Stakeholder Consultation on PPCR

With the participation of more than 52 civil society representatives, government officials, media, a Stakeholder Consultation on PPCR was held in Kathmandu on 06 February, 2011. The program started with the introduction of all participants and chairing of the guest: Mr. Pursuttom Ghimire, Joint Secretary/NPD for PPCR, Mr. Batu K Uprety, Joint Secretary/Chief CC Management Division and Mr. Bhushan Tuladhar Coordinator CCNN/Member CC Council.

 The program was organized by Climate Change Network Nepal (CCNN) secretariat hosted at Clean Energy Nepal. Addressing the program Ex. Environment Minister, Er. Ganesh Shah expresses his gratitude to the organizers for continuing this culture of sharing and bringing different stakeholders to discuss on this important issue. He also stresses that the this kind of discussion should be held at political and also should be explore via economic perspective.

 Mr. Bhushan Tuladhar facilitated the discussion program, in his introductory note he discussed about the necessity and the objective of the discussion program. According to him, there is no doubt on necessity of high value resources for adaptation and there are many funding options available, but it is up to us to be wise and use the options for much benefits.

 Mr. Manjeet Dhakal share about the global and national scenario of the climate funding and experience of other countries accessing the PPCR funding. He concluded his presentation with the consolidated remarks of concerns raised by different groups. Please click here for detail presentation

 Mr. Purusottam Ghimire shared about the preparation and overall initiative taken at by the ministry to access the fund. According to him, first of all Nepal applied only for grant but later the loan part was added based on the experience of other countries. And the PPCR funding will be used climate resilient projects.

 Mr. Batu K Uprety shared about the recent initiatives taken by the ministry of Environment and the details of PPCR process in Nepal. In his presentation, he discussed about the initial priority activities that have been planned for PPCR projects and budget and its financing modalities. According to him, the first 10 years will be grace period and from 11th to 20th year t will be 2% interest and from 21st to 40th years it will be 4 % interest for the loan and the service charge is 0.1 percent. He also urged the stakeholders to advice the productive sector where the loan part could be wisely used. Please click here for detail presentation.  
 

Much concerned were raised for prior preparation of effective plan and implementation strategy of the activities for the PPCR projects. Many also stressed that the government to be very couscous on dealing with Multilateral banks and selecting the priority and productive area for mobilizing the fund. While the ministry seems always open with the suggestions from stakeholders and with no doubt will consider the suggestions, as the agreement has not been finalized there is always a space for improvement. Also the officials urged the stakeholders to suggest the productive sectors, where the resource or the loan amount could be best utilized

 Many responded that the program was very successful to bring different stakeholder in common ground and many things are made clear which were anonymous earlier. Likewise, many suggestions came from the forum that, before accepting any financial resources (grant or loan), government should very clear on its plan and implementation strategy. Consideration should be taken in prior to design business plan with its repayment mechanism. Investment should be done in more productive sector i.e. Agriculture and Energy sector, which also will be helpful to increase GDP.

 In the conclusion, It was suggested that, If the financial channeling, accountability, institutional capacities, project implementation mechanism are clear, than the resources granted as loan could also be more beneficial. Because, as Nepal is going for low carbon economy, this opportunity of low interest loan will be beneficial and good opportunity for Nepal to invest on such plan.
 
Here are the few suggestions and concerns
Adaptation Vs resilience: As there seems to have confusion on difference between adaptation and resilience, this issue should be discussed further. It was also reported, Adaptation is being used inside convention regime while resilience is used away from regime especially in funding.
More consultations: Consultations on this issue is necessary at political level and also with financial expert.
Detail plan: Before accepting any financial resources, government should be well-prepared with a clear plan of implementation, the priority area to be invested and a clear re payment mechanism.
Participation: Civil society should be involved in decision making process such as while prioritizing the list of activities and determining investment.
Transparency: Service charge for MDB, implementing and executing agencies through which each disbursement is channeled, grant and loan component of the disbursement, description of the activities to receive support should be well consulted in prior in transparent way.
 
Other Concerns:
·         If Nepal's current resource-need can be content from grant than loan could be the second choice.
·         Positions of Nepal government should be in line with the government produced documents i.e. in the status paper prepared before COP15 talks about direct access and climate change policy about climate justice.
·         Consideration should be taken to minimize the risk of foreign exchange; it may arise if the dollar can devalue.
·         There is also a possibility of weakening the UNFCCC process if by accepting loan outside the process, so more focus should be to encourage donors to put resources on UNFCCC funding mechanism.
·         Most of the budget is on component first and second, while component 4 (private sector engagement) should be more focused in term of resources.
 
To download
Presentation 1: Global and national Scenerio of Climate Funds, Manjeet Dhakal, CCNN/CEN
Presentation 2: Climate Change Grant and Loan issue, Batu K Uprety, Joint Secretary, MoE
Briefing paper : PPCR and its associated concerns in Nepal