Nepal hosts first regional conference of women in power sector

More than 250 engineers and energy-sector professionals – including representatives from 60 participating institutions from local and international power utilities, energy sector organisations, and multilateral agencies – represented their countries at the first regional conference of the Women in Power Sector Network in South Asia (WePOWER), a forum to promote and diversify female practitioners’ opportunities in the power and energy sector.
Joint Secretary at the Ministry of Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation Pravin Raj Aryal opened the two-day conference yesterday. "Energy access and infrastructure development are critical elements in South Asia’s regional development strategy," he said, adding that women’s opportunities to contribute to the energy sector are, however, limited, with a visible lack of gender diversity in technical and senior management positions."
The initiatives like WePOWER would help nurture partnerships among women professionals, leading to an increase in their engagement across the sector, he added. The conference was organised by the World Bank (WB), with support from the Energy Sector Management Assistance Programme (ESMAP), Asian Development Bank (ADB), Australian AID (AusAID) and Australia Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT).
The conference drew senior and junior professionals and engineering students from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. Besides panel discussions on the viability of jobs, skills, and opportunities in the sector, the conference also had a special interactive session for secondary school girl students to encourage them to find their footing in the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education.
"WePOWER aims at supporting greater participation of women in energy projects and utilities, and promote normative change regarding women in STEM education,” said World Bank country director for Maldives, Nepal, and Sri Lanka Idah Z Pswarayi-Riddihough. "This initiative also fits the broader work of the World Bank, aimed at removing constraints for more and better jobs as part of our Gender Strategy."
"Women’s low participation in the sector is a constraint to gender equality and equality of opportunities," World Bank senior director of the Gender Group Caren Grown, said, adding that it is imperative for men and women to have access to good quality jobs, and events like WePOWER reinforce this need.
Australian ambassador to Nepal Peter Budd, opening the second day of the WePOWER conference said that forums like WePOWER are and will continue to be an important mechanism for deliberation on low carbon gender integrated pathways that meet the growth needs of the countries in the region."

Higher cost discouraging intra-regional trade

The cost of trading within the region among South Asian countries is twice, and in some cases, even three times, than trading with countries outside the region, according to the minister.

It is important to improve trade facilitation in South Asia to increase the intra-regional trade, said finance minister Shanker Prasad Koirala inaugurating a two-day inception meeting of two projects, ‘Trade and Transport Facilitation Audit in South Asia’ lead by South Asia Watch on Trade, Economics and Environment (SAWTEE) and ‘Promoting Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) for Inclusive, Equitable and Sustainable Development in South Asia’ lead by UNDP Asia Pacific Regional Centre (APRC), Bangkok, both supported by the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID), started in Kathmandu today.

Despite the existence of several regional efforts like Agreement on South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA), intra-regional trade in South Asia has remained extremely modest due to a number of factors – one of which is trade and transport facilitation-related bottlenecks – he said, expressing hope that the two projects will create a momentum in South Asia and contribute to transforming the region into an international trading hub.

Australian ambassador to Nepal Glenn White, on the occasion, said that since the latest Aid for Trade Report has highlighted the importance of regional projects for enhanced trade, the current initiatives taken by SAWTEE, UNDP APRC and their regional partners would be extremely beneficial in advancing regional economic integration in South Asia.

Likewise, country director of UNDP Nepal Shoko Noda pointed out that unrealised economic potential of women was getting increasing recognition in the global political and economic sphere. “South Asian countries, which hold immense potential in advancing MSMEs, and in which a large number of women are engaged, will not only contribute to increase economic growth of these countries but also empower women,” she added.

Secretary General of the SAARC Chamber of Commerce and Industry Iqbal Tabish mentioned the benefits of trade liberalisation that will not be realised unless trade facilities are rationalized. “Some 75 per cent of MSMEs in South Asia are operating informally and argued that informality of MSMEs has limited their growth potential,” he said, adding that bringing them within the legal purview of the state can lead to higher growth of the sector.

Despite the fall in traditional trade barriers, costs related to trade facilitation, infrastructure and transit have risen over the years, which has promoted informal trade in South Asia, said chair of inaugural session and executive chairman of SAWTEE Dr Posh Raj Pandey. “It has also forced exporters, businesses and consumers to bear additional cost burden,” he said, adding that trade facilitation is a must for effective trade integration.

Welcoming the guests, chief executive director of SAWTEE Dr Ratnakar Adhikari highlighted the main features of the projects and their objectives.
“Trade facilitation audit study project will aim to identify regional benchmark for trade facilitation measures in South Asia, assess the cost incurred due to lack of regional trade connectivity and thickness of borders, as well as the benefits of removing trade barriers, and most importantly, estimate the investment required to address the identified bottlenecks,” he said. “Similarly, the other project will focus on identifying market access barriers faced by MSMEs and advocate for the removal of such barriers.”
More than 50 participants, including researchers, policy makers, private sector representatives and media from different South and Southeast Asian countries are participating in the inception meeting.

South Asian experts share experiences of rural water supply and sanitation programmes

Experts, practitioners and policy makers in the field of rural water supply and sanitation in South Asia are gathered here this week to share experiences and knowledge of best practices as well as challenges in implementing rural water supply and sanitation initiatives in the region.

“The barriers to better opportunities as a result of lack of access to improved water supply and sanitation are huge, more so if one is poor, female and live in a rural community,” said the World Bank Country Manager for Nepal Tahseen Sayed. “Reliable water and sanitation services contribute to broader poverty reduction goals, improved health and education outcomes, and significantly reduce the burden on rural women who spend hours collecting water,” she said.

Chairing the Inaugural session of the conference today, secretary at the Ministry of Urban Development Kishore Thapa stressed that the government has given top priority as per its national policy to ensuring drinking water supply to all.
Delivering the keynote address, National Planning Commission (NPC) member Janak Raj Shah outlined the targets of the Government of Nepal to cover all the rural habitations with safe water supply and sanitation by early 2017, with deployment of simple and local technology.
Likewise, Caroline Mills of AusAID highlighted the role of the Australian government in helping developing nations achieve better service delivery of potable water and open free defecation with one overriding goal of saving lives.

The three day South Asia Regional Conference on Rural Water Supply and Sanitation is organised by the World Bank in partnership with AusAid.

Around 80 high level officials from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka as well as experts and practitioners from Brazil, Vietnam, Netherlands and the US are participating in the conference.

The participants are sharing their views and insights on critical issues like the long term sustainability of rural water supply schemes, increasing access to sanitation, challenges of declining water quality and quantity, monitoring and evaluation and public-private partnership in rural water supply and sanitation.

South Asia represents a major challenge in terms of providing access to safe, sustainable water supply and sanitation. In the last few years, there have been many exciting developments in the rural areas which have contributed to improving performance and outcomes in service delivery. However, over 1 billion people in South Asia still lack access to improved sanitation and over 250 million people lack access to improved water supplies.

Weak policy commitment hits agriculture strategy

Weak commitment to policy and weak implementation capacity will be an obstacle to get the desired results from the Agriculture Development Strategy, according to participants at the 'Policy Dialogue: Workshop on Agriculture Development Strategy', here today.

The strategy has a target to increase agriculture exports by almost seven times, land productivity by more than three times, labour productivity by three times, and contribution of agriculture to the gross domestic production (GDP) by three times. However, society has to completely change its perception of farming from being unattractive and full of drudgery, to an honourable professional activity, according to senior agriculturist at the Ministry of Agriculture Development Sabnam Shivakoti.

Similarly, the exodus of youth from rural areas, growing rural-urban gap, loss of agricultural land, weak smallholder farmer organisations, and adoption of improved technology are some of the key challenges to transform the agriculture sector that includes broader areas from crops to livestock, forestry and fisheries, production, trade, processing to marketing, and spans across different ministries and agencies, and includes not only government agencies but farmers, private sector enterprises, cooperatives, NGOs, and service providers.

The strategy is trying to address the current agriculture system that has become less important as a share of labour and GDP, she said, adding that after the implementation of the strategy, agriculture could become more productive in terms of higher agricultural labour income and GDP.

But for better results, technology development and dissemination that is demand-driven and responsive to farmers and enterprises, needs to be developed, besides ensuring that the input supply and distribution system provides timely, quality, and reasonably priced inputs to farmers, providing a favourable environment and specific measures to increase the level and effectiveness of public and private investment including investment in infrastructure and irrigation.

However, market development and commercialisation of agriculture is key to achieve the growth potential of agriculture, driven by expanding domestic and regional demand, emergence of innovative and competitive enterprises, and increased value addition, added Shivakoti. "Along with proper land management that ensures effective implementation of land planning and management to promote productive use of land, rights of tillers, and environmental protection must also be ensured."

The policy dialogue shared the process and content of the strategy with the wider public so that its assumptions, analyses, priorities and thematic thrusts could be scrutinised. Its aim was to also identify weaknesses and strengths in the process and its content, and review viable changes and suggestions if needed. The dialogue had an objective to also review the initiatives taken in mainstreaming organic agriculture integration, and to provide inputs.

The strategy that envisions 'a competitive, sustainable and inclusive agricultural sector that contributes to economic growth, improved livelihoods, and food and nutrition security,' also has to include the voice of farmers and practitioners in the planning process and engage key policy shapers and makers, according to the civic society that blamed the policy for being donor driven and of techno-bureaucratic interest and orientation.

Nepal is on the threshold of a new socio-cultural, political and economic change, and reshaping agricultural policies and strategies could play a vital role in economic development.

There have been a number of policies and programmes for the development of the agriculture sector since 1995. An example is the 20-year Agriculture Perspective Plan, a strategic document that was formulated in the mid-1990s with the support of the government and development partners. The validity of the Agriculture Perspective Plan will end by 2015.

The government, with the assistance of Asian Development Bank (ADB) and several other donors, has been preparing an Agriculture Development Strategy with a 20-year vision and a 10-year planning horizon.

According to the work plan, the ADS needs to be drafted by December 2012.

Ministry of Agriculture Development is the executing agency, whereas development partners including ADB, IFAD, EU, FAO, SDC, JICA, DANIDA, USAID, WFP, DfID, World Bank, and AusAID are helping the government.

Australia has tripled aid to Nepal

Australia has tripled its aid to Nepal.

In the context of the scale up, Australia has increased the aid to Nepal by $5 million this year, bringing it up to $35 million, Australian Foreign Affairs Parliamentary Secretary Richard Marles said, adding that it represents a tripling of its development assistance to Nepal since 2008.

Recognising the importance of human resource development, Australia will provide more than 80 Australia Awards to Nepal over the next four years, particularly targeting civil servants in the sectors that it is supporting.
Similarly, Australia is increasingly focused on the results achieved from Australia’s aid and managing these in a way that ensures transparency and accountability to its public. "Future growth in Australia’s aid to Nepal will depend on results achieved and the strengthening of governance and financial management," Marles added.
Vice chair of National Planning Commission (NPC) Deependra Bahadur Kshetry and finance secretary Krishnahari Baskota were also present in the meeting.

Similarly, caretaker finance minister Barshaman Pun hailed the Australian help to Nepal since last half century.
During a meeting between Nepal and Australia — led by the visiting Marles — here today, Pun also said that Australian aid has helped Nepal to achieve desired economic growth.
" The meeting highlighted the strengths of Australia and Nepal’s development partnership which builds on more than 50 years of diplomatic relations," Marles said, adding that the government of Australia is pleased to support Nepal during its challenging transition. "AusAID will invest $35 million in education, health, rural livelihoods and governance reform to improve the quality of life of Nepalis," he added. "Australia recognises that Nepal has made remarkable progress towards many of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) but we have concerns that a protracted period of political uncertainty may lead to erosion of some of these gains, and that Nepal may be unable to maintain momentum for reform and economic growth."
The government of Australia has committed that its global aid programme will reach 0.5 of its gross national income by 2016-17.