The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) has proposed to provide four million US dollars as a grant for the implementation of the capacity building component of the Poverty Alleviation Fund Project II. Negotiation to this effect was held on December 6, 2007 at the World Bank Country Office in Kathmandu through Video Conference modality between Kathmandu and Rome.

The grant amount will be used for social mobilization of community groups, capacity building for local bodies, capacity building for target groups engaged in income-generating activities, support to rural and community finance and information, monitoring and evaluation.

Likewise, a separate negotiation between Government of Nepal and Asian Development Bank was held on December 7, 2007 in Kathmandu for the ICT Development Project. The main objective of this Project is to contribute to socioeconomic upliftment of remote and rural communities through ICT and ICT uptake improvements of the country. The project comprises four parts: Rural e-Community, Government Network, e-Government Applications and Human Resources Development for e-Governance. Asian Development Bank has offered to provide a grant of USD 25 million to implement this Project.

Two separate Agreed Minutes of Negotiations to this effect were signed on December 6 and 7, 2007 by Mr. Krishna Gyawali, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Finance and Ms. Kati Manner, Country Programme Manager, Asia & the Pacific Division of IFAD and Mr. Dong Soo Pyo, Principal Financial Specialist, Asian Development Bank on behalf of the Government of Nepal and IFAD and Asian Development Bank, respectively.