Budget 2008 Fund allocations in Nepal to Helvetas’ Working Areas in 2008. Working Area Total Budget (NPR) Infrastructure in Rural Areas 232,923,488 Sustainable Management of Natural Resources 164,214,655 Education and Culture   48,519,358 Total 445,657,501 Expenses in Nepal 2007 Actual expenditures in Nepal under Helvetas’ Working Areas from January – December 2007. Working Area Total Expense (NPR) Infrastructure in Rural Areas 307,429,548 Sustainable Management of Natural Resources 176,286,584 Education and Culture   72,131,959 Total 555,848,091 Note: Annual Budget is prepared by September for the following year to forecast the financial needs for the Annual work plan of Helvetas Nepal Country Programme. Programme implementation, control, monitoring and evaluation are done as per Helvetas Nepal Policies Manual. All Helvetas Nepal transactions are audited annually by independent Chartered Accountants from a registered Audit firm. All the changes / amendments in National Law related to finance are immediately included in the Helvetas Nepal Policies Manual and are implemented with immediate effect. Fund Sources: -          SDC contributes funds to four (4) projects (TBSU, SSMP, LILI and EFY) in Rural Infrastructure, Natural Resources Management and SKILLS Training linked to employment. -          DFID contributes funds to the overall Helvetas Nepal Country Programme under a Strategic Partnership Agreement (SPA) -          Helvetas contributes funds from its own resources and from various partnership programmes, including Fastenopfer in Switzerland. Investment Analysis of Expenses 2007 A new analytical tool for investment analysis has been introduced in collaboration with SDC in 2007. Preliminary outcomes are shown below. Investments by Objectives: In 2007, the highest investment (79.6%) of NPR 5.56 million was made for achieving Objective 1, improved livelihoods.  This includes the main tangible benefits in terms of food and income from NRM, skills training linked to employment, enterprising and better access to services and markets through rural infrastructure development (trail bridges, farmer managed irrigation, rural roads, collection centers, etc), especially for the socially discriminated and economically disadvantaged.  Investment under Objective 2 (13.5%) was in support of decentralized governance (facilitation of decentralized socially inclusive cross-sectoral planning) and the development of local service provider systems (capacity building and financing the services of Local Resource Persons on community demand).  Investment under Objective 3 (6.9%) was in support of raising the voice and influence of the socially discriminated and economically disadvantaged.    Investments in support of the Poverty Reduction Strategy (PRS) Projects and Programmes under the Helvetas Nepal Country Programme jointly contribute to the Poverty Reduction Strategy of the Government of Nepal.  The approximate investments to the four pillars of the PRS are outlined in the figure below,   Investments assessed for social targeting and geographic location The investment analysis for 2007 indicates that about 70.6% of the funds were allocated for generating benefits in rural areas (more than 1.5 hours one-way walking distance from a seasonal road and from district head quarters) and 64% of funds were allocated for targeting benefits to poor households (less than 6 months food sufficiency from farming for faming households, less than NPR 3,000 per month income for non-farming households). About 57% and 45% of investments are targeted for generating benefits for Dalits/Janjatis and women, respectively.