The development objective of PPPUE is to increase the access of the urban citizens to basic services, and therewith, to contribute to the creation of a healthy environment and the improvement of living conditions in the urban and peri-urban areas, by promotion of partnerships between public and private sectors for the sustainable provision of urban services.

After the launch of PPPUE in March 2002, the programme together with its partners have worked towards raising awareness of the potentials of PPPs at both local and national levels, creating enabling environment for PPs in local urban service delivery with continued capacity building and policy/legislative interventions.

PPPUE's ten partner municipalities are Biratnagar, Bharatpur, Butwal, Hetauda, Pokhara, Kathmandu, Bhaktapur, Dhulikhel, Mechinagar and Siddharthanagar.

Urbanization is growing rapidly in Nepal at an annual rate of 5.4 percent. Even though Nepal is the least urbanized country in the region after Bhutan, the current rapid pace makes the towns and cities of Nepal the fastest growing in south Asia. Experiences from elsewhere show that these trends are inevitable and that urbanization can result in increased economic growth.

The voluminous expansion of the municipalities of Nepal however, increases the demand for basic services such as water, sanitation and waste management and has a negative impact on the environment. Local Self-Governance Act of 1999 deleguted the responsibility of managing urban areas to municipalities. But due to lack of both financial resources and experience in the decentralized administration, the level of public services remains low and the quality of the environment deteriorates. As the municipalities are facing increasing difficulties in addressing these demands due to lack of funds and capabilities, alternative means should be sought to increase the level of services to especially the poor inhabitants. His Majesty's Government of Nepal is showing increased interest in involving the private sector in upgrading the level of services locally. Nepal has only limited previous experience with PPPs and there exists a wide level of scepticism among the various stakeholders preventing the effective use of this development modality. To create conducive environment and introduce PPP as a viable development alternative to improve the deteriorating urban environment in Nepal, UNDP has launched the Public-Private Partnerships for Urban Environment (PPPUE).

Hence, the programme aims at improving the basic services delivery and sustainability, in 5 selected pilot municipalities, with a special focus on PPP that contribute in alleviating poverty, creating a healthy environment and improving living conditions in urban areas, helping lessen urban management burden while generating additional income for the municipality.

The PPPUE Global Facility of UNDP has selected Nepal as one of the three countries in the developing country of the world to conduct National Programme on PPPUE. The programme was launched on 25th March 2002.
WEBSITE : HTTP://WWW.PPPUE.ORG.NP