By IANS
Kathmandu : The World Bank has pledged $253 million to Nepal, its largest-ever support package to the impoverished Himalayan nation, for improving basic education, irrigation, rural roads and for bettering living conditions, livelihoods, and empowerment among the rural poor.
The new support package doubles the amount of development resources offered by the bank to Nepal.
Praful Patel, World Bank vice-president for South Asia, said the grant would support a development programme approved by the ruling coalition.
He said it also reflects the priorities that have emerged from the bank’s own engagement with the political establishment.
“We all know that peace is needed for development,” Patel said in a press statement. “But in Nepal, we also know that development is needed for peace.
“Addressing the root causes of the conflict will be key to ensuring lasting peace in Nepal. Rather than say ‘we will wait and see’, we have stressed in our dialogue that reinforcing the peace through development is a more inspiring message for the people of Nepal who are demanding positive change.”
The grant offer comes after consultations in Kathmandu last month between managers and staff of the South Asia Region of the World Bank and Nepal’s politicians, senior government officials, development partners, and representatives from civil society, the private sector and the media.
“Inequality and social exclusion are among Nepal’s foremost development challenges,” said Susan Goldmark, World Bank Country Director for Nepal.
“This assistance package demonstrates our commitment to ensure social and economic inclusion of the poor, marginalized groups, and less developed regions. Through improved schools, roads, water provision, and income-generating activities, we hope these projects will help the country step up the delivery of basic services, particularly in areas that have lost over a decade to the conflict.”
Divided into four components, the grant offers $100 million for the Poverty Alleviation Fund Project, a community-driven development programme that has reached over 900,000 rural Nepalis over the past three years.
Through income-generating activities and community infrastructure projects, it is designed to improve living conditions, livelihoods and empowerment among the rural poor, with particular attention to excluded groups by reasons of gender, ethnicity, caste, and location.
The new fund will enable the programme to cover all 75 districts in the country, and be accessible to some one million rural households.
The bank has allocated $60 million for the Education for All Project to improve access to and benefits from basic and primary education for children, especially from disadvantaged groups, and for literacy programmes for adults.
The bank is hoping that with expanded educational reforms Nepal will reach the target of 96 percent net enrolment rate.
The $50-million Irrigation and Water Resources Management Project is for improved irrigated agriculture productivity and management of selected irrigation schemes, and enhancing institutional capacity for integrated water resources management.
The project aims to increase availability and reliability of supply of irrigation water, which is expected to lead to higher agriculture productivity and increased cropping intensity.
Finally, a $42.60-million Road Sector Development Project supports upgrading roads in five hill districts, which currently lack all-season road access, which will help improve access to economic centres and social services.
It entails upgrading of about 297 km of existing dry-season roads and tracks to all-season standard with sealed gravel pavements selected from a pool of more than 1,000 km of prioritised roads.
The grants are from the International Development Association, the World Bank’s concessionary lending arm.