Nepal

About UNDP in Nepal

UNDP - Who we are

UNDP is the UN's global development network, an organization advocating for change and connecting countries to knowledge, experience and resources to help people build a better life. We are on the ground in 166 countries, working with them on their own solutions to global and national development challenges. As they develop local capacity, they draw on the people of UNDP and our wide range of partners.

World leaders have pledged to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, including the overarching goal of cutting poverty in half by 2015. UNDP's network links and coordinates global and national efforts to reach these Goals. Our focus is helping countries build and share solutions to the challenges of:

• Democratic Governance
• Poverty Reduction
• Crisis Prevention and Recovery
• Environment & Energy
• HIV/AIDS

UNDP helps developing countries attract and use aid effectively. In all our activities, we encourage the protection of human rights and the empowerment of women.

The annual Human Development Report, commissioned by UNDP, focuses the global debate on key development issues, providing new measurement tools, innovative analysis and often controversial policy proposals. The global Report's analytical framework and inclusive approach carry over into regional, national and local Human Development Reports, also supported by UNDP.

In each country office, the UNDP Resident Representative normally also serves as the Resident Coordinator of development activities for the United Nations system as a whole. Through such coordination, UNDP seeks to ensure the most effective use of UN and international aid resources.


What we do in Nepal
UNDP first established its office in Nepal in 1963 to support the Nepalese in their struggle against poverty. Since 1963, UNDP has worked at building linkages that address effective design and implementation of 'poverty alleviation' programmes in Nepal.


Current Programme priorities

• Transitional Governance
• Inclusive Growth & Sustainable Livelihood
• Peace Building and Recovery
• Energy, Environment and Natural Disaster Management
• HIV/AIDS

Type of assistance and programming
The Country Cooperation Framework (CCF-I, 1997-2001) for Nepal was designed in consistence with the Government's Ninth Development Plan (1997-2001) and UNDP's mandate. UNDP's Country Cooperation Framework (CCF II, 2002-2007) has completed its programming cycle of six years which addressed poverty alleviation by supporting development projects in the areas of Democratic Governance, Pro-Poor policies and Sustainable Livelihood, Energy, Environment and Natural Disaster Management, Crisis Prevention and Recovery (CPR) and Responding to HIV/AIDS.

In early 2008, UNDP approved its Country Programme Document (CPD) for 2008-2010 in support of the Interim Development Plan of the Government of Nepal. While capacity development will be the overarching objective of UNDP assistance, gender and social inclusion, climate change, and risk management will be addressed as a cross cutting issue in all UNDP supported projects and programmes. The Country Programme Action Plan (CPAP) will be the legal agreement between the Government of Nepal and UNDP. These programmes will regularly be assessed and refocused to align with the new requirements in line with the Government's priorities and UNDP's Strategic Plan.


Support to the peace process
UNDP has been introducing a series of peace-support activities and continues to place a major emphasis on reaching communities to foster grassroots reconciliation through development. Some of the key interventions have been;

• Support provided to United Nations Mission in Nepal (UNMIN) to design and implement a comprehensive strategy to register and verify the Maoist army, and their weapons, and to facilitate the lock-up of an equivalent number of Nepal Army weapons as part of the agreement.
  
  
• UNDP provided technical assistance to the Government's initiative of establishing a Nepal Peace Trust Fund (NPTF) to help mobilise and coordinate development partners' financial support to various projects related to the implementation of peace agreements.
  
  
• A UNDP Constitutional Advisory Support Unit was set up in late 2006 to help build the understanding and readiness of key national actors and the public at large to participate actively in the constitution building process.
  
  
• Provided a range of specialist technical experts to support the work of the Election Commission in its preparation for the CA elections in close collaboration with UNMIN.
  
  
• As part of UNDP's participation in Peace Project, weekly radio discussion programmes and radio dramas have been developed in partnership with the BBC World Service Trust to empower people from traditionally excluded communities to engage meaningfully in peace and constitution-building processes.
  
  
• A new grassroots Quick Impact and Peace Support Initiative (QIPSI) was launched in October 2007 to bring immediate benefits in the most vulnerable and marginalised communities of 10 conflict affected districts of the Tarai, especially for youth, women, indigenous nationalities, Dalits and religious minorities. This initiative provides support for community infrastructure, micro-enterprise development and disaster mitigation.

Where we operate (See Our Project Locations)
UNDP's activities span almost 75 districts and 1,000 out of 4,000 villages. The number of projects in 2009 were 32. Some of them are being closed by mid 2010 with the completion of past cooperation.

Where does our money come from?

UNDP programme activities in Nepal are funded primarily from three sources: UNDP regular resources; various UNDP Thematic Trust Funds earmarked for the specific thematic areas; and, direct contributions from donors under bilateral agreements.

Of the total programme delivery of US$ 37 million through our 32 on-going projects in 2009, 38 percent was from UNDP resources, 18 percent from GFATM, GEF, UN Peace Fund and other Thematic Trust Funds, 50 percent from bilateral donors.

A significant achievement in 2009 was the signing of a landmark agreement with the new partners such as JICA, Finland and ADB, bringing the number of different sources of funds to 18. $26.6 million were mobilized for 2009, an increase of 31% over 2008, and 47% over target.

In 2008 about the same proportion of funding came from bilateral donors and UNDP sources. DFID ($8.2 million), and AusAid ($ 3.5 million) provided the highest level of support amongst the 18 bilateral donors to UNDP supported projects.

What do we spend it on?

In 2009, expenditure reached $ 37.2 million across the five thematic areas such as HIV/AIDS, Transitional Governance, Peace Building, Energy, Environment and Natural Disasters and Livelihoods. The highest proportion of expenditure went on slowing the spread of HIV and AIDS as UNDP is managing multi-million dollar funding from DFID and the Global Fund. In 2009 administrative and central management costs accounted for 7.5% of this expenditure.


Who are our partners?

Partnerships

UNDP believes that concerted efforts to build partnerships are fundamental for building broad-based consensus, resource mobilisation, and effective implementation of programmes for sustainable peace and development in Nepal. In 2008/2009, UNDP continued to build and expand its partnerships with the Government of Nepal, various UN Agencies, bilateral and multilateral donor agencies, the private sector, the civil society organisations, the media, and the academia for the development, resource mobilisation, implementation and monitoring of its supported programmes.

List of Donors & Partners

AusAid, Bureau for Crisis Prevention and Recovery, British Embassy, Danida, Department for International Development (DFID), Democratic Governance Thematic Trust Fund (DGTTF), European Commission /European Union, Finland, GEF (Global Environment Facility), Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GFATM), Government of Nepal, Himal Power Limited (HPL), IFTF (Integrated Framework Trust Fund), Japan, Norway, Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Assistance (OCHA), Swiss Development Corporation (SDC), SNV (Netherlands Government), UNICEF, UNPFN, UNCDF and ILO.

Amounts allocated by donors to projects operating in 2009

Bilateral and other non-UN donors
1	DFID	6,043,043
2	Norway	2,113,926
3	Himal Power Ltd	2,220,145
4	British Embassy	887,468
5	Denmark	2,304,943
6	Japan	253,911
7	European Commission	185,376
8	SDC	25,000
9	Finland	33,290
10	SNV	91,233
11	AusAid	1,235,756
Other funds
1	GEF	8,56,242
2	Global Fund	3,853,946
3	Montreal Protocol	82,543
UNDP
1	UNDP	13,565,493
2	BCPR	1,081,764
4	DGTTF	141,706
5	CPR-TTF	472,348
Other UN agencies
1	UNPFN	2,496,490
2	OCHA	48,500
	TOTAL	37,993,123

Support to the UN System

UNDP continues to play a crucial role in the provision of operational support to the UN System in Nepal and the realization of harmonization of operational policies and practices among the various UN agencies.

This operational support is provided by the Inter-Agency Task Forces (Comprising of members from various UN Agencies) on Human Resources, Information Technology, Procurement and Finance.

Partnership with the United Nations Volunteers

The United Nations Volunteers (UNV) Programme is ongoing in Nepal since 1974 with the aim of promoting ‘volunteerism for development'. UNV volunteers have been providing both operational and programmatic support to various UN Agencies in Nepal.

UNDP has been providing various types of support to the UNV programme, including supporting to send Nepali UNV volunteers abroad to serve in other countries. UNV volunteers assigned with UNDP have also supported UNDP's works in peace building, democratic governance, access to justice, environment and natural disaster management.

In 2009, UNV, along with UNDP, has joined as a partner in the newly established UN Joint Programme in support of the GoN's Local Governance and Community Development Programme (LGCDP). The UNV component of the UN Joint Programme focuses on enhancing the capacity of citizens, communities and marginalized groups to interact with local governments and to hold the accountable in provision of social services. UNV will contribute to the LGCDP objective by working hand in hand with the government's National Development Volunteer Service (NDVS) to mobilize and place 100 national NDVS volunteers in support of the community empowerment activities at district/municipality level.

The programmatic cooperation between UNDP and UNV has also been strengthened through agreements on UNV contribution to the UNDP project on Public Private Partnership for Urban Environment (PPPUE).

As part of the regular UNV programme in 2009, UNV mobilized 43 volunteers across various UN agencies in Nepal and 19 in UNMIN to support peace process, while 31 Nepali nationals served abroad as internationl UNV volunteers in various countries such as Afghanistan, Cote D'Ivories, Congo, East Timor, Haiti, Liberia, Sudan and Timor Leste.