The four-day visit to Nepal by a US congressional delegation winded up Monday with an assistance of $32.8 million for peace, good governance and health projects.
KATHMANDU: The four-day visit to Nepal by a US congressional delegation winded up Monday with an assistance of $32.8 million for peace, good governance and health projects.
Dr Madhav Prasad Ghimire, joint secretary at Nepal's finance ministry, US Ambassador James F. Moriarty and Nepal director of Washington's aid agency USAID Donald B. Clark signed the agreement in the capital on Monday.
The agreement was signed in the presence of the visiting congressional team headed by Jim Kolbe, who chairs the House Appropriations Committee's Subcommittee on Foreign Operations, Export Financing and Related Programmes, which funds USAID.
The delegation said it supported Nepal Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala's position that the Maoists must lay down their weapons before joining an interim government.
The grant is part of a total US development assistance package worth $45 million for 2006 and would be used for projects to be implemented in cooperation with NGOs, INGOs, private firms and individuals.
About one-third of the grant -- $10.6 million - has been earmarked to address the immediate impact of the decade-old Maoist insurgency and the ongoing peace processes. It aims to give vulnerable groups a voice at the community level, protect livelihoods of the poor through public works and the production and marketing of high-value agriculture and non-timber forest products.
It would also support victims of the conflict; and provide literacy, job skills training, and targeted scholarships for disadvantaged youth.
About a sixth of the grant -- $5.7 million - is meant to support strengthened rule of law and respect for human rights. It would include helping women become more politically active; and to combat trafficking and its negative effect on women and children.
To promote anti-corruption reforms and strengthen the judicial system, $700,000 has been allotted for increased investigative and prosecution capacity of anti-corruption institutions and for improved access to and administration of justice at the national and local levels.
As part of the health initiatives, the fund will support Nepal's long-term health plan to reduce fertility and mortality by increasing access to basic maternal, newborn, child health and related social services and to improve the use of family planning.
Nepal has one of the highest mother and child mortality rates in the world with 13 women, on an average, dying daily during childbirth due to inaccessibility of healthcare.
Finally, the grant is also meant to support Nepal's National HIV/AIDS Action Plan and reduce transmission of HIV/AIDS.
Since 1951, the US has provided $867 million in development assistance to Nepal.
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