NATIONAL 6 -(Spotlight Weekly)]

Continued Support

A leading donor says it will focus on poverty reduction programs

By A CORRESPONDENT

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has said it will focus its future assistance to Nepal on poverty reduction as per the Bank's policy to reduce poverty in Asia and will initiate measures to provide "more effective support" for rural development in Nepal. Addressing a press meet at his office last Thursday, Resident Representative of the ADB in Kathmandu, Dr. Richard Vokes said the year 2001 has been a "relatively good year" for ADB operations in Nepal despite different problems faced by the Nepalese economy including Royal Palace massacre, fall out of September 11 terrorist attacks on the US and insurgency, among others. He said there was strong potential of a strong recovery over the medium and long-term for the Nepalese economy though the immediate prospects did not look so good. "The recovery, however, will depend on how quickly the internal political and law and order situation is restored," said Dr. Vokes.

Responding to a question, Dr. Vokes said the Nepalese government had not specified any project or amount it needed in assistance to compensate its declining development expenditure in the wake of low revenue collection and rising security expenses. Dr. Vokes said the ADB had approved loans amounting to US Dollars 95.6 million to Nepal in the year 2001 in the areas including teacher education, governance reforms and road network development. The ADB provided US Dollars 4 million as technical assistance to Nepal during the period.

The loans sanctioned by the Manila-based Bank include a US$ 30 million loan to implement the Governance Reform Program to improve service delivery in Nepal. The four-year-long program aims at establishing a civil service in Nepal that is more result- and people-oriented and gender-responsive and that will contribute toward higher economic growth and reducing poverty, the bank said. Similarly, the Bank has also approved a loan of US$ 46 million for improving access to Nepal's rural areas. According to the Bank, out of US$ 69.5 million project costs to upgrade and maintain East-West highway, feeder and district roads, the ADB will chip in 46 million dollars whereas the DFID/UK will provide seven million sterling pounds. The rest will be borne by the Nepalese government. The project aims to maintain 140 km of the East-West highway between Belbari and Chuharwa and to upgrade 165 kms of roads to an all-weather paved surface, among others.

This year, ADB also approved a $800,000 grant to support poor and disadvantaged farmers through civil society organizations under the Bank's Japan Fund for Poverty Reduction (JFPR). The JFPR grant to Nepal aims to provide better access to basic socio-economic services for some 30,000 poor and disadvantaged farmers in the five terai districts—Dang, Banke, Bardiya, Kailali and Kanchanpur.

An interim report of the Agriculture Sector Performance Review conducted by the Bank said per capita income of Nepalese farmers' had increased at 2 percent (during FY 1995/96-2000) despite the decreased public investment in the agriculture sector. Production of milk, meat and egg grew more rapidly than the population growth, nearly meeting the target set by the Agriculture Perspective Plan (APP), the Bank said.