Speaker
Description
Digital government is usually discussed in terms of platforms and policy, but citizens experience it at ground level — often at the ward office. I speak from that vantage point: a Ward Secretary with 2.5 years handling the systems citizens actually touch, like VERSP-MIS (for vital event registration), SuTRA (for revenue collection), and CCIMS (for online recommendation of citizenship).
These tools work, but only as well as the conditions around them allow. Server downtime, patchy internet, unscheduled power cuts, low digital literacy, and rural-urban infrastructure gap (digital divide within Nepal) all shape whether "digital government" delivers. Demand spikes (like annual social security renewals) and recent disaster-hit districts like Rasuwa and Nuwakot show how fragile that promise can be.
I'll explore where Free and Open-Source Software might genuinely help — and where it can't, without infrastructure, people, and funding behind it.
Author(s) Bio
Rajesh Pudasaini is positioned as a Ward Secretary in a ward office of a local government in Nepal, with 2.5 years of experience in local administration and public service delivery. Day to day, he has been handling ward-level administrative works and using government digital systems for vital registration, revenue administration, and citizenship-related recommendations (etc.). He has completed the four-semester academic coursework of a Master of Public Administration (MPA) and is currently completing his thesis ; and is drawn to the intersection of public administration, digital government, and citizen-centered service delivery.
Talk Description
This talk looks at digital government in Nepal through the eyes of someone working on the front line of local government.
I'll start at the ward-office level — not with national policy or platforms, but with what it actually looks like when a Ward Secretary uses government information systems to serve citizens day to day. I'll walk through the tools that make up that work: VERSP-MIS for vital registration, SuTRA for revenue, and CCIMS for citizenship recommendations. These have quietly become central to how local administration functions.
But digitalization brings its own headaches. Server and system downtime hits especially hard during peak demand. Internet connectivity is unreliable in many places. Rural areas lag urban ones badly in infrastructure. Power cuts and weak backup systems disrupt service. Data security is a live concern. And digital literacy — among both citizens and government staff — is still catching up.
There's a human side to this too. Plenty of citizens still need someone to walk them through an online service, and many offices lack the digital infrastructure — or even a clear digital citizen charter — to help people understand what's available and how to get it.
I'll use the annual renewal of social security allowances as a concrete example: a service that runs fine most of the year but gets hammered during a short renewal window (for 3 months every year), exposing exactly where system capacity and reliability fall short. When a server goes down in that moment, it's not just a technical hiccup — it's a citizen standing in a queue for something they need.
From there, I'll turn to where Free and Open-Source Software could genuinely help: more adaptable software, interoperability through open standards, room for local customization, community-based support, transparency, Nepali and local language solutions, and less dependence on any single vendor.
I won't oversell it, though. Open source doesn't automatically mean secure, reliable, cheap, or better. Government institutions still need the right infrastructure, skilled technical people, ongoing maintenance, governance, cybersecurity discipline, and funding that doesn't dry up.
So, the question I want to leave the room with is this: how can Nepal build digital public services that hold up not just in a well-connected office, but for the citizen and the government employee working in the hardest environments?
I'll close by making the case for a stronger bridge between government, local tech communities, universities, civil society, and FOSS projects — not government as a passive consumer of technology, but as an active participant in an open-source ecosystem built around real public-service problems.
This won't be a technical talk. It's about public administration, citizen experience, digital inclusion, and what the front line of local government in Nepal actually looks like.
| Category | Project organization and Governance |
|---|---|
| Pronouns | He/him |
| Where are you located? | Kathmandu, Nepal |
| Do you need travel sponsorship from GNOME Foundation in order to join our event? | No |