Asia Pacific Department, Regional Programme Meeting on Sharing Good Practices. Monday 19 Wednesday 21 May Kathmandu, Nepal. Participant s Guide

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1 Asia Pacific Department, Regional Programme Meeting on Sharing Good Practices Monday 19 Wednesday 21 May 2014 Kathmandu, Nepal Participant s Guide We will be soon gathering in Kathmandu for the Regional Programme Meeting and we would like to highlight final important details about arrivals, meetings, accommodation, reimbursement and registration procedures. For more information please consult the section on TI Nepal Website at: A. Information for arrival B. Accommodation C. Meetings and Outreach Event D. Reimbursements E. Registration F. Contacts A. Information for Arrival Visa and Immigration In case you don t have already a Visa issued from the Nepal Embassy in your home-country, please remember that you need three passport-size photo with a light background and US $ 25 in cash for a visa upon entry; we suggest you carry extra cash for any emergency. Kindly make sure your passport is valid for six months at least. Once in Kathmandu, although foreign currencies are accepted (US Dollars), we recommend that you exchange your money into local currency (Nepali Rupees). There are exchange counters at the international terminal at Kathmandu s Tribhuvan Aiport and banks and/or other moneychangers in the city.

2 B. Accommodation This year both the conference and accommodation will be at: Soaltee Crowne Plaza Hotel Tahachal Kathmandu Kathmandu, NA Nepal Telephone: Fax: Transport to the Hotel Airport Transport will be provided by Hotel Soaltee Crowne Plaza for all the participants arriving at Tribhuvan International Airport and the cost is covered by APD (please do not pay anything to the driver). A representative from the Soaltee Crowne Plaza Hotel will be waiting for you at the arrival lounge. Please look for a placard sign reading Transparency International Conference. Your Stay at the Hotel Wifi is provided in all rooms; the Internet password will be given to you along with the Conference Folder upon check-in at the Hotel. You will be accommodated in singles rooms, unless you have asked us to arrange otherwise. Breakfast will be provided each day at the hotel and lunch will also be provided between the 19 th and 21 st of May. There will also be tea/coffee breaks throughout the conference days. You are invited for the Welcome Dinner on the 19 th and the Closing Dinner on the 21 st of May. 20 th May is a free evening. Shuttle buses will be available if you intend to go to the centre of the town. You are expected to arrange your own dinner in the hotel or outside on this day. Check In & Check Out times Check in time: 14:00 Check out time: 11:00 Soaltee Hotel will kindly provide early check-in subject to room availability and late check-out until 13:00. Please kindly be advised that if you request late check-out after 13:00 hours that the expenses will have to be personally covered. For APD-Funded participants having departure flights on Wednesday evening, please note that check-out will be available until 17:00 hours.

3 Participants funded by APD: the payment for the accommodation (including meals and conference day packages) will be made directly to the hotel by APD. APD-Funded participants are requested to personally settle all expenses besides single accommodation, breakfast and included meals (such as mini-bar, laundry and room service) upon check-out. If you are externally funded or self-funded: APD will cover your meeting package, lunch for the 3 days meeting and welcome and farewell dinner. Therefore, please ensure that all other expenses are settled by you on departure from the Hotel. For those who plan on staying longer for personal reasons after the meetings and did ask to arrange otherwise, as we are not aware of your personal plans, we have only booked your hotel room until 22 May unless you have already made special arrangements with us. If you wish to stay in Kathmandu for personal reasons after these dates, you will need to make your own reservations. C. Meetings and Outreach Event The Agenda for the RPM will be given to you along with the Conference Folder, in which you will find detailed information regarding sessions time and location and also side activities for the 3 day Meeting. Those who are invited for side meetings will be contacted by the respective regional coordinator. For the 18 th of May, an ED Forum will take place over dinner. Attendance to dinner is by invitation and it will bring together only paid full time EDs. Further information on the forum will be sent soon for those who are invited. Please bring the chapter publications, videos and any other promotional materials to the meeting to showcase your chapter work and distribute to others in the region. We will make arrangements to show any audio visual promotional materials during the opening dinner. Agenda outline of the regional programme meeting Monday 19 May Tuesday 20 May Wednesday 21 May Opening RPM PEP (Thematic Sessions) Capacity Building as a means for anticorruption advocacy Strengthening the Public Sector Programme Bar Camps Sub Regional Advocacy Meetings TIAP Regional Programme TIAP Regional Programme in Transition South Asia report launch Nepal NIS report launch Welcome Dinner Free Evening Closing Dinner

4 This year, an exciting Outreach Event is being organised around the launch of two new and important reports: The sub-regional report Fighting Corruption in South Asia: Building Accountability, produced by Transparency International Secretariat, and the Nepal report National Integrity System Assessment, Nepal 2014, produced by Transparency International Nepal. The launch will take place on Wednesday 21 st May afternoon, at the Annapurna Hotel in Kathmandu, and will be open to the public. Transport will be provided to bring all TI Chapter representatives to the hotel in time for the event. As part of the event, we will be facilitating a panel discussion with guest speakers from the region bringing a range of expertise and experiences to the table. The discussion will focus on the findings of the reports, in particular looking at how to strengthen government accountability through a number of key laws and institutions. Audience participation will be encouraged so we hope you will also be able to contribute your own ideas and experiences to the discussion. Due to the presence of external stakeholders (government officers, academics, civil society, media and donors) this will also be an excellent networking opportunity for TI Chapters. Refreshments will be served after the discussion giving the panel speakers and the audience a chance to interact. Further information regarding logistics and changes of venue will be provided to all participants while in Nepal. Attire of Conference: Smart Casual Dress Code for Welcome Dinner: Casual Outreach event and Closing Dinner: Business/Smart Casual D. Reimbursements (only for participants funded by TI-S) We kindly ask you to keep all original receipts and invoices, including airline tickets, boarding passes, taxi receipts, airport tax and other expenses in accordance with the TI-S reimbursement policy that you may have incurred in relation to your travel and that you want to be reimbursed for. When claiming reimbursement after the Meeting, once you have completed your travel, please ensure that your expenses templates are filled in properly and ed to Joana Murta Rosa at jmurtarosa@transparency.org. You are requested to send all the receipts to us by the 15 th of June As we have donor reporting deadline in July we need to finalize all payments soon and your timely collaboration will be very much appreciated. Please gather all pertinent documents, including visa costs, flight costs, etc, and send this along with all the original supporting documents to TI-S Berlin as early as possible. Please make sure to also include your full bank details with your request (Name and address of the bank, account holder name, BIC/ swift and IBAN no.). Reimbursement will NOT be possible for expenses that cannot be justified by an original supporting document receipt or invoice.

5 The address to submit these documents is as follows: Joana Murta Rosa Asia Pacific Department Transparency International Secretariat Alt Moabit Berlin, Germany In addition, as previously mentioned along with the Circular 2, a modest daily allowance will be reimbursed to all participants in order to support you covering expenses incurred during travelling days and free evening on the 20 th of May. All reimbursements will be processed by bank transfer after the end of the regional meeting. E. Registration All additional information will be available in the Meeting Packs, which will be distributed to each participant once you check-in in the hotel. The Meeting Pack includes relevant information on the Meeting and other details regarding side-activities, hotel and facilities. Please come to the registration desk to register for the Meeting and Bar Camps. It will be open in the lobby of Soaltee Crowne Plaza Hotel from 8:30-9:00 am on Monday, 19 May F. Contacts When arriving in Kathmandu and at any given day during the Meeting, should you need any assistance please contact: Joana Murta Rosa (TI-S APD): Rukshana Nanayakkara (TI-S APD): All members of the TI-S APD Team will be staying at the Soaltee Crowne Plaza Hotel and you can also contact us at any time. If you have any question, please feel free to contact Joana Murta Rosa at jmurtarosa@transparency.org We wish you a very pleasant travel, and look forward to meeting you in Kathmandu!.