Nepal gets more UN and foreign assistance
Surya B. Prasai
February 27, 2008
On 25 February, 2008, Nepal signed a new Country Program Action Plan(CAP) with several UN agencies. They include UNDP (US$ 94.38 million), UNICEF (US $ 68.21) and UNFPA (US$ 28 million) which are providing the grant assistance for the next three years in support of the Nepal Governmentīs Interim Plan (2008-2010). The total aid package comes to US$ 190.59 million. According to the UN in Kathmandu, its aid under the broader framework of the of the United Nations Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF) emphasizes on peace and development for an inclusive society, and responding to national priorities that are currently identified in the Governmentīs three-year Interim Plan, the release stated.
UNDP will be assisting Nepal in the new grants framework to increase access and participation in constitution building and free and fair electoral processes, develop new programs, strategies, policies and systems that promote post-conflict recovery; increase capacity of government at the national and local level to manage resources and deliver basic services in an inclusive and equitable manner and pursue other development works related to gender equality, the rule of law, youth and excluded groups, employment and income opportunities, national and local development plans and to reduce risks of natural hazards. UNICEF will try to achieve decentralized Action for Children and Women; expand on its Social Policy; protect children from violence, abuse and exploitation and consolidate on other achievements in education, health and nutrition, water, sanitation and hygiene and HIV/AIDS. UNFPA will working in the sectors of reproductive health, population and development and gender related issues.
The UN also has a large scale mission called the United Nations Mission in Nepal that is assisting in building the national rapprochement to peace, assisting in human rights promotion and also trying to lessen the tensions among the political actors by trying to focus on the CA Poll. Various international development and humanitarian missions that focus on post-conflict psycho-social rehabilitation programs for those affected by the 10 year civil conflict, building trauma centers and developing community and youth volunteerism. Education and health have also gained increased importance among donors since the Nepalese Prime Minister recently outlined these as two vital areas needing foreign assistance prioritization on Nepalīs road to democratic reforms and long term prosperity.
The UN receives most of its funding in the Nepal programs from the US, UK, Germany, Japan and the EU. Nepal ranks still among the world's poorest countries, with a per capita income of around $350. Based on national calorie/GNP criteria, around 40% of the population lives below the US$1 poverty line. Nepal was an isolated, agricultural society in 1951 when it first opened up to the world. That was when it entered the modern era with USAID assistance which since has helped build in the countryīs five development regions community schools, road networks, hospitals, hydro electricity plants, industrial infrastructure and assisted in training a moderately successful technocratic base. The country also receives millions of dollars in generous assistance from India and China its two immediate neighbors to the south and north, dedicated to education, rural development, water and sanitation and in helping improve road infrastructure and rural health. Nepal was making sustainable economic progress until 1996 when the 10 year Maoist conflict cut back on its overall development and growth, destroying nearly 75 % of the countryīs rural infrastructure.
Nepal is planning to hold Constituent Assembly polls on 10 April 2008, but so far all signs point to a discordant political scenario where the ruling seven party alliance cannot muster an all inclusive voting berth to the Madhesi origin people who live in Nepalīs southern belt adjoining India. They in turn have been threatening to boycott the CA Poll altogether. The ruling seven party coalition includes the Maoists who have already claimed in advance their unanimous victory in the upcoming polls, which have been postponed twice earlier in 2007. King Gyanendra Bir Bickram Shah, who still assumes strong influence among Nepalīs discipline forces and moderate nationalist parties ruled Nepal for a 17 month period starting February 2005 but he too was denied success in getting all the political parties together to work in a coalition government to smoothen the political democratization process.
The United States established relations with Nepal in 1947 opening up a residential embassy in 1959. Nepal has a pro-US voting record in the UN and usually shares similar outlooks in Asian geo-politics, thus enjoying excellent and steadfast relations. The U.S.īs policy towards Nepal emphasizes building a peaceful, prosperous, and democratic society that has an inclusive democracy backed by human rights adherence . The American government has provided more than $791 million in bilateral economic assistance to Nepal in the period up to 2007 and current annual bilateral U.S. economic assistance through the U.S. Agency for International Development averages around $40 million.
USAID supports health and HIV/AIDS impact mitigation, agriculture,, family planning, environmental protection, democratization, governance, and hydropower development efforts in Nepal. USAID has also been supporting Nepal's peace process, as well as helping it prepare for Constituent Assembly elections. Contributions also are given to international institutions such as the World Bank and the UN, besides private voluntary organizations working in Nepal. The Peace Corps which ran a successful program in Nepal until 2004 has now suspended its operations due to growing insecurity.
Nepal is 147,181 sq. km. (56,136 sq. mi.), about the size and shape of Tennessee, bordered by two powerful economic and military neighbors, China and India. During peak tourist season Nepal manages to earn nearly US $ 450-600 million in a good tourist season. Ever since the conflict ended in 2006, tourist arrivals have gone up mostly from the west and Nepalīs Asian neighbors.
Recently the major donor partners in Nepal held a two day meeting in Kathamndu to reaffirm their assistance to the impoverished Himalayan country, attended by the Asian Development Bank, Canada, Denmark, European Commission, Germany, Finland, Norway, Switzerland, UN, United Kingdom, World Bank, United States of America and Republic of Korea.
While the meeting was seen as an important indirect endorsement to Nepalīs three year interim development plan propounded by Nepalīs National Planning Commission, its critics described it as a mild warning to the seven party alliance to work together with other political parties to realize the Nepali peopleīs economic aspirations and not to renege on the CA Poll promise. The donors believe that the CA Poll can still give a peaceful outlet to the political crises bogging the seven parties that form the ruling coalition government, though it seems unlikely that the April 10 deadline will be met again, having been postponed twice earlier. Nepalīs ruling coalition parties have been bickering among themselves in the past one and a half years in finding a suitable time line to constituent assembly polls to decide on a new Constituent Assembly that will chart the future democratic composition of the Nepali state. On the global democratic agenda, Nepal is currently South Asiaīs most watched country at the moment, since Pakistan has been able to find its democratic outlet through a fairly held electoral exercise with little violence. While the Carter Center refused to go to Pakistan monitor the elections, it has maintained a good staff presence in all the 75 districts in Nepal for the past few years, ready to assist in case the Nepali poll date is agreed upon within the next few days. Scarcity of cooking fuel and gas, petroleum products and gasoline, and an artificial market shortage of commodities in the past two weeks due to a Madhes strike, got Nepali people fuming and housewives banging pots and pans on the streets. The situation has now been resolved slowly.
UNDP will be assisting Nepal in the new grants framework to increase access and participation in constitution building and free and fair electoral processes, develop new programs, strategies, policies and systems that promote post-conflict recovery; increase capacity of government at the national and local level to manage resources and deliver basic services in an inclusive and equitable manner and pursue other development works related to gender equality, the rule of law, youth and excluded groups, employment and income opportunities, national and local development plans and to reduce risks of natural hazards. UNICEF will try to achieve decentralized Action for Children and Women; expand on its Social Policy; protect children from violence, abuse and exploitation and consolidate on other achievements in education, health and nutrition, water, sanitation and hygiene and HIV/AIDS. UNFPA will working in the sectors of reproductive health, population and development and gender related issues.
The UN also has a large scale mission called the United Nations Mission in Nepal that is assisting in building the national rapprochement to peace, assisting in human rights promotion and also trying to lessen the tensions among the political actors by trying to focus on the CA Poll. Various international development and humanitarian missions that focus on post-conflict psycho-social rehabilitation programs for those affected by the 10 year civil conflict, building trauma centers and developing community and youth volunteerism. Education and health have also gained increased importance among donors since the Nepalese Prime Minister recently outlined these as two vital areas needing foreign assistance prioritization on Nepalīs road to democratic reforms and long term prosperity.
The UN receives most of its funding in the Nepal programs from the US, UK, Germany, Japan and the EU. Nepal ranks still among the world's poorest countries, with a per capita income of around $350. Based on national calorie/GNP criteria, around 40% of the population lives below the US$1 poverty line. Nepal was an isolated, agricultural society in 1951 when it first opened up to the world. That was when it entered the modern era with USAID assistance which since has helped build in the countryīs five development regions community schools, road networks, hospitals, hydro electricity plants, industrial infrastructure and assisted in training a moderately successful technocratic base. The country also receives millions of dollars in generous assistance from India and China its two immediate neighbors to the south and north, dedicated to education, rural development, water and sanitation and in helping improve road infrastructure and rural health. Nepal was making sustainable economic progress until 1996 when the 10 year Maoist conflict cut back on its overall development and growth, destroying nearly 75 % of the countryīs rural infrastructure.
Nepal is planning to hold Constituent Assembly polls on 10 April 2008, but so far all signs point to a discordant political scenario where the ruling seven party alliance cannot muster an all inclusive voting berth to the Madhesi origin people who live in Nepalīs southern belt adjoining India. They in turn have been threatening to boycott the CA Poll altogether. The ruling seven party coalition includes the Maoists who have already claimed in advance their unanimous victory in the upcoming polls, which have been postponed twice earlier in 2007. King Gyanendra Bir Bickram Shah, who still assumes strong influence among Nepalīs discipline forces and moderate nationalist parties ruled Nepal for a 17 month period starting February 2005 but he too was denied success in getting all the political parties together to work in a coalition government to smoothen the political democratization process.
The United States established relations with Nepal in 1947 opening up a residential embassy in 1959. Nepal has a pro-US voting record in the UN and usually shares similar outlooks in Asian geo-politics, thus enjoying excellent and steadfast relations. The U.S.īs policy towards Nepal emphasizes building a peaceful, prosperous, and democratic society that has an inclusive democracy backed by human rights adherence . The American government has provided more than $791 million in bilateral economic assistance to Nepal in the period up to 2007 and current annual bilateral U.S. economic assistance through the U.S. Agency for International Development averages around $40 million.
USAID supports health and HIV/AIDS impact mitigation, agriculture,, family planning, environmental protection, democratization, governance, and hydropower development efforts in Nepal. USAID has also been supporting Nepal's peace process, as well as helping it prepare for Constituent Assembly elections. Contributions also are given to international institutions such as the World Bank and the UN, besides private voluntary organizations working in Nepal. The Peace Corps which ran a successful program in Nepal until 2004 has now suspended its operations due to growing insecurity.
Nepal is 147,181 sq. km. (56,136 sq. mi.), about the size and shape of Tennessee, bordered by two powerful economic and military neighbors, China and India. During peak tourist season Nepal manages to earn nearly US $ 450-600 million in a good tourist season. Ever since the conflict ended in 2006, tourist arrivals have gone up mostly from the west and Nepalīs Asian neighbors.
Recently the major donor partners in Nepal held a two day meeting in Kathamndu to reaffirm their assistance to the impoverished Himalayan country, attended by the Asian Development Bank, Canada, Denmark, European Commission, Germany, Finland, Norway, Switzerland, UN, United Kingdom, World Bank, United States of America and Republic of Korea.
While the meeting was seen as an important indirect endorsement to Nepalīs three year interim development plan propounded by Nepalīs National Planning Commission, its critics described it as a mild warning to the seven party alliance to work together with other political parties to realize the Nepali peopleīs economic aspirations and not to renege on the CA Poll promise. The donors believe that the CA Poll can still give a peaceful outlet to the political crises bogging the seven parties that form the ruling coalition government, though it seems unlikely that the April 10 deadline will be met again, having been postponed twice earlier. Nepalīs ruling coalition parties have been bickering among themselves in the past one and a half years in finding a suitable time line to constituent assembly polls to decide on a new Constituent Assembly that will chart the future democratic composition of the Nepali state. On the global democratic agenda, Nepal is currently South Asiaīs most watched country at the moment, since Pakistan has been able to find its democratic outlet through a fairly held electoral exercise with little violence. While the Carter Center refused to go to Pakistan monitor the elections, it has maintained a good staff presence in all the 75 districts in Nepal for the past few years, ready to assist in case the Nepali poll date is agreed upon within the next few days. Scarcity of cooking fuel and gas, petroleum products and gasoline, and an artificial market shortage of commodities in the past two weeks due to a Madhes strike, got Nepali people fuming and housewives banging pots and pans on the streets. The situation has now been resolved slowly.
Print
Email
