Kathmandu, 16 June: Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai leaves Monday for Brazil as head of a 21-member delegation to the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (‘Rio+20’), to be held in Rio de Janeiro 20 to 22 June. The conference coincides with the the 20th anniversary of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development held in Rio de Janeiro in June 1992. Premier Bhattarai will address the conference 20 June Wednesday. “The conference will focus on two themes: A green economy in the context of sustainable development and poverty eradication; and the institutional framework for sustainable development,” the foreign ministry said.. PM Bhattarai will preside over two high-level meets Thursday that Nepal is hosting on the sidelines of the meet. Conferences on LDCs and Rio+20, in collaboration with the governments of Turkey and Belgium and the UN Office of the High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States (UN-OHRLLS); and another on Mountains and Rio+20, in coordination with the governments of Peru and Switzerland are being organized. The premier will be accompanied by wife Hishila Yami, Minister for Environment, Science and Technology, Vice-Chairman of the National Planning Commission, Secretary at PMO, Secretary at NPC, Environment Secretary, Secretary at the Ministry of Forests and Soil Conservation, Foreign Secretary Durga Prasad Bhattarai, among others. A separate delegation headed by Gyan Chandra Acharya , Permanent Representative of Nepal to the UN in New York, is participating in the Preparatory Meeting preceding the Rio conference anf will join the the premier’s delegation 19 June Premier Bhattarai returns home next Monday 25 June as he leaves the country in deep political crisis after declaring uncertain constituent assembly elections 22 November nnnn WORK DIVISION OF MINISTRIES HAZY Kathmandu, 16 June: The work division between the Ministry of Federal Affairs and Local Development (MoFALD), and the Ministry of Urban Development (MoUD) is yet to be clarified although the ministries were restructured on the basis of basic concept of governance and development, respectively, The Himalayan Timeswrites.. “Though we were carrying out the development and governance activities of the local bodies in the past, we are yet to receive formal work distribution of the ministry,” said Dinesh Kumar Thapaliya, spokesperson for the MoFALD, which was the Ministry of Local Development before restructuring the ministries about 45 days ago. “The government will decide to divide the responsibilities of the ministries in details in the upcoming fiscal budget despite preparation of the Terms of References,” he said. Although the country is yet to be federated into federal provinces, the newly restructured MoFALD is given authority to deal with the federal states. “We are seeking our roles to deal with the federal affairs,” said officials at the MoFALD. “We are going to discuss the federal affairs issues expecting that states will be structured in the country in the future,” they said. Confusion between the two ministries dealing with governance and development is widening regarding the governance of municipalities in the country. The MoFALD and the MoUD are in a state of claiming governance in municipalities, despite the government’s Terms of Reference provisioning the governance section of the municipalities under the MoFALD. The government restructured the ministries about 45 days ago creating two new ministries including the MoUD. The Department of Urban Development and Building Construction under the Ministry of Physical Planning and Works and the Municipal Management Division of the Ministry of Local Development were shifted into the newly created MoUD. The MoUD has been claiming both governance and development management of the municipalities under it. “The local development ministry handles the governance section of federal states, municipalities, districts and local bodies in all federal states across the world,” the MoFALD officials claimed. MoUD officials say development and management should go hand by hand, maintaining that development attempts cannot be effective and sustainable otherwise. There are 58 municipalities, 75 district development committees and 3,915 village development committees across the country. The MoFALD has been dealing with the governance of all local bodies. nnnn DONOR WHO URGE TRANSPARENTY DON’T WORK ACCORDINGLY IN NEPAL Kathmandu, 16: A study on Aid Transparency in Nepal shows that donors working here are not transparent in their budget and work. Transparency varies at different levels where district or local level executing offices are more reluctant to disclose information than central level offices, the report stated, The Himalayan Times writes. The study by Freedom Forum which evaluated seven major donor agencies — UKAid, USAID, JICA, Norwegian embassy, Asian Development Bank (ADB), World Bank (WB) and UNDP –– showed that WB has a more efficient information dissemination mechanism than others. The Norwegian embassy was the most reluctant in disseminating information followed by ADB. The report is a small picture of transparency and it shows how donors are committed towards maintaining transparency, said chairperson of Freedom Forum Tara Nath Dahal while presenting the draft report. “The report will be completed once we get clarification from donors and related agencies,” he said. The study focused on 164 projects which were executed by the sampled donor agencies using literature review, consultation with stakeholders, field survey and key informant interviews. The field study was held in Chitwan and Dolkha districts. All the donors share information with the government but are reluctant to share it with the civil society and beneficiaries. Media including social media like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube were the most common means for disseminating information. “Besides this, donors were also confused about whether or not to give information to the general people,” a key researcher said. The time required to provide information varied from donor to donor. Only JICA claimed that it provided information immediately while WB said it took 7-10 days. UKAid took 2-5 days. ADB and USAID did not comment about the issue. Donor supported projects are seen to be irresponsible towards beneficiaries. “Only a few beneficiaries were aware of the project budget,” it said. Audit report sharing from donor agencies with beneficiaries was also limited to 57.14 per cent. Media is the frequent user of information disseminated by donor agencies as most reports are in English and Nepali. “Only a few reports are published in local languages or disseminated among beneficiaries in their language, so access is limited.” nnnn