Kathmandu: At the EU-UNICEF South–South Exchange 2026 co-hosted by the Department of Budget and Management of the Philippines, government representatives, development partners, and technical experts from across South and Southeast Asia under the EU-UNICEF Public Finance Facility exchanged experiences on strengthening public finance systems for children and social outcomes.
Representing Nepal, Dr. Suman Dahal, Joint Secretary and Chief of the Budget and Programme Division at the Ministry of Finance, shared Nepal’s initiatives on child-responsive budget coding and the country’s future reform plans. In addition, as a panelist in the session “Strengthening Budget Participation and Transparency,” he also highlighted Nepal’s strong performance in the Open Budget Survey 2025, key budget transparency initiatives, and ongoing efforts to strengthen public participation and accountability in public financial management.
During the event, Dr. Dahal and Hikmat Bahadur Bhandari, Under-Secretary of the Ministry of Finance, also held a bilateral meeting with the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) of the Philippines to discuss the Philippines’ experience in preparing the Citizens Budget and broader public financial management reforms. The Ministry of Finance, Government of Nepal, is currently leading the preparation of Nepal’s Citizens Budget for FY 2026/27, with the objective of providing citizens with a simple, accessible, and non-technical version of the budget approved by Parliament for the current fiscal year.
