Ambassadors of the EU, Germany, Switzerland and the UK, as well as the chargés d´affaires of Denmark and Norway, the country director of GIZ and the USAID acting deputy mission director held a meeting with Finance Minister Shanker Prasad Koirala to inform him of the additional support which their respective countries are planning to provide in the near future.
According to a press statement issued by the Embassy of Switzerland, the meeting followed a ceremony during which Switzerland signed an agreement with the government for a Rs 900 million contribution to NPTF. Half this amount will be made available for the election scheduled for November 19, and the remaining amount will be for local-level elections.
The agreement was signed for their respective governments by Ambassador of Switzerland Thomas Gass and Joint-Secretary at the Finance Ministry, Madhu K Marasini, who heads the International Economic Cooperation Coordination Division at the ministry.
The five other development partners are also reinforcing their support for the consolidation of the peace process. These additional contributions through NPTF coincide with the announcement of the election date and the promulgation of the ordinance amending the Election of Members of the Constituent Assembly (CA) Act by President Ram Baran Yadav on June 14, as well as the decision of the Election Commission and the Finance Ministry to bring the government´s funds into a common NPTF project managed by the EC.
According to the statement, Finland will disburse an additional €2.5 million which it recently pledged. Denmark and Norway will disburse additional amounts of DKK 10 million and NOK 20 million respectively, as foreseen in their bilateral agreements with the government of Nepal.
Similarly, the European Union has committed to disburse a further € 9.5 million to the Fund, including for the organization of elections. The UK envisages providing up to £7.5m of which £3.5 has already been disbursed.
Several of these development partners are also providing technical support through UNDP and they will be funding other election-related programmes with civil society.
“I am pleased to announce today that we are gearing up our support. Through the UK´s Department for International Development (DfID), we are looking to provide an additional £4m to the Nepal Peace Trust Fund. And DFID will support womens´ participation, election observation and training for journalists through projects worth up to £2m,” a press statement issued by the UK embassy quoted UK Ambassador to Nepal Andy Sparkes as saying.
Overall, these new funding pledges bring the UK´s total support to the elections to almost Rs 2 billion (£14.5M). “As ambassador, I am proud to be able to announce such significant support to what will be enormously important elections for the future of Nepal," the envoy further said.
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