UK Minister for Development and Africa, Andrew Mitchell, visited Nepal on Feburary 19-20. He met top government officials in Kathmandu including the prime minister, the finance minister, and the foreign minister. He also signed a new development portfolio of £400 million ($505m) for Nepal. In this context, the Post’s Anil Giri sat with Mitchell to discuss his Nepal visit.

The world itself is in turmoil. Several conflicts are happening. What brings you to Nepal at this critical juncture?

As the British development minister, I am in Nepal to announce two new programmes, but more importantly, to launch the next phase of our development programme. This entails spending approximately $500 million before the end of the decade to further our bilateral work with Nepal.

We are also strong supporters of the investment conference, which is coming up on April 28 and 29. We believe that now is a critical moment where Nepal could attract significant private sector investment. The British Development Finance Institution, which is already investing substantially in Nepal, is taking a great interest in further investments. In my opinion, the double taxation treaty, which is expected to be presented to the Cabinet soon, is one of the main economic improvements that the government plans to implement.

How can the UK help Nepal build the capacity to seek climate funding and climate justice?

We also put money into the loss and damage fund. But we are very clear that for the loss and damage fund to work, they will need to find a much wider set of donors. That is why we're very keen that people should look at new mechanisms for financing that involve countries like Russia and China, as well as others, too. There are various suggestions, one of which is that maritime fuel could have a levy imposed upon it, which would raise a great deal of additional money. But Britain believes that you need a different set of donors and a different source of finance if loss and damage are to work. Otherwise, you're merely reorienting existing streams of funding.

What prompted the UK government to announce this aid to Nepal? What is the connection—Gurkhas?

That's a different matter. We're continuing to talk on the issue of pensions, and I'm absolutely delighted that in the last few weeks, the latest group of 337 Gurkhas has left for training in Catterick, Britain. It has nothing to do with that; it is a reflection of the closeness of our relationship. Britain has had a bit of a dip in terms of its work internationally and development.

Over recent years, a white paper issued by the UK government is a very clear symbol that Britain is back and is trying to exercise a leadership position on driving forward, the attack on the egregious extent of poverty, which disfigures our world to work very closely with our partners on development, of which Nepal has always been a great partner.

What is the anticipation of a result by 2030?

I think the portfolio addresses some specific green and climate issues. I saw yesterday the work that we are doing together on irrigation, stopping gender-based violence, and a very broad set of aims that we all want to see achieved, placing girls and women at the centre of everything we do in development. So on a whole range of things where we work together, we want to drive them forward. If you asked me what we want to see by 2030, we want to see the role of the private sector in Nepal’s economy—greater than it is at the moment because we think there's scope for that, given the end of conflict and the fact that BII is here as an investor. So we see a big role in terms of employment, investment, jobs, and the alleviation of poverty.

Will the new portfolio that you announced go through your own channel or the government’s system?

Yesterday I saw the work that we are doing through a hospital [in Butwal] on tackling gender-based violence. It's to focus on how we get more girls into school, how we enable more farmers to resist the change in weather, and how we grow two crops a year. It's about winning results and using our taxpayers' money to work in partnership with Nepal to deliver those results. For example, the hospital is working very closely with the government on the whole. We don't do direct budget support, which is putting money into the country's budget. But there are examples where we work out what is the best way to achieve these results, and on gender-based violence, someone will work incredibly closely with the government and the hospital authorities to deliver those results.

How do you ensure that each pound that comes to Nepal through UK Aid is spent in a transparent manner ?

We have zero tolerance for corruption. No programme suffers, fortunately, because we have very good checks and balances. On rare occasions, when our programme is the subject of corruption allegations, we stop it and seek absolute accountability and transparency. And we believe that sunlight is the best disinfectant. We value transparency and focus on things, and we have checks and balances that ensure that our money is well used. Also, if we're not happy with the routes by which we are seeking to win those results and spend this money on delivering corruption-free services, then we don't use it.

Nepali Gurkhas who served in the British Army before 1997 are crying for equal pay and pensions, similar to those recruited after 1997. Why do these rules not apply equally?

There are three different groups. Gurkhas, I think, are affected by these issues. The first is the groups that the Gurkha welfare trust looks after, particularly the very elderly, to ensure that those here in Nepal have dignity in their old age. And they're getting very, very old nurses, with a diminishing number. The Gurkha Walfare Trust looks after that. The second group are those who received the terms and conditions; they've gone to the UK; they get a standard UK pension because that is the arrangement, terms and conditions that they are. The third group are those who retired here on an agreed pension, a big pension in Nepal, who may now go to the UK, and who, of course, are eligible for UK benefits. That is the third group, the particular group that you're referring to. On all of those, I think we should keep talking. We have a tremendous debt to the Gurkhas, which we recognise; these are different categories. And they require different treatment, but we should just keep talking about this. We haven't reached a definitive conclusion.

The Nepal government is talking about completing the transitional justice process. Was there any indication that this process will now move smoothly?

We didn't talk about that, but I did say that I thought the poor deserve great credit for having addressed the conflict. And I think the government of Nepal deserves great credit for having reached that very happy stage.

So you have to read the white paper. The white paper is 140 pages. It's one of the most exciting things I've read in the last year. Two things about development matter. One is that it is long-term. The other is that it is a partnership. It's one of our joint priorities. It's about working together, partnership, and localism to deliver joint objectives. And we have an extremely brilliant Head of Development here, who's steeped in this world and knows it inside out. And she makes sure that what we pursue is a joint endeavour. If you're setting priorities, we discuss and agree on the areas that will work together.

There was an agreement to send Nepali nurses to the United Kingdom. How does this help build the capacity of the Nepali state?

When I was not a minister, I introduced a bill into the British House of Commons to say that whenever a nurse or a clinician comes from a developing country to the UK, the development programme should pay for nurses to be trained in that country. And it was an idea that was floated as a bill. We believe that people here may want to go to Britain to enhance their skills and come back. A lot of people who come to our country to work in our health service build up their skills and come back and use their skills here. Through the development programme, we are building capacity, including in the health areas I saw during my hospital visit. It was a tremendous government agreement; we don't recruit except through this government agreement. There are, I hope, benefits both ways.