ECHO grants Rs 360 million

The Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection Department of the European Commission (ECHO) will provide 3.28 million euros (approximately Rs 360 million) for disaster risk reduction in different parts of Nepal, under its seventh Disaster Preparedness Action Plan for South Asia.

The action plan intends to further reduce the vulnerability of rural populations living in areas most affected by natural disasters and those highly vulnerable to earthquakes — notably in urban settings — by increasing the preparedness and the response capacities of local communities and authorities to potential and frequent natural disasters.

In the past, Disaster Preparedness Action Plan projects have focused on piloting and testing replicable community-based disaster preparedness models at grassroots level. Such actions have often been successful in increasing targeted communities' resilience and raising awareness of local stakeholders, and relevant models and tools have been developed.

The projects have contributed to the five flagship initiatives of the Nepal Risk Reduction Consortium. The current projects are implemented by four leading partners in Nepal and will be covering 13 districts in four development regions, including municipalities in the Kathmandu valley.

Rural Nepal benefits from Rs 1.5 billion EU-funded Renewable Energy Project

Close to a million people living in remote villages of 21 Himalayan districts of Nepal now benefit from services supported by renewable energy following the successful completion of the Renewable Energy Project (REP).

The project was co-funded by the European Union through a Euro15 million grant (approximately Rs 1.5 billion) to the government, which contributed Euro675,000 implemented the project through its Alternative Energy Promotion Centre (APEC). The project has invested in the required infrastructure for renewable electricity generation.

The Renewable Energy Project has established the foundation for rural communities in Nepal to move towards the sustainable use of resources, conservation of the environment and enhancement of their local economies. More concretely, the project has provided solar systems to over 206 health posts, 378 schools, 29 community computer literacy programmes, 59 community entertainment centres, as well as 124 community telecommunication centres across the country. In addition, the project has successfully promoted income generating activities by providing 107 agro grinding mills, 30 water pumping systems, 24 solar dryers and 14 solar hot water systems.

The REP has put in place renewable energy infrastructures in these remote rural areas to facilitate income generation, sustainable growth and delivery of social services, thus alleviating poverty through the installation of 933 Photovoltaic (PV), and 38 thermal systems.

Ambassador and Head of the European Union Delegation to Nepal Dr Alexander Spachis said that the REP is an excellent example of a joint undertaking between Nepal and the EU that has made a significant contribution to improving the quality of life in rural areas of Nepal.

Ambassador Spachis further stated that high-level officials from the EU have had the opportunity to visit the project in the field. Their feedback has been very positive and the EU is currently exploring further bilateral cooperation in this sector.

"Nepal attaches top priority to tapping the immense renewable energy potential that it possesses for reducing poverty through promoting inclusive, green and sustainable economic development,” secretary for Environment, Science and Technology Krishna Gyawali said at the handover ceremony of the REP Project today. “The EU's support to this end with the implementation of the just completed Renewable Energy Project has been extremely helpful,” he said, adding that Nepal would like to thank EU for this, and request for further support in various forms to promote this sector.

Executive Director of AEPC, Dr Govind Raj Pokharel also thanked the EU for supporting Renewable Energy Technologies in the remote rural areas of Nepal. He stressed that this project has contributed to improving living standard of the rural people, improving local environment and most importantly increasing access to clean energy.

Many students in the remote districts of Nepal share these feelings. They believe that the installation of solar panels in their schools has brought about significant changes to the teaching methodologies with many more opportunities available now to access information and news.

To ensure sustainability the project has trained 168 Community Organisations to take on the role as Community Energy Service Providers (CESPs). The CESP is a new and unique approach to involve rural population in the delivery of energy services to their respective communities, thereby enhancing active participation, accountability and ownership in the project.

EU provides Rs 400.8m to promote agriculture, nutrition

The European Union (EU) funded 'Agriculture and Nutrition Extension (ANE) project launched on Friday aims at improving the food security and nutrition of 20,000 households identified as the poorest and vulnerable in Nawalparasi, Rupandehi, Rukum and Surkhet districts of Nepal including 40,000 additional households in the Barisal district of Bangladesh.
International Development Enterprises Nepal (IDE-Nepal) has joined hands with seven other partners — CIMMYT, WorldFish, IRRI, Save The Children, CEAPRED, BES and CODEC to run the project. IDE successfully submitted the ANE project proposal as part of a global competitive call. The EU has provided an assistance of Euro3,644,677 (approx Rs 400.8 million) for the three-year project.
The decision to support the project comes in the wake of the successful completion of the European Union Food Facility Project (EUFF), which was implemented in eighteen districts of mid and far western Nepal through a total contribution of Euro23.5 million. Several partners of the newly launched initiative had been mobilised under the Food Facility to carry out similar activities in Humla, Mugu, Rukum, Rokpa and Banke districts from January 2010 to October 2011.
The project will work in two terai districts of Rupandehi and Nawalparsi selected because they are part of a technology development hub being implemented by the International Centres and NARC and two hill districts Rukum and Surkhet were selected for their suitability for a programme to develop exports and linkages for vegetable seeds between Nepal to Bangladesh.
One of the major goals of the project is to develop market linkages between rural and urban areas and promote exchange of expertise and technologies between agricultural and research institutions in Nepal and Bangladesh, both at the national and grassroots levels.
The project activities seek to disseminate training on new and emerging agricultural technologies to farmers helping them to step up productivity and increase their annual incomes. The project will expose them to new agriculture technologies based on market development approaches and the Participatory Market Chain Approach (PMCA). The training component has also encompassed public and private institutions.
The project also aims at conducting nutrition education, monitoring and counselling for the poor, rural and urban households for increasing the consumption of nutritious foods.
Women and children in both countries, who have been facing nutritional problems, will be made the target beneficiaries of the project. The project seeks to help 60,000 households to increase their annual income by at least 75 Euros from production and sales of high- value agricultural commodities. Similarly, 1000 households are expected to increase their annual income by Euro100 from seed sales.
Overall, the project seeks to help 60,000 poor and excluded household – 40,000 in Bangladesh and 20,000 in Nepal – to increase their income and nutritional status.

Gold hits another record high

The precious yellow metal today hit another record high costing Rs 35700 per tola (11.664 gram). The price of gold per 10 gram was at Rs 30,625 in the local market whereas the silver was traded for Rs 471.50 per 10 gram.
"The Greece crisis coupled with euro and dispute between North Korea and South Korea pushed the international price up," said Tej Ratna Shakya, president of Nepal Gold and silver Traders Asociation (NEGOSIDA). "On top of that the devaluation of Indian Currency (IC) against the dollar also pushed the gold price higher in the local market."
Nepali currency is pegged with the Indian Currency (IC) and its devaluation against the greenback will hit the Nepali rupee too.
"The price in the local market might touch Rs 40,000 per tola," said traders fearing low trade before the marriage season.
Earlier, last Monday the precious yellow metal had touched a record high -- in the domestic market – reaching Rs 35,254 per tola (11.664 gram).
Last recorded high price was because of strong dollar that had contributed to the price hike in the domestic market. However, the silver was traded at Rs 481 per 10 gram that is Rs 561 per tola(11.664 gram) on last Monday.
Gold price began approaching record levels from couple of weeks earlier, when the escalating Greek crisis prompted investors to flee to the precious metal. Heightened concerns about the risk of contagion from Greece’s debt woes have attracted fresh inflows of cash into gold, which is widely regarded as a safe bet in times of economic uncertainty.

GBOT to start live exchange in Mauritius from April

The first multi-asset derivatives exchange is going live in Mauritius from April.
The first of its kind of currency and derivatives exchange in this region – Global Board of Trade (GBOT) – plans to offer eight-currency pairs with the dollar as the base – including Kenyan shilling and Ugandan shilling.
Joseph Bosco, deputy managing director and Chief Operating Officer (COO) of GBOT thinks that the region, with all its natural resources and huge potentials, is slowly waking up. “The African region is coming out of its troubled past and realizing its real strength,” he said adding that GBOT offers the region a better platform to exploit its natural resources and commodities like sugar and coffee. “Cocoa and coffee from the African region and Mauritius sugar are the world class,” he added.
It also expects to trade futures contracts in zinc, copper, aluminium, nickel, gold, silver and platinum apart from coffee, sugar and maize as well as crude oil and carbon credits.
The exchange will trade in 14 commodities, such as precious metals, base metals and agricultural commodities and eight dollar-based currency pairs - including the Mauritius rupee, euro, yen and sterling.
A good futures market can also control volatility of currency. “We will offer them the required risk management mechanism to hedge themselves against uncertainty,” Bosco added. “The east African countries like Kenya and Uganda can benefit a lot from it.”
The African continent has lately been on the radar of global powers like China and India. “And Mauritius is the gateway for Africa to the rest of the world,” he said. The Indian Ocean island nation offers every facility for an investor and has a democratic framework with a strong judicial system. “Apart from that its tax structure is very much favourable to the investors,” he said adding that the companies based in Mauritius and trading on other parts of the world would get 80 per cent tax rebate. “On top of that the people of Africa trust Mauritius more than any other.”
GBOT's main promoter is India's Financial Technologies (FT) that is listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) and the National Stock Exchange (NSE) of India.
The exchange that has invested around $20 million was looking to add options contracts in due course, apart from international stocks, bonds and IRFs. “But initially, we are looking at $1 billion to $1.5 billion per trading day for each of the two categories of products (commodities and currencies) from second year trade given a limitations in the region,” Bosco said adding that “though it would definitely go up by the time.”