Nepal has a two-tier system of local governance, with Village Development Committees (VDCs) and municipalities at the local level as the lower tier and district bodies, District Development Committees (DDCs), at the district level as the higher one. The current functions, duties, and power of local governance have been in effect since the promulgation of the Local Self Governance Act 1999. These local bodies are government agencies with whom the public has direct interaction for their day-to-day activities. Access to information (held by these bodies) is guaranteed by the Right to Information Act 2007. Access to information and public participation in the decision making processes of development activities are crucial for promoting transparency and accountability of these agencies.

The government has launched a one-door policy for providing ‘development budget’ to these local bodies. This budget is allocated on the basis of performance indicators like transparency and accountability. On the one hand, RTI Act has obliged these bodies for proactive disclosure of their functions, duties, activities, services to be provided, decision-making process, budget and expenditure details and on the other, public have the right to seek and obtain information held by these bodies.

This paper will assess the policies formulated for promoting transparency in local governance and development activities in relation to RTI and its use. The major findings of the study would be identification and illustration of how RTI has been promoting transparency of local governance in Nepal and in-depth exploration of the relationship between RTI and local governance. The paper would also forward recommendations with regard to the enhanced applicability and use of RTI for promoting local governance based on the success and failures in Nepal.