KATHMANDU: The British government would provide a grant assistance of USD 21 million (equivalent to Rs 2.3 billion) to the Government of Nepal for implementation of the Evidence for Development (E4D) Programme.

The assistance would be provided by the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland through the Department for International Development (DFID).

A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the two sides was signed on Monday at the Ministry of Finance to this end. Baikuntha Aryal, Joint Secretary at the Ministry and Gail Marzetti, Head of DFID Nepal, signed the MoU from the respective sides.

The goal of the Nepal Evidence for Development (E4D) is to strengthen the culture of evidence use in Nepal, in particular to improve evidence-based policy and decision making, to ensure that poor people will be targeted more effectively with public funds and support.

The programme will support the Government of Nepal's objectives around graduation from Least Developed Country (LDC) status by 2022, and progress against the set of recently agreed Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The National Planning Commission (NPC) - including the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) - as well as the Ministry of Finance (MoF) and the Ministry of Federal Affairs and Local Development (MoFALD) shall extend the necessary guidance and support to the Programme and ensure collaboration of all relevant local bodies and line agencies.

The programme will run until December 31, 2019, the MoF said in a statement issued here today.