By Tarek Kotb, Country Director, Nepal and Sri Lanka, IFAD
This year we embarked on the process of designing a new country strategy for IFAD’s engagement in Nepal, as the current strategy – called COSOP in the IFAD lexicon – expires next month. Country strategies are significant tools because they provide a framework for making strategic choices about IFAD’s operations, identifying opportunities where IFAD financing may be most effective and needed, and facilitating results-based management. In the COVID-19 era, it is imperative to develop a COSOP that supports quick and deep recovery from the pandemic, and empower local governments to achieve sustainable economic development and resilience.
In the case of Nepal, with which IFAD has enjoyed a productive partnership since 1978, when our first integrated rural development project in the country was launched, the new COSOP is intended to run from 2021-26, dovetailing with the Government of Nepal’s five-year planning cycle. The proposed country strategy aims to accelerate economic recovery and sustainably improve the incomes of small producers and the rural poor through increased access to financial support and markets. The COSOP also aims to increase rural poor climate resilience and supports federalism by increasing the capacity of local and rural institutions.
A crucial aspect is that the process of designing the new COSOP is consultative, recognizing that both global and national partnerships are essential to achieve Agenda 2030. Partnerships are at the heart of IFAD’s work and are necessary for the development of smallholder agriculture and for rural transformation. Our most recent consultation drew from the rich and varied experiences of the Governments of Finland, Germany, Switzerland and the United States, as well as from development partners, such as the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, GIZ (Germany’s development agency), Japan International Cooperation Agency, the Korea International Cooperation Agency, and USAID, with whom we also discussed opportunities to potentially unite our efforts and more effectively expand livelihood opportunities for Nepal’s rural poor.
These partners commended the COSOP’s strategy and were appreciative of the objectives and thematic areas featured (nutrition, food security, value chain, youth, climate change, inclusive rural economy, institutional strengthening, water security, etc.). They also noted that these areas align with their strategies for Nepal developed or in process of development/updating (WB / Finland).
An earlier consultation with the UN agencies highlighted opportunities for alignment with the new UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework, which identifies the strategic priorities for the UN engagement in Nepal, including the system-wide response to the COVID-19 crisis.
The new COSOP builds on IFAD’s 40+ years of dedicated development initiatives in Nepal. In the 1980s and ’90s, IFAD initiated projects for smallholder development, women's empowerment and the development of leasehold forestry. One consequence of these projects was creating institutions and a current network of savings and credit cooperatives, the Small Farmers’ Development Bank and the Women's Empowerment Division of the Government of Nepal.
More recently, since 2013, IFAD-assisted projects have focused on high-value products and inclusive agricultural marketing. These projects aimed to concentrate support in selected growth spots and market corridors, particularly in the poor areas of the hills, mountains and Terai. Investments in basic infrastructure and climate change adaptation and mitigation interventions were also part of the programme.
IFAD’s work has successfully reached significant number of women households, lower caste groups, indigenous peoples and other disadvantaged groups. To date, IFAD has supported 18 projects for Nepal at a total cost of US $849 million with IFAD financing of US $354 million. We have reached over one million poor rural households or about 5 million people from various categories of Nepal rural communities. IFAD’s Independent Office of Evaluation noted that these interventions contributed to significant increase in the productivity of crops and livestock, as well as on income and net assets of programme participants, making food more widely and easily available.
The next step is to refine our strategy based on these tremendously productive consultations and get on with the urgent task of helping rural communities to recover quickly from COVID-19 and address the deep challenges faced by the most vulnerable people in extremely remote areas.
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