The governments of Denmark and Norway have provided grant assistances of Rs 3271.40 million and Rs 2523.63 million respectively. Likewise, the World Bank (WB) and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) have provided grant and loan assistances of Rs 9587.50 million and Rs 7006.25 million respectively.
At a function held at the Ministry of Finance (MoF) on Friday, four separate agreements in this regard were signed. Rameshwar Khanal, secretary at MoF, signed the agreements on behalf of the government. Thor Gislesen, ambassador of Denmark and Finn Thilsted, ambassador of Norway, signed the agreements on behalf of their countries.
Similarly, Susan G Gold Mark, country director of WB and Barry Hitchcock, resident representative of ADB signed the agreements on behalf of their agencies. On the same occasion, the Joint Financing Agreements (JFA), which is already agreed upon by nine partners of the government for SSR, was also formalized.
The four development partners as well as the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) signed the JFA. It reflects the commitment of development partners to the spirit of the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness that aims at reducing administrative cost.
Secretary Khanal said grant and loan assistances would be spent to uplift the standard of education by improving schools´ infrastructure and building capacities of teachers in the course of implementing the SSRP.
The SSRP aims at reforming overall school education system by consolidating grades 1-12 in a single structure. The key reform agendas of the SSRP include school structure, governance and management, access and quality, gender and inclusion, monitoring and evaluation, capacity development, institutional arrangement and financing agreement.
A total of US $ 2.626 billion is estimated to be required over the next 5 years in the course of implementing the SSRP. Of the total amount, the development partners have agreed to provide about US $ 620 million so far. It includes recently approved Fast Track Initiative Catalytic Fund of US $120 million. The government will have to manage the rest of the amount.
ADB grant for water, sanitation
In the meantime, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) has provided a grant assistance of Rs 3.33 billion for maintaining urban water resources and sanitation programs. MoF secretary Khanal and ADB´s country director Barry J Hitchcock signed the agreement. According to secretary Khanal, ADB grant will be spent on improving water supply system.
Related story
Chepang students go to school barefoot in freezing cold
