Nepal became a priority country for Denmark in 1989 and a long-term partnership was established. Through this partnership, Denmark aims to contribute to poverty reduction, political stability and to strengthen inclusive economic growth and access to renewable energy. In an interview with The Corporate’s Gaurav Aryal and Sanjeev Sharma, the Ambassador of Denmark to Nepal, Kirsten Geelan, talked about DANIDA’s projects in Nepal. She also talked about Danish development policy paper for Nepal for the years 2013-2017. Excerpts:

 

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

Denmark and Nepal have been in a mutually beneficial and cordial bilateral relation for almost half a century. The Danish engagement in Nepal over these years has developed and matured considerably. We now increasingly work with Nepali national partners. We see much higher degree of national ownership and involvement in our development activities and considerable improvement of national skills and competences when compared to the early days of our collaboration.

 

Denmark has a quite a few successful examples of Business to Business (B2B) Cooperation like Carlsberg. 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 businesses scheduled for March, will assist in finding new ways of increasing business collaboration between Danish companies and Nepali partners. We have identified six sectors as potential ones, namely 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. The initiative aims for that sort of overarching objectives while providing Danish companies with new markets and opportunities to save costs, hire human resources at cheap salaries and provide access to raw materials. We have seen some success stories in Nepal. Wehave a very well known Danish fruit and juice producing company teaming up with a Nepali company in Bhaktapur to produce organic juice and ice cream.

 

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 learnt. We have seen thatprojects and programmes developed through long-term partnership, even in a preparatory phase, is an important prerequisite for long term and sustainable outcome. Working with national partners and having their involvement throughout projects is another important aspect for national ownership.

 

We are not an implementing agency. We work with local co-partners in order to strengthen capacity of local partners and local government institutions to pave the way for sustainable development. We have done so in the past and will continue it in the future. We work very closely with the local government,which is an important partner in the development of Nepal.

 

Another lesson learned is on monitoring and resource management system, where we have developed considerably in our approach. We need to focus on constant monitoring of output, activities and impact, not just on the list of activities. Development has moved from a very simple straightforward project to big complicated phenomenon, covering numerous sectors and programmes. Another important lesson is we have to be working not only with national partners but also with other donors. We are constantly looking at the possibilities of basket funding, strengthening equal operation with other bilateral and international donors.

 

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?

In this new inclusive growth programme, we will be focusing on developing agriculture with priorities 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.

 

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 working in the education sector in Nepal closely with the government for 20 years. Over these years, we have seen impressive gains in the education sector. We are very pleased to be part of that development. We have seen literacy rate rising from very low to significantly high. 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 much more comprehensive and coordinated approach. So, that is some achievement we are very proud to be part of.

 

In terms of human rights and governance, we have been very active key player in peace building process. We have supported Nepal Peace Trust, UN Peace Fund and have been instrumental in the successful integration of Maoist combatants into the Nepali Army. We have established a long-term partnership with Election Commission. We were very supportive to the recent elections. We have also worked very closely with the National Human Rights Commission and supported their important task in handling various complaints of human rights abuses. We have worked and will continue to work with civil society organisation particularly with regards to human rights. We have seen improvement in gender rights and situation of marginalised groups, particularly 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. That is in one of the reasons why the decision was taken in Copenhagen not to continue our engagement in education sector. Having said that let’s not forget Denmark as EU member country is continuing to support education sector in Nepal through the activities of EU.

 

We have been criticized for shifting our engagement in Nepal from the education sector but it is important to remind ourselves that this is a decision that has been taken in Copenhagen by the Ministry for Development Cooperation. It was a slight policy shift when we had a new government in Denmark, a couple of years ago.

 

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 accelerate 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 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 do so in our new inclusive growth programme to create even stronger synergy with renewable energy programme in tapping 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 400 million Danish Kroner. Green growth is a challenge for all countries. In a country like Nepal, 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. It is not a very big programme. The approach is to support local programme that is implemented by local districts and with specific poverty alleviation dimension. Over the years, the programme will be able to support the value added chain in conjunction with supply and finance and improved infrastructure.

 

Trade/Investment

Nepal’s exports to Denmark include handicrafts, silver products, ready-made garments, woolen goods, paper and paper products, etc. and major imports are machinery and parts, medicine and medical equipment, industrial raw materials, food and edible items, etc. from Denmark. The following figure shows that Nepal’s balance of trade with Denmark is negative, except for the year 2012: