Kathmandu, December 8

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has agreed to provide $15 million (approximately Rs 1.57 billion) grant assistance to help restore the disrupted livelihoods and schooling in the poor and severely earthquake-affected communities, and strengthen their resilience against future disasters.

The grant agreement was signed here today by Lok Darshan Regmi, secretary at the Ministry of Finance, and Kenichi Yokoyama, country director of Nepal Residence Mission at ADB, on behalf of the Nepal government and the ADB, respectively.

The grant is being provided from the Japan Fund for Poverty Reduction (JFPR) to Nepal government for the ‘Disaster Risk Reduction and Livelihood Restoration for Earthquake Affected Communities Project’. The JFPR is a fund set up by the Japanese government and managed by ADB.

Under the project, at least 14 model schools with disaster-resilient features will be rebuilt, microcredit services will be provided to at least 12,500 earthquake-affected households for livelihood restoration, and community-based disaster risk reduction awareness campaign and disaster risk management planning exercise will be conducted in at least 30 village development committees.

The Department of Education (DoE) and Small Farmers Development Bank (SFDB) are the implementing agencies for the project, the statement adds.

The project will be implemented in 14 districts — Gorkha, Dhading, Nuwakot, Rasuwa, Sindhupalchowk, Kathmandu, Lalitpur, Bhaktapur, Kavrepalanchowk, Dolakha, Solukhumbu, Okhaldhunga, Sindhuli and Makawanpur — which were severely affected by the devastating earthquakes of April and May.