GPOBA signs US$ 5m grant agreement

GPOBA signs US$ 5m grant agreement
eKantipur.com, 4-Oct-07

Global Partnership on Output Based Aid (GPOBA), a World Bank administered trust fund, signed a grant agreement of five million US dollars with the Nepali government on Thursday. The fund will co-finance the installation of 37,000 biogas plants under the fourth phase of the Biogas Support Program (BSP-IV), states the World Bank in a press statement.
The grant is funded by the United Kingdom's Department for International Development (DFID). The project complements user contributions by the target group with an output-based subsidy in order to foster local ownership and to increase the reach of donor funding. The project aims to replace traditional energy sources used by the rural population, such as firewood and kerosene, with modern biogas plants.

According to the release, the project will be implemented by the Alternate Energy Promotion Center (AEPC). The BSP was started in 1992 by the Netherlands Development Organization (SNV) together with the Government of Nepal to promote environmentally friendly and affordable energy in remote rural areas. Since 2006, the BSP-IV has been benefiting from funding from the World Bank's Community Development Carbon Fund in exchange for reductions of emissions of greenhouse gases. Since 1992 the BSP has helped install 150,000 biogas plants in rural parts of Nepal. The local non-governmental organization Biogas Sector Partnership - Nepal (BSP-N) is serving as the project's implementing agency.