U.S.-BACKED PROGRAMME TARGETED NEPAL'S POLITICS

Documents reveal structured US support during Nepal’s constitutional restructuring period.

- ABHINANDAN MISHRA

United States government funded democracy support programme allocated up to 20 million dollars to strengthen Nepal's electoral system, parliament and political parties during the country’s post Constitution federal transition, according to official cooperative agreement papers, annual reports and work plans related to the program.

The Himalayan country will go to vote on 5 March in the first election post Generation Z uprising that led tothe fall of the KP Sharma Oliled elected government.

‘The programme hada total ceiling of 20 million US dollars, approximately Rs 2.9 billion in local currency at current exchange rates, and ran from July 2017 to early 2023, covering roughly five and a half years including extensions

The documents further show that the initiative was subject to structured oversight and approval authority embedded within US. Agency for International Development (USAID) and Washington based implementing partners, with formal provisions granting the US. side substantial involvement in work plan approvals, monitoring frameworks and key personnel decisions

‘The funding was issued on 24 July 2017 by the USAID to the Consortium for Elections and Political Process Strengthening (CEPPS) under Cooperative Agreement with an implementation window running until 22 July 2022. The award established a total ceiling of 20 million dollars to support a programme titled “Niti Sambad, Policy Dialogue,”

focused explicitly on Nepal's political transition and party system reform.

The cooperative agreement defines two central objectives. The first was to support Nepal’s political transition in order to institutionalize a more inclusive, effective and democratic political governance system. The second was to ensure that political parties function more inclusively and transparently and become more accountable to their constituents on national policy issues.