Development partners to help govt

Kathmandu, December 9

Nepal’s international development partners have said they would continue working closely with government and stakeholders to support Nepal in fulfilling the common commitments to Agenda 2030 and the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals and obligations related to the United Nations Conventions against Corruption by improving transparency and accountability at all levels of government.

A press release on the occasion International Anti-Corruption Day issued jointly the development partners stated, “We hope that this day will serve as a new beginning under a federal model of governance to redouble efforts to improve integrity, accountability and transparency in all walks of public life.”

Development partners  signatories to this statement are  Asian Development Bank, Denmark, European Union,Finland, France, Germany,J ICA Nepal, Norway, Switzerland, United Kingdom, US embassy, United Nations and World Bank.

The world marks International Anti-Corruption Day on December 9.  This year’s theme is ‘United against corruption for development, peace and security’. “This is a particularly auspicious moment for the people of Nepal. With federal and provincial elections having been successfully completed and with newly elected parliamentarians, assembly members and executive officials taking their electoral seats across the country, the stage is set for a historic transfer of state authority from the centre to the seven newly formed provinces and 753 local governments,” it read.

In this historic moment, the transfer of power is intended to bring the government closer to the people and to empower citizens to hold their elected governments accountable for the use of political authority and financial and natural resources, the statement added.

The development partners said Nepal’s leaders face enormous challenges in fulfilling their constitutional obligation of making this new federal model of governance work to the benefit of all citizens.

The international community, as represented by the development partners, wishes to reaffirm to all Nepali citizens our intention to support a federal state of Nepal that is committed to improving governance and fighting corruption, patronage and collusion. As development partners, we re-commit ourselves to ensuring that all of our programmes and partners operate to the highest possible standards of transparency, integrity and accountability, they said.

The development partners also acknowledged the critical role of the many individuals and organisations.