The Coalition for Global Prosperity were delighted to work with a record six partners for our final overseas visit of 2024, to Nepal. The cross-party delegation, comprised of Jerome Mayhew MP (CON), Shivani Raja MP (CON), Dan Carden MP (LAB) and David Reed MP (CON), visited partners across Kathmandu and conducted field visits to Panauti and Melamchi over the course of their four-day visit.

The delegation’s first meeting was with the UK’s Ambassador to Nepal, Rob Fenn, and Head of Development, to discuss the UK’s role in the region and our unique relationship with Nepal, having been the first country in the world with which Nepal established diplomatic relations, back in 1816. While at the Embassy, the British Council were also able to provide insight into their work across the country, with a particular focus on education delivery and supporting women and girls, and the MPs heard from officials from the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MoEST) about the value they place on the UK’s continued support. 

In Kathmandu, the delegation visited the offices of the Blind Youth Association Nepal (BYAN), local delivery partner for the Christian Blind Mission (CBM), to learn about their inspirational work supporting marginalised youth across Nepal, ensuring that every young person is afforded the opportunity to fulfil their potential. 

At a private dinner, the MPs had the opportunity to hear from the Gurkha Welfare Trust (GWT) about their work supporting Gurkha pensioners and their dependents, as well as the strategic importance of the UK’s longstanding relationship with the Gurkhas - which make up nearly 5 per cent of the British Army. Later in the week, the delegation also visited a GWT Area Welfare Centre, where the MPs met with Gurkha veterans and the medical teams that provide them with life-saving primary care.

Two field visits provided the MPs with a chance to leave Kathmandu and take in some of the incredible Himalayan scenery. First, to Panauti, where the delegation visited a maternal health clinic working with the Eleanor Crook Foundation (ECF), to learn more about Nepal’s healthcare system and ECF’s programme providing pregnant women with Multiple Micronutrient Supplementation (MMS) - significantly increasing the chances of a healthy delivery and thereby enabling mothers to return to work. 

Next, to Melamchi, where the delegation visited a BBC Media Action radio station that had distributed life-saving information in the 2015 earthquake and more recently throughout major floods, when all other forms of communication had been destroyed. A private dinner afterwards also allowed the MPs to learn more about the role of impartial information distribution in combatting misinformation and disinformation, something that is particularly important when considering Nepal’s unique geographical position, and the huge value that people across Nepal continue to place in the BBC as a trusted source of information. 

British International Investment also hosted the MPs for a roundtable on how UK development investment can not only provide a springboard for SMEs in Nepal, but also provide a valuable return for the British taxpayer.