Australian ambassador to Nepal ,
Glenn White Tuesday announced the launch of the second phase of activities in
the Himalayan river basin under the Sustainable Development Investment
Portfolio (SDIP2).
“The project is Australian
Government’s regional development programme to improve integrated management of
water, energy, and food in parts of Nepal ,
India , Pakistan , Bhutan
and Bangladesh ,
addressing climate risk and the interests of women and girls,” said White.
The Australian government has
committed 42 million US Dollars to the SDIP2 which will run for four years,
2016 to 2020.
“In response to the government
of Nepal and other bilateral
partners in South Asia, Australia
has and will continue to support the region on integrated water resource
management, climate resilient and energy/water efficient agriculture, and
energy efficiency and standards in large scale grid connected renewable and
small to medium scale hydropower,” said White.
SDIP initiatives focus on Indus,
Ganges and Brahmaputra river basins.
The second phase of the
programme aims to strengthen practices for regional cooperation, generate and
share new knowledge, and improve the regional enabling environment for more
integrated management of water, energy and food resources.
Commonwealth Scientific and
Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), International Centre of Excellence in
Water Resource Management (ICEWaRM), International Centre for Integrated
Mountain Development (ICIMOD), International Finance Corporation (IFC),
Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR), World Bank’s
South Asia Water Initiative (SAWI) and Asia Foundation are the delivery
partners for SDIP in Nepal.
Meanwhile, talking to The Rising
Nepal, Head of Development Cooperation at the Australian Embassy Ainsley
Hemming said that Australia
would continue to support Nepal
in poverty alleviation and inclusive development.
According to her, Australia is supporting Nepal with
about 36 million Australian dollars annually in an average.
No comments:
Post a Comment