Kathmandu, September 4

The European Union (EU) and the governments of Switzerland, Norway and the

United Kingdom (UK), collectively referred to as the Development Partners Joint Financing Arrangement (JFA), have agreed to provide a grant assistance worth $100 million, equivalent to Rs 11.4 billion to Nepal.

The Joint Financing Arrangement to this effect was signed and exchanged between the government of Nepal and JFA development partners at the Ministry of Finance (MoF) today. The JFA was signed by Shree Krishna Nepal, joint secretary at MoF on

behalf of the government of Nepal and Matthew John Rycroft, permanent secretary, Department for International Development (DFID), Lasse Bjorn Johannessen, ambassador, Norwegian Embassy in Nepal and Elisabeth Von Capeller, ambassador, Swiss Embassy in Nepal, on behalf of their respective governments. The European Union has already extended the commitments and will sign the JFA at the earliest.

The grant assistance aims to strengthen the capacity of provincial and local governments to deliver public service in a more effective and efficient way, states a press statement released by the Finance Ministry. This project will ensure to attain functional, sustainable, inclusive and accountable provincial and local governance by maximising benefits of cooperative federalism for Nepali citizens.

The project will conclude in four fiscal years commencing from July 2019-20 and wrapping up in July 2022-23. Important activities listed under the project are innovation and partnership fund, local policy, strategy, guidelines, framework and institutional development, capacity development programme (province and local level), and public financial management (PMF) for the implementation of SuTRA and local PFM. The project is expected to be a landmark project in capacitating the subnational governments by bridging the existing gap between the three levels of governance system.

Meanwhile, the government of Nepal has expressed its appreciation to the European Union, and the governments of the United Kingdom, Norway and Switzerland for providing such generous financial support for this programme and for the continuation of trusted partnership in strengthening provincial and local level governance.