It has been 45 years since Denmark-Nepal bilateral relationship has been established. How do you evaluate this friendly relationship?

Denmark and Nepal established diplomatic relations almost half a century ago. Over the years our relationship and collaboration has strengthened and with a much higher degree of Nepali ownership and involvement in our joint development activities and considerable improvement of national skills and competences compared to the early days of our collaboration.

 

Denmark has a quite a few successful examples of Business to Business (B2B) Cooperation like Carlsberg and other smaller business ventures. How do you think such partnerships can be enhanced in the days to come?

We hope that the match making event between Danish and Nepali later in the year, will contribute to finding new ways of increasing business collaboration between Danish companies and Nepali partners. We have identified six sectors of potential mutual interest agriculture, tourism, handicraft, IT, waste management and health. The idea of the business partnership is to create jobs, strengthen competitiveness and promote corporate social responsibility in developing countries, while at the same time providing Danish companies with new markets and opportunities for investments. We do have seen some success stories already. As an example, there is a Danish fruit and juice producing company teaming up with a Nepali company in Bhaktapur to produce organic juice and ice cream. In addition to companies joint ventures in the handicraft and tourism sector.

 

How do you view the progress of DANIDA projects in Nepal?

There are no shortcuts or blueprint solutions to long-term sustainable development. Nevertheless, there are some lessons to be learnt. We have seen that projects and programmes developed through long-term partnership, even in a preparatory phase, is an important prerequisite for long term and sustainable impacts. Working closely with national partners and with their active involvement and contributions right from early preparation and planning to execution and completion is another important feature.. It’s all about national ownership.

 

Danida is not an implementing agency. We work with local partners in order to strengthen their capacity. It could be local or central government institutions or civil society organisations. . We have done so in the past and will continue to do so in the future. We work closely with the local government, which we see as an important player when strengthening national capacity in service delivery and accountability.

 

Another lesson learnt relates to results performance management and monitoring. Where we today focus much more on targets and results, based on indicators and monitoring systems.. We constantly need to focus on improving results monitoring and performance, well beyond mere inputs and outputs of our development projects. In our programmes we have also moved away from traditional stand alone projects to much larger joint and coordinated programmes with other development partners.  Exploring options for joint modalities and strengthening harmonisation among development partners and to the extent possible aligning with national systems remain high priorities for our development programmes. 

 

Private sector’s role in the development programmes has tremendously increased over the years. How is DANIDA recognising this role in its new 2013-2017 programme?

As part of our new country policy 2013-17 we recently launched a new inclusive growth programme. We will be focusing on developing agricultural value chains in three key sectors namely tea, ginger and dairy in seven districts of Eastern Nepal. We will increase value added chain, enhance infrastructure and work closely with district authorities in improving the enabling environment for the business sector. Farmers, producers and private companies in the value chains will be our key partners.

 

Some of the important programmes of DANIDA such as Education Programme, Human Rights and Good Governance Programme and Peace Support Programme concluded in 2013. How do you assess the achievements of these programmes?

We have been active in the education sector for 20 years. Over these years, we have seen impressive gains, and we have been pleased to be part of that development. We have seen the literacy rate increase significantly. More importantly, we have seen an increase in female literacy rate and enrolment of girls in school. It is fair to say that with our assistance, Nepal has moved from fragmented and limited education sector to a much more comprehensive and coordinated approach. Impressive achievements by any standard.

 

Another priority relates to human rights and governance, we have been an active player in the peace building process. We have supported Nepal Peace Trust Fund, UN Peace Fund and have been instrumental in the successful integration of Maoist combatants into the Nepali Army. We have also established a long-term partnership with the Election Commission. We provided substantive support to the recent elections. We have also worked very closely with the National Human Rights Commission and supported their important task of addressing a wide range of human rights issues . We have worked and will continue to work with civil society organisations, particularly with regards to human rights and women's rights and opportunities. We have been part of some improvement in gender rights and situation of marginalised groups, particularly among Dalits.

 

DANIDA had been supporting the Government School Sector Reform Program (SSRP). However, some of the targets of this programme are yet to be met and thus, it is extended for another two years. Why did DANIDA decide to stop supporting the education sector?

We have two priorities in our development assistance programmes: human rights and inclusive and green growth. This is the reason why the decision was taken in Copenhagen not to continue our engagement in education sector. Having said that let’s not forget that Denmark as EU member country is continuing to support the education sector in Nepal through the activities of EU.

 

We have been criticized for shifting our engagement in Nepal from the education sector, but I have been pleased to see that the Government institutions of Nepal have positively embraced and actively support the new inclusive growth programme and the increased emphasis on private sector development..

 

DANIDA has shifted its focus to renewal energy sector in Nepal. What is the progress so far? 

More than a million households have been benefitted from our efforts to improve access to renewable energy technologies in Nepal. We have worked for quite a number of years since late 1990s in Nepal’s energy sector. We have delivered concrete results with our long-term partners, Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment and the Alternative Energy Promotion Centre. We have seen improved technologies in terms of improved cooking stoves, solar systems and small hydropower plants changing the lives of millions of people. We also hope to be able to create even stronger synergy in our new growth programme with the renewable energy programme by tapping into the experiences gained already.

 

DANIDA in its policy paper for 2013-2017 has prioritised poverty reduction through support on green and inclusive economic growth. How easy or difficult you find meeting this target as green economic growth is still a challenge for developed countries?

Apart from the renewable energy programme, we will be embarking on a new inclusive growth programme. It is a programme that will run over five years and has a huge budget of USD 80 million. Green growth is a challenge for all countries. In Nepal, the challenge is to reconcile the country’s need for rapid growth and poverty alleviation while avoiding damage to the environment. This is where we see the new programme making a difference to local communities. I am confident that the programme in the coming years, in close cooperation with local authorities, the farmers and the local private sector the programme will improve the value added chain in conjunction with supply and finance and improved infrastructure.