ABD Country Operations Business Plan: Nepal 2021–2023

Abstract

The country operations business plan, 2021–2023 (COBP) of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) is consistent with its country partnership strategy, 2020–2024 (CPS) for Nepal. The COBP contributes to the CPS’s objectives to (i) improve infrastructure for private sector-led growth, (ii) improve access to devolved services, and (iii) promote environmental sustainability and resilience. It is aligned with the operational priorities of ADB’s Strategy 2030 and the Government of Nepal’s Fifteenth Plan for FY2020–FY2024. During 2021–2023, the COBP will assist in areas which have become more important because of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.3 These areas include (i) essential infrastructure (electricity, highway, airports, urban development, and water supply and sanitation) to crowd in private sector investment, provide jobs including for returning migrants, and easier access to services; (ii) food safety and security; (iii) appropriate skills for the labor force to respond to changing labor markets with the return of migrant workers and the effects of the pandemic on different sectors; (iv) more efficient supply chain management; and (v) promotion of gender equity, social inclusion, social and environment safeguards, and disaster risk resilience. The COBP also puts emphasis on institutional capacity development, especially at the subnational levels in the context of federalism; regional cooperation and integration; and knowledge and innovation. The design of ADB-supported projects will be responsive to COVID-19; for example, with greater attention to the use of digital technology.