Kathmandu, June 17
Australian Ambassador to Nepal Glenn White and UNDP Country Director Renaud Meyer on Friday inaugurated two common facility centres in Nuwakot. These new earthquake resistant buildings enable earthquake-affected micro-entrepreneurs to restart and expand their businesses. 
“I am thrilled to see these results of Australia’s support to micro-enterprise recovery in Nepal. The speed and effectiveness of delivery has been remarkable. Micro-entrepreneurs who lost their homes and businesses are now able to stand on their feet, earn a livelihood, send their children to school, rebuild their homes and face the future with dignity and hope,” White noted.
“We knew that while micro-entrepreneurs had lost their businesses, they had not lost their skills. UNDP was able to rapidly deploy recovery assistance, including psychosocial support, technology, training and market and finance linkages. Thousands of micro-entrepreneurs have restarted their businesses with our timely help,” said Meyer.
In June 2015, the Australian Government provided US$ 5.8million to the UNDP Rapid Enterprise and Livelihoods Recovery Project (RELRP). In 12 months, 139 quake resilient CFCs have reportedly been built and over 14,000 people in seven of the worst-affected districts have been able to recover or establish new micro-enterprises.
RELRP worked in seven most-affected districts – Nuwakot, Rasuwa, Sindupalchowk, Dolakha, Kavre, Ramechhap and Sindhuli.
The project targeted recovery of 12,000 MEs established under the longstanding Micro-Enterprise Development Programme and the Micro-Enterprise Development for Poverty Alleviation programme implemented by the Government of Nepal. An additional 2,000 new MEs were also supported, to promote social cohesion.
