PAF to form ad hoc committee for national ID distribution

Poverty Alleviation Fund (PAF) has decided to from an ad hoc coordination committee comprising representatives from public and private sector under the leadership of PAF vice chairperson Janak Raj Joshi to distribute the proposed the national identity cards to poor households until an over-sight agency is formed.
According to a press release issued on Friday, PAF board meeting decided to form an ad hoc committee and also proposed to develop an over-sight agency to ensure the effective implementation of national identity cards distribution program.
The meeting decided to distribute the national identity card in three phases. “It will distribute the cards in 25 districts in the first phase,” said the press releasing without identifying the districts.
The committee will start work on distribution of national identity card formally from from Sept 17.
The PAF, which is entrusted to carry out the national identity cards distribution program, will also review the report prepared by the technical committee on poor households. “The report will be submitted to the government after the review,” read the release.
The government launched the program to distribute the national identity cards to the poor households within this fiscal year 2012/13.

Nepal for stronger global partnership for LDCs development

Nepal has urged the developed countries to fulfill their commitments and support trade and development of least developed countries (LDCs).
Speaking at a 25th special session of UNCTAD in Geneva, Shankar Bairagi, permanent representative of Nepal in Geneva said Nepal, like all LDCs would like to graduate from LDC status, and for this the support of the developed nations as well as UN bodies was important. He also urged for renewal of global partnership in order to uplift the situation of LDCs.
According to a press release, Bairagi said the UN had more special responsibilities to advance the lives of millions of people living under extreme poverty and hunger. Around more than 700 million people in 48 LDCs live under the poverty and minimum standards of basic facilities.
“International community can´t afford to remain silent when a large chunk of humanity is still grappling with dehumanizing condition of poverty and hunger,” the release quotes Bairagi as saying.
He viewed the upcoming thirteenth conference on trade and development of UNCTAD in Doha on April 21 to 26 could contribute towards renewed realization of strengthened global partnership for the development of LDCs.
“LDCs are not asking for the best of affluence; they are seeking to meet the minimum developmental standards of their people and UNCTAD has a special responsibility to assist LDCs in their development process,” he argued.