EU offers substantial amount for election

KATHMANDU. The European Union (EU) has offered substantial amount for the successful conduction of the second Constituent Assembly election. This assistance has been provided to the Election Commission through the Government.

   The EU is one of the major donors to the ‘Electoral Support Project (ESP) Phase II’, a multi-donor project being administered by the United Nations Development Project (UNDP). The ESP, which is a four-year technical assistance project, aims at institutional strengthening and professional development of the Election Commission.

  According to the information furnished to the RSS by the delegation of the EU to Nepal, the project activities are focussed around major areas like strengthening the capacity of the Election Commission to function as a permanent, independent, credible and professional institution of governance. The project also stresses on support activities throughout the electoral cycle to ensure key processes are conducted in an effective, sustainable and credible manner.


  Likewise, the project emphasizes on assistance for increasing the democratic participation in the forthcoming cycle of elections and ensuring an inclusive electoral process including under-represented groups and vulnerable and traditionally marginalized communities. Voter registration, election education and establishment of information centre, geographic information system and promotion of gender, social inclusion and vulnerable groups are other areas of cooperation, among others.


For the ESP the EU has provided 10.8 million US dollar and the UK’s International Department for Development (DFID) has pumped in 6.6 million while Norway and Danish Development Agency (DANIDA) have provided 3,486,635 and 740,000 US dollars respectively. RSS - See more at: http://www.onlinekhabar.com/2013/10/122955/#sthash.YeSbxC6q.dpuf