Wednesday 24th April 2024
In a move supporting Nepal in development, the World Bank has entered into USD 440 million worth financial agreements with the Government of Nepal.
The three agreements are focused on investment in livestock innovation, post-earthquake housing reconstruction, technical education and vocational training in Nepal.
“These three agreements are important for Nepal because they boost job creation, including for many women, by investing more money in the country’s successful post-earthquake housing reconstruction as well as providing resources for the livestock sector and for youth skills training,” says Qimiao Fan, World Bank Country Director for Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan.
Under the first agreement, USD 300 million will be dedicated for the Earthquake Housing Reconstruction Project as an addition to USD 200 million credit approved in 2015 post the earthquake.
With this, a preliminary estimate of 500,000 households in 2015 has been increased to 650,000 households.
The second finance of USD 80 million will address the Livestock Sector Innovation Project while supporting the government’s objectives towards the Agriculture Development Strategy and livestock development for sustained agriculture, food security, poverty reduction and economic growth.
The investment on livestock is expected to benefit nearly 200,000 livestock producers across 271 municipalities of Nepal.
The third agreement involving a credit of USD 60 million will finance the second phase of Nepal’s Enhanced Vocational Education and Training Project.
This training program aims at providing training large number of youth who lack necessary skill set. This program aims to fill the gaps that Nepali workers are facing in the labor market, both locally and globally.
The second phase of the project will focus on improving access to market-relevant training programs and strengthen the delivery of Technical Education and Vocational Training (TEVT).
Speaking on the occasion, Fan informed that Nepal has fully received its allocated resources from the World Bank over the previous three-year cycle, including USD 900 million support and an additional USD 300 million from the Bank’s Crisis Response Window.
He further said that Nepal will be receiving an additional benefit with a significant rise in resource allocation to about USD 1.4 billion in the current three-year cycle that began in July 2017.
Fan also informed that the Bank is currently preparing a new Country Partnership Framework for the next four-year cycle beginning in July 2018.
The three agreements were signed between Nepal Finance Secretary Shankar Prasad Adhikari and Fan in the presence of Nepal Finance Minister Gyanendra Bahadur Karki and World Bank Vice-President for South Asia Annette Dixon. Other government officials were also present at the ceremony.
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