Good governance is a good, beautiful and prestigious system of governance of a state. This system is also linked to the development of the three organs of the state - the legislature, the executive and the judiciary. Therefore, good governance is a value that believes in the rule of law along with the respect and promotion of human rights.

Good governance is an efficient, transparent, accountable and people-oriented governance system. Good governance emphasizes the belief that there should be a method and system of governance. The interrelationship, working style and working environment of the governance structure are determined by the constitution, constitutional laws and the immediate political system. Good governance places special emphasis on the fact that issues such as prudent use of public resources and economic discipline should be directly experienced by the people.

It is said that every activity of the state should be in the interest of the country and the people. Good governance assimilates the issue that the interests of the state should be for the happiness of the people. Good governance believes that an egalitarian society can be built through positive change, social conflict management and balanced development.

The concept of good governance came after the serious economic crisis in Western and African countries from 1979 to 1989, which led to a long-term roadmap of ‘How can we move towards sustainable development?’. This concept is introduced for the purpose of providing dynamism in the process of development by improving the governance system. The attention of the whole world has been drawn to good governance after the World Conference on Social Development in 1995 declared that ‘democratic, transparent, accountable governance systems are the integral foundations of social and human-centered sustainable development.’ Its main objective was to increase the quality and effectiveness of service delivery provided to citizens. The issues of immediate concern to citizens are good governance, development and employment. These aspects should be established in the system in a way that is felt by the citizens, and should also be simple and easy in terms of procedure.

For the smooth achievement of effective results, the aspects of federalism implementation, political federalism, fiscal federalism and administrative federalism, should be fully implemented, and seven provinces were formed as political federalism. At the same time, fiscal federalism and administrative federalism could not be fully implemented. When the implementation aspect becomes weak, the characteristics of good governance such as transparency, accountability, citizen ownership and supremacy of law are overshadowed. As a result, the results may not be as expected. In the

evaluation criteria, Nepal was ranked 107th among the most corrupt countries in the 1925 report of ‘Transparency International’ in terms of good governance. Nepal seems to have scored 34 out of 100. The previous year, Nepal was ranked 108th with 35 points. In the 2025 World Happiness Index, it was ranked 92nd out of 143 countries. In 2024, it was ranked 93rd and life satisfaction was about 5.16/10. According to the overall good governance assessment conducted by the World Bank, out of a total of 20 percent, corruption control is 13.7 percent, regulatory quality is 9.4 percent, government effectiveness is 1.4 percent, rule of law is 5.2 percent, and voice and accountability are 2.0 percent. According to the Human Development Index 2025 published by the United Nations Development Programme, Nepal's Human Development Index is 0.622, which was 0.601 in 2024. In this index, Nepal is ranked 145th out of 193 countries, which was 145th in 2024.

While such reports were coming, Nepal was first placed on the grey list in 2015 after the assessment of the 'Asia Pacific Group on Money Laundering - APG'. Nepal came out of it in 2019 after implementing an improved legal and regulatory system. It has been placed on the grey list again from 2023/024. The main reason is the lack of sufficient progress on 'AML/CFT'. When analyzing the results of the reports, it is found that this has included various issues in the context of the comments made by today's intellectual society. Such issues they make are also relevant. These issues are - the sovereign capacity of the republican constitution could not be established, there was no structural change in the governance system, the system became democratic but the parties did not become democratic, the expansion of the 'kleptocracy nexus'.

It seems that the essence of the Gen-G rebellion that recently took place in the country is almost around this. The republican constitution obtained after a long struggle of the Nepali people was built as an excellent constitution, but its implementation was not carried out as it should have been, and therefore the results could not be felt. The system changed, but the structural change that governed that system could not be felt, so the change in the condition of the citizens could not be felt. The system was called democratic as an achievement of the political system, but the political parties that were in disarray in the old style could not become democratic. The expansion of the 'kleptocracy nexus' was in this way, which is increasing day by day. The condition of the notes burned in the houses of the leaders in the arson incident of 24 Bhadra 2082 makes this clear. This can also be called a well-planned operation of corruption, where people in power (such as leaders, ministers, contractors, employees, businessmen) exploit the state and accumulate private wealth.

The way forward

The situation is becoming more complicated due to such various problems. As a result, voices of rehabilitation of institutions displaced yesterday have also started resounding today. It is said that with every problem, there is a solution. To move forward through this current state of confusion, such various aspects should be assimilated:

– Making constitutional and democratic institutions autonomous and empowered so that they can work without any influence.

– Increasing citizen involvement at all levels, including the production/distribution of public services, so that citizens can feel a sense of belonging and ensure easy and equal access to services.

– Keeping public administration separate from party politics where political influence, let alone the voice of the party's fraternal organizations in the name of labor organizations, should be stopped.

– Two-thirds of the political parties should agree to review the work of devolution and delegation of power at the provincial and local levels in accordance with the intent of the constitution.