Nepal’s development partners reaffirm their commitments to support a federal state of Nepal that is committed to improving governance and fighting corruption, patronage and collusion.

They hope that the International Anti-Corruption Day will serve as a new beginning under a federal model of governance to redouble efforts to improve integrity, accountability and transparency in all walks of public life,”  

“As Development Partners, we re-commit ourselves to ensuring that all of our programmes and partners operate to the highest possible standards of transparency, integrity, and accountability,” said in a press release jointly issued by Asian Development Bank, Denmark, European Union, Finland, France, Germany, JICA Nepal, Norway, Switzerland, United Kingdom, US embassy, United Nations and World Bank on anti-corruption day.

Issued by UN Information Centre on behalf of Nepal’s development partners, the release said that the world marks International Anti-Corruption Day on December 9th.  This year’s theme is “United against corruption for development, peace, and security”.

“This is a particularly auspicious moment for the people of Nepal.  With federal and provincial elections having been successfully completed and with newly elected parliamentarians, assembly members and executive officials taking their electoral seats across the country, the stage is set for a historic transfer of state authority from the center to the seven newly formed provinces and 753 local governments,” reads the joint statement.

In this historic moment, the transfer of power is intended to bring government closer to the people and to empower citizens to hold their elected governments accountable for the use of political authority and financial and natural resources.  The country’s leaders face enormous challenges in fulfilling their constitutional obligation of making this new federal model of governance work to the benefit of all citizens.

“We will continue working closely with Government and stakeholders to support Nepal in fulfilling our common commitments to Agenda 2030 and the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and our obligations related to the United Nations Conventions against Corruption (UNCAC) by improving transparency and accountability at all levels of government. “We also wish to acknowledge the critical role of the many individuals and organizations – civic associations, journalists, lawyers and civil society networks – that work to highlight concerns over integrity and accountability on behalf of ordinary citizens whose voices are often unheard,” reads a statement.