UN, EU provide USD 1.87 mn to Nepal for elections

The UN and the EU today signed an agreement with Nepal for an additional USD 1.87 million grant as part of electoral assistance to the Himalayan nation.

The grant will be used to provide needful electoral aid to the Election Commission of Nepal (ECN) through the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)-managed Electoral Support Project (ESP), the European Union (EU) office here said.

Rensje Teerink, EU Ambassador to Nepal and Renaud Meyer, the Country Director of UNDP in Nepal signed the agreement.

"The European Union has already provided financial assistance of 8.4 million euro (USD 9.8 million) for this project in 2012," the EU office said in a statement.

This new contribution is part of the basket fund of USD 27.8 million, created to support the Election Commission through ESP. Other development partners of the fund are Denmark, Norway, UK Aid and UNDP, it said.

The ESP is dedicated to institutional strengthening and professional development of the Election Commission following the electoral cycle approach, which includes pre-, during- and post-election support.

(This article has not been edited by DNA's editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)