capacity enhancement activities related to social inclusion, good governance, and rights-based development approaches need to be intensified in the program design.
• Regular monitoring, supervision, and feedback sharing with stakeholders at different levels help minimize gaps between planning and implementation. Thus, joint monitoring, follow-up, and feedback-sharing interventions should be practiced in close coordination with line agencies.

Social Mobilization Programme – LGCDP/DDC Kaski 2011

Introduction of Program:
As a Local Service Provider (LSP), NEST started the Social Mobilization (SM) program from November 2011 by signing an agreement with the District Development Committee (DDC), Kaski, to carry out social mobilization activities in the VDCs namely Machapuchhre, Rupakot, Majhathana, Thumki, and Parche VDC. NEST is implementing the social mobilization programme in Thumki, Majhathana, Rupakot, Machhapuchhre, and Parche VDCs of Kaski District.

Objectives of Social Mobilization Program:
The overall objective of the program is to improve social mobilization through social mobilizers effectively and efficiently at the village level. The specific objectives of this consultancy service are as follows:
▲ To implement the social mobilization program at the village level following the approach and modality referred to in LGCDP’s social mobilization guideline.
▲ To develop the capacity of social mobilizers and other village-level stakeholders.
▲ To provide technical backstopping to social mobilizers for implementing social mobilization.
▲ To improve the quality and effective delivery of social mobilization.
▲ To provide feedback and suggestions to the local bodies on social mobilization.

Target Group of the Program:
Dalit, Janajati, Marginalized, and Disadvantaged Communities.

Implemented Activities:

Staff selection
Meeting of VDC Secretaries
Field visits/rapport building and community situation analysis by social mobilizers
Support for Open Defecation Free (ODF) campaign in respective VDCs by SM
Meetings among LSPs for better implementation and coordination
Three days Social Mobilization Training
Sharing and coordination with VDC Secretaries in respective VDCs
Ward Citizen Forum formation
REFLECT classes conducted by Social Mobilizers for awareness of rights, education, and health
Baseline data collection

Achievement:
Twenty-five Ward Citizen Forums (WCF) were formed in 5 program VDCs under SMP. Similarly, 8 REFLECT classes have been established covering different issues of concern. REFLECT classes are common forums to facilitate dialogue, discussion, and facilitation on different issues of gender and socially excluded groups, concerns on service delivery, people’s participation, agriculture, health, livelihood, and so on. Besides this, social mobilizers have collected data from the working VDCs using primary and secondary sources on different aspects such as food production, health, education, sanitation, natural resources, and community participation in the decision-making process.

Challenges:
Some challenges were observed during project implementation because this program is new. Especially, it was difficult to convince the community that the program supports them to secure their rights as they demanded physical infrastructure-related activities and direct benefit-related support from LSP.

Learning:

It is an opportunity to work with government organizations and NGOs together to ensure the rights of poor and excluded communities to government services.
Coordination among six LSPs, VDCs, DDC, and rural community people assisted in gaining more knowledge about the community situation and intervention approach.

Conclusion:
This program itself is found to be very important for the community people, especially the poor and excluded. The communities are supporting and gradually becoming involved in the program. It has followed its path, and the local community will play an active role in successfully running the project activities in the future by addressing their interests and real needs.

Social Mobilization Program/LGCDP 2072/73

NEST has continuously assisting local bodies in Kaski as a local service provider for social mobilization in communities of rural and urban areas. The LGCDP has identified social mobilization as its major component for increasing participation and empowernment of poor and disadvantaged people in local level planning and decision making. The main goal of LGCDP is promote efficient and effective local governance service for poverty reduction. 

During the year the NÉST has facilitated the social mobilization programme in 11 village development committees and 10 ward of Pokhara Sub-Metropolitan City in Kaski. The 2 social mobilization coordinators and 21 social mobilizers mobilized for successful implementation and reporting of programme. Major intervention was concentrated for institutionalization and capacitating of 21 Citizen Awareness Centre and 109 Ward Citizen Forums for community development. The total beneficiaries reached through programme are 3749 (M=1653 and F=2096). The following are few major achievement through programme implementation in Kaski.

•Altogether 109 Ward Citizen Forums (WCFs) were reformed and mobilized for citizen need and empowerment;

• 21 CACs were implementation of Livelihood Implementation Plan (LIP) and 123 poor households involving in income generating (IG) though goat keeping, poultry farming, boutique and pig farming;

•Social mobilizers were involved in field data collection and reporting and engaging in VDC capacity building and planning;

• DAG mapping through social/resource maps, well-being ranking and poverty mapping’s completed and facilitated the participatory local level planning and project implementation in 11 VDCs and 10 wards of Sub Metropolitan City;

•252 REFLECT classes were run in Citizen Awareness Centres (CACS) formed in resource poor settlements and 21 new CAC were formed and mobilized;

• Different infrastructure project such Improved Cooking Stoves formation, Small Irrigation Canal construction, Drinking Water Supply Scheme, Solar Power Supply and Tea Plantation were implemented in communities.