Representatives of the nine donor agencies apprised officials of the Ministry of Education (MoE) about their collective decision during a Joint Annual Review (JAR) meeting on SSRP held last week. [break]
"We formally received a go ahead notice during the JAR meeting," Lekhnath Poudel, spokesperson of MoE, told myrepublica.com. "We do not face any hurdles now in implementing SSRP."
According to Ove Fritz Larsen of the Embassy of Denmark in Kathmandu, one of the nine donor parties, a joint meeting of the agencies took the decision after assessing the government´s response as ´genuine´, though not complete.
"We have been satisfied with what the government has done as of now," Larsen told myrepublica.com. "We are now looking forward as to whether it fulfills its assurances given to us."
At the JAR meeting held from April 18 to 23, the government assured donors on mainly two aspects, according to Larsen. "First, the government regularly submits its reports about progress made in implementation of SSRP to us. And second, it fulfills all of its recommendations made by a probe team headed by a Nepal Planning Commission (NPC) member," Larsen added.
On February 23, the donor agencies had decided to suspend their aid meant for the government´s over-hyped project that aims to overhaul the country´s school education system. The donors had sought the resignation of then education minister, Ram Chandra Kushwaha, who allegedly sold hundreds of relief teacher quotas, and a fair probe into the irregularities.
A probe committee subsequently formed under NPC member Dr Tirtha Khaniya had also indicted Kushwaha´s involvement in arbitrarily distributing relief quotas. Even after Kushwaha was forced to step down and the Khaniya probe committee submitted its report, donors had delayed resuming educational aid, seeking the government´s commitment to timely and regular submission of progress reports on SSRP.
With MoE officials assuring the donors on submission of reports, the last hurdle in resumption of education aid for SSRP was brushed aside. Following the donor agencies´ new collective decision, the government of Finland has become the latest donor party to sign an agreement on funding SSRP.
Of the total nine donor parties, the Asian Development Bank (ADB), Denmark, Norway, the World Bank (WB) and the United Nations Children´s Fund (UNICEF) have already signed such agreements. The European Union, Australian Aid and DFID are also likely to sign soon.
The nine donor parties are to fund US$ 600 million in the first five years for the six-year SSRP. Besides, the Fast Track Initiative (FTI), funded by a number of donor agencies, has also committed an additional US$ 120 million for SSRP.
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