Four municipalities of Gandaki declared child-friendly

Gandaki: Four municipalities in the Gandaki Province have been so far declared child-friendly while the government has set an overarching goal of making all local-level governments child-friendly by 2087 BS.

Baglung was declared a municipality with child-friendly local governance on Wednesday, taking the total number of child-friendly municipalities in Gandaki to four.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Urban Development Prakash Man Singh announced at a function held in Baglung district headquarters on Wednesday.

It may be noted that Devchuli Municipality of Nawalpur was declared the first child-friendly local government in the province.

The government had declared Bhirkot municipality of Syangja with child-friendly local governance (CFLG) in 2077 BS and Galkot municipality of Baglung in 2080 BS.

The National Strategy of Child-friendly Local Governance Implementation Procedure-2068 and Child-Friendly Local Governance Implementation Guideline-2078 provide for declaring a municipality/rural municipality with child-friendly local governance after completing 51 different indicators.

Baglung has been declared with CFLG after meeting 14 indicators related to survival, 10 related to protection, six each of development and participation, 36 of service delivery and 15 of institutional development, said Dhan Prasad Pokharel, child-friendly municipal contact person.

According to him, Baglung municipality has secured 92 marks in the evaluation conducted by the province government on 51 indicators.

All 14 wards of the municipality have been declared with child-friendly local governance.

Mayor Basanta Kumar Shrestha said they were committed for effective implementation and sustainability of the child-friendly local governance.