With the aim of improving the public service delivery effective and promoting people-responsive administration, result-oriented culture and gender friendly public management, the government had implemented the first phase of the Governance Reform Program (GRP) covering a four year period from December 2001 to December 2005 with the ADB’s loan assistance of US $ 30 million. The Ministry of General Administration (MOGA) was assigned with the lead role to implement the program.  Having considered the lessons learnt from the past unsuccessful reform attempts, the reform program was foreseen active involvement of the civil society to act as an advocacy and pressure group for the governance reform process as well as monitor the progress of GRP.  Therefore, civil society and monitoring components were included in the GRP. The GRP is the framework on which the Civil Society Support Project (CSSP) was based. The CSSP was designed with the participation of ADB, HMG (MOGA), SDC and Pro Public. Pro Public was entrusted as an independent organization to implement the advocacy and monitoring components. A separate agreement was signed between SDC and Pro Public in June 2003. Pro Public implemented CSSP from June 2003 to December 2005.

The overall goal of the CSSP was to ensure and enhance people's access to improved services of some key ministries particularly the MOES, MOHP, MOAC, MOLD and MOLRM (of these, MOLD and MOLRM were later included in 2004 as the additional line ministries). The main areas of concern of CSSP were advocacy, monitoring progress of GRP and providing feedbacks to the government for the required reforms. The stakeholders for the implementation of this program were the civil society and its organizations on one side and the government and its change units of the line ministries on the other.  It was expected that public services become 'people friendly' and that they were delivered in a timely fashion. SDC provided financial support under a bilateral agreement to implement the project.

The expected outputs of CSSP were:

1) Stakeholders made aware of GRP;

2) Network of NGOs made operational in GRP;

3) Stakeholders' feedback on reform incorporated in government policies and programs;

4) Participation of civil society in GRP planning and monitoring ensured;

5) GRP progress monitored;

6) GRP evaluation supported; and

7) Management of CSSP provided.

The project's Capacity Building component collaborated with Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) to facilitate public awareness and support for reforms, collecting diverse views and advocacy. A network of NGOs and Community-Based Organizations (CBOs) was established to share information on Government Reform Plan (GRP) issues and achievements, improve service delivery standards, and bridge gaps between providers and recipients. Activities included civil society training and citizen monitoring networks. The Advocacy component raised GRP awareness via mass media, bulletins, brochures, radio programs, workshops, and public forums, effectively informing stakeholders. Central and district-level events, including public hearings and talk programs, engaged civil society in improving service delivery. Networking efforts led to the formation of Citizen Monitoring Committees (CMCs) and the Civil Society Network for Governance, Nepal (CIG-Net, Nepal). Progress Monitoring involved regular GRP implementation checks, data analysis, and periodic reports to address implementation gaps and ensure effective reform.