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Nepal

The ILO has a long history of technical cooperation with Nepal. Initially this cooperation was focused on community works primarily in the irrigation sector and more recently in the rural road sub-sector in close collaboration with the Department of Local Infrastructure and Agricultural Roads, DoLIDAR in the Ministry of Local Development.

From October 1996 to January 2000, the Asian Development Bank provided support to the institutional strengthening of through a technical assistance project implemented by the ILO. The main objectives of the project were to:

strengthen the institutional and technical capacity of the MLD and local institutions for sustainable and decentralized development of rural infrastructure
develop a long term strategy for nation-wide implementation of rural infrastructure development activities in accordance with the decentralized policy of the Government

It was with assistance from this project that the government formulated a National Strategy for Rural Infrastructure Development and a National Plan for Rural Road Maintenance. These strategies have been documented in a series of guidelines on district level transport planning, work norms and technical specifications. The preparation of district master plans following the technical guidelines and the development of local capacity to carry out rural transport planning and infrastructure works were the first steps towards the implementation of the national strategy. The ILO through ASIST AP is currently following up on this strategy through a number of technical assistance initiatives providing support to the government at both central and local levels.

In November 2000, ILO and DFID jointly supported DoLIDAR to run a workshop to address and review the challenges of the National Strategy for Rural Infrastructure Development, and to explore how to improve the coordination between the different donors' efforts to assist the rural road sub-sector. Following the workshop DoLIDAR prepared a logical framework for strengthening the capacity at DoLIDAR and district level, which was presented to the donors in December 2000.

In parallel with these activities, ASIST AP is currently holding discussions with several donors on future additional technical and managerial advisory support to DoLIDAR.

Nepal enacted the Local Self-Governance Act in 1999. This act provides a legislative basis for the decentralization process to go further in practice. To support the decentralization process in general and capacity building of the districts in particular with respect to the rural infrastructure development and improving rural accessibility, the ILO ASIST and the DoLIDAR have agreed to collaborate on developing a Nepali IRAP process. A generic IRAP process developed in other Asian countries is in the process of being adapted to Nepalese conditions and implemented through the district authorities. Based on the experiences gained during the piloting process, the IRAP tool will be further modified as per the need to suit local conditions and then mainstreamed in all districts of the country.

Country Strategy

The overall objective of ASIST AP's work in Nepal is to improve the capacity for provision and maintenance of rural infrastructure and thus contribute to the government's efforts to alleviate poverty in the rural areas. As part of this support ASIST-AP is assisting the government in developing their infrastructure investment programmes with an emphasis of enhancing the use of local resources in rural infrastructure works through measures such as local employment creation, involvement of the local private sector and strengthening local government organisations. The strategy ASIST AP has developed to reach this objective is as follows:

Assist the Government in reviving its training programme for rural road construction and maintenance works. The Government has on several occasions requested ASIST AP to provide assistance in building up a local capacity to deliver the required staff training to the public and private sector involved in rural infrastructure works.
Support to developing the required capacity for DoLIDAR to assist the districts (DDCs) in developing and maintaining their rural infrastructure assets and maximize their impact on poverty alleviation.
Collaborate with donors, in particular the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, DfID, GTZ and SDC, to add value to their investment programmes. Work with these donors to enhance the local resource-based components of their programmes.
Collaborate with DoLIDAR and donors to develop country specific procedures for rural infrastructure planning based on the Integrated Rural Accessibility Planning approach.

Scope of Current Support

EIIP provided inputs to the formulation of a project financed by the Dutch Government to improve the living conditions of marginalized and conflict affected rural population through effective local development approaches which include community-based infrastructure development. Project activities have now started and EIIP recently participated in a first review mission.

To support the decentralization process in general and capacity building of the District Development Committees (DDC) in particular with respect to the rural infrastructure planning and development, the ILO is involved in the following four technical fields, Integrated Rural Accessibility Planning (IRAP), Labour-Based Technology (LBT), Small Scale Contracting (SSC), and Infrastructure Maintenance Systems (IMS).

The initial work under this agreement focussed on developing IRAP. Collaboration under the other three technical components is currently being developed in collaboration with other donors. Most notably in this respect, is the cooperation established with the World Bank supported rural infrastructure works programmes to which ASIST has provided technical training and supervision assistance. More recently, ASIST AP has been involved in the formulation of the next WB supported Rural Access Improvement Project.

Transport Master Planning

DoLIDAR, with ILO assistance, earlier developed a process for Transport Master Planning. This process has been well institutionalized and is being followed by most districts and donors. The IRAP activities builds on this and brings the district transport planning to a higher level by incorporating several additional sectors, enhancing participation and consensus building activities and bringing in poverty alleviation and employment creation factors.

IRAP Timeframe

The first version of IRAP procedures have now been developed in both English and Nepali languages. Currently, the procedures are being tested on a full scale in Rasuwa District. Eventually, the experiences from Rasuwa will be fed back to refine the planning procedures. In the next turn, these revised procedures will form the basic tools for planning in other districts. Outputs of this process includes:

Nepali training materials and guidelines
Capacity in DoLIDAR and the districts
Accessibility data, maps, priorities and project outlines in the districts

Nepal

Country Strategy

Scope of Current Support

Transport Master Planning

IRAP Timeframe

Further reading