UNESCO/EU Right to Information project starts with kick-off meeting
©UNESCO /CMC in Palpa, Tansen of Nepal
UNESCO Kathmandu Office is organizing a kick-off meeting of the project “Empowering people to enjoy their Right to information for greater accountability of Nepal’s power holders” on Thursday, 4 April 2013 from 9:30 am to 1 pm in Lalitpur at Summit Hotel along with the Federation of Nepal Journalists (FNJ) and the Citizen’s Campaign for Right to Information (CCRI), who are the main project partners.
The project, which is funded by the European Union under its European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights, will be managed by UNESCO. The European Union has extended a contribution of EUR 290,000 (NPR 20.9 Million) for the EUR 365,000 project and UNESCO contributes the remaining amount.
Various actors in the field of Right to Information (RTI) will attend the meeting that is aimed at presenting the project to a larger stakeholder group and provide a briefing on its objectives, strategies and actions.
Working with three main target groups - journalists, local change agents and government officials - the project aims to improve the accountability of decision-making through a broader implementation of Nepal’s Right to Information Act that was adopted in 2007.
The project works towards three specific objectives: citizens have access to information that is relevant to them and are hence motivated to exercise their democratic rights; journalists recognize their role as the watchdogs of the power holders and proactively seek and publish correct and timely information; and local level government officials understand their role as public servants and are better enabled to share public information.
The project is a timely initiative to encourage citizens to claim their rights according to Nepal’s 2007 Right to Information Act.
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