HC Deb 21 May 2002 vol 386 cc203-4W
Mr. Burstow

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what development programmes and financial support have been provided to Nepal in the last five years; and if she will make a statement. [57178]

Clare Short

UK development assistance to Nepal in each of the last five years is as follows:

£000
1997–98 17,280
1998–99 16,627
1999–2000 15,989
2000–01 17,165
2001–02 20,400

Note:

The figure for 2001–02 is provisional

This development assistance has been spent on programmes to:

  1. (i) Improve governance, through a programme to strengthen governance and build pressure for change, through support to implement effectively the Government's decentralisation programme, and for effective management of public finances.
  2. (ii) Enhance human development, through support for secondary education and community literacy, and through support for safer motherhood services, commodity support to the national TB programme and to family planning, and programme support to polio eradication in Nepal and to the national AIDS programme.
  3. (iii) Strengthen approaches to rural livelihoods including better physical access, through programmes to enhance rural access, agricultural productivity, community forestry management, by strengthening capacity to tackle deep-seated problems such as bonded labour, and through community-based and area-based poverty alleviation projects.

The worsening conflict situation in Nepal has restricted some development activities, though work is continuing in many areas. Over the past six months my officials have been developing a number of short-term initiatives to deliver development benefits to people in conflict-affected areas.

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