State of Digital Adoption in Nepal Policy and Regulatory Foundation for Digital Nepal A number of policy and regulatory frameworks governing the ICT sector provide a basic foundation for the Digital Nepal framework. For example, the National ICT Policy introduced in 2015 seeks to enhance the vision of transforming Nepali society into knowledge and information based society by harnessing rapid advances in the ICT sector. Similarly, the National Broadband Policy announced in 2016 puts forth a framework for stimulating broadband access and availability across the country. Among others, policy emphasis that has been placed on effectively leveraging Universal Service Access Funds as a means of bridging digital divide will provide a strong mechanism for expanding broadband access to communities beyond urban areas if implemented effectively. While effective implementation of these policy instruments can substantially complement Digital Nepal Program, it will be important to understand the role of a holistic policy regime that transcends ICT domain. For example, there could be a need to revisit investment and trade policies to secure large scale private sector participation in various sectors within the digital economy such as (ecommerce, sharing economy and IT enabled services). Similarly, it will be important to carry out broad based policy gap analysis so as to ensure that Digital Nepal Program is grounded on sound policy frameworks. In addition to a number of policy and regulatory frameworks including the National ICT Policy, National Broadband Policy and Electronic Transaction Act, the government has also developed the Government Enterprise Architecture (GEA) and Nepal e-Governance Interoperability Framework (NeGIF) which mark some of the foundational initiatives for enabling roll-out of citizen centric digital services and systems that are interoperable and provide a framework for seamless integration. These frameworks do have applicability beyond the realm of centralized roll-out of digitally enabled government services and could easily be adapted to provincial and Local level settings reflecting new political reality of the federal system of governance. In addition, the Government Websites Design/Development and Management Guidelines published in 2068 could also help ensure standardization in the way contents for public consumption are presented by government agencies. The Digital Nepal initiative must assess and evaluate these frameworks and the supporting government endorsed guidelines concerning automation and digitalization of government services and suggest improvements if necessary. 13