Conflict hits ADB activities hard: Report

Kathmandu, March 2:

Projects and programmes running under the assistance of the Asian Development Bank were badly affected during the insurgency, an ADB report said today.

“The programme implementation and monitoring and reporting activities of District Project Offices were most affected during the insurgency,” the report on assessment of the project implementation environment, prepared by Rajini KC Shrestha, an assistant project analyst, Nepal Resident Mission of ADB, said.

“Adverse impact on these activities was found primarily due to insurgents’ interference, lack of access to communities, inaccessible communication, and security and life threat,” it said, adding: “These were most vulnerable due to logistical constraints”. Projects that involved surveys, designs, physical works, and community-based implementation activities were facing problems in implementation and monitoring and reporting.

The report also stated that although organisations faced varied degrees of influence during insurgency, most were able to continue operations.

“Almost 50 per cent of the organisations continued operations during the conflict,” it said.

It added that after the ceasefire, monitoring, reporting and programme implementation improved. “After the ceasefire, the overall implementation environment has improved, creating substantial development space for effective and safe delivery of development assistance,” the report concluded. “However, time and location specific incidents and

jostling for power by cadres of the CPN-Maoist continue to occur at the local level, but they do not cause any major disruption to project implementation,” the report said.

ADB’s portfolio in Nepal consists of 20 project loans and three programme loans. Of the 23 projects, 18 are field-based and the remaining are Kathmandu-based ones. About 400 offices of ADB are spread all over the country.