KATHMANDU: The European Union (EU), Switzerland, Norway, and the United Kingdom have agreed to provide grant assistance of Rs 11.4 billion (100 million US dollars), to implement the Provincial and Local Governance Support Program (PLGSP).

The project has been aimed at strengthening the provincial and local governments’ capacity to deliver public service in an efficient manner.

The project is also expected to ensure to attain sustainable, functional, inclusive and accountable provincial and local governance by enlarging the benefits of cooperative federalism for Nepali people.

The assistance will conclude in four fiscal years commencing from July 2019/20 to July 2022/23.

An agreement to this effect was signed and exchanged between the four countries—Nepal’s development partners — and the Government of Nepal referred to as the Joint Financing Agreement (JFA) development partners on Wednesday at the Ministry of Finance, Singha Durbar in Kathmandu.

Significant activities that have been mentioned under the project include Local Policy, Innovation and Partnership Fund, Guidelines, Strategy, Capacity Development Program (Province and Local Level), Framework & Institutional Development, and Public Financial Management (PMF) to implement SUTRA and Local PFM.

The project is also expected to be a landmark one in incapacitating the sub-national governments by bridging the existing gap among three levels of the governance system.

During the signing of the agreement between Shree Krishna Nepal, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Finance, and Matthew John Rycroft, Permanent Secretary, Department for International Development (DFID), Elisabeth Von Capeller, Ambassador, Swiss Embassy in Nepal, and Lasse Bjorn Johannessen, Ambassador, Norwegian Embassy in Nepal on behalf of their respective governments.