The observations on Village Development Committees (VDCs) related to in the post are included in our Crash Course on Local Politics in Nepal from 2013. The first sections of this document now need an update as they give a description of the formal setup of the local government system in the past. But the subsequent sections are still relevant. They give an evidence-based account of local government and political practices at district and village level, and little has changed in these regards over the last twenty years at least, in our experience.