This app, first such one by any Nepali Civil Society Organization (CSO), is coming at a time when the country is witnessing a major political and developmental shifts towards protection of citizen’s rights and Nepali society.

“The android app is an integrated package on several dimensions of RTI- from principles to practice aimed at making public and media aware of RTI usage and its benefits for a good governance endeavor in the country,” said Freedom Forum in its release.

At a time when the government is looking at strengthening local bodies and empowering citizens, this app comes to assure the transparency and accountability in public affairs.

The app covers the basics of RTI Act, guide to implementation of RTI, ensures the facility of downloading and sharing of common templates of RTI requests and also helps in reaching out to the chief of public agencies and the National Information Commission (NIC).

Through this app, all the Nepali RTI activists and campaigners can access all rules, laws, publications, updates, success stories/case-studies and discussion forums related to the RTI Act.

The app assists all Nepali human rights defenders, RTI activists, journalists and CSOs to learn and share ideas as an extended forum.

The app offers public assistance on the ways to exercise the RTI Act and also provides a special forum to share and discuss issues related to human rights.

The post RTI Nepal Mobile App to Address Human Rights Issues appeared first on Nepali Sansar.

The report titled ‘Nepal’s Citizen Climate Budget: Where is Nepal’s money being allocated?’, jointly prepared by Freedom Forum and United Nation’s Development Programme (UNDP), made an assessment of climate-related spending made by the Ministry of Finance and other government agencies of Nepal.

According to the report, the country’s investment on climate-related developmental activities has grown seven-fold in the last five years.

It concluded that the Nepali Government has allocated 30 percent (nearly Rs 393.33 billion) of the annual budget (of FY 2017-18) for activities related to climate change. This is an upward trend for a country like Nepal that is highly vulnerable to climate change, it noted.

According to Krishna Sapkota, Freedom Forum’s official and a key researcher behind the study, the increased allocation, along with climate-related activity, also reflects spending on reconstruction activity and disbursement to local bodies towards development activities.

The country is likely to increase related investment in the coming years to address climate risks in view of the region’s high vulnerability to climate change, says Sujala Pant of UNDP Bangkok Regional Hub.

According to Vijaya Singh of UNDP Nepal, the report on climate-relevant budget has covered every sector and has also shown that the progress made on addressing climate change contributed to the overall Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of Nepal.

The report aimed at providing investment trend and insights to the Nepal public on how the national budget is being spent on climate change tackling measures.

The post Seven-fold Rise in Nepal’s Investment on Climate Change appeared first on Nepali Sansar.