Nepal

Good Governance Key to Effective Development

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is working in partnership with Nepal to reduce poverty and achieve higher economic growth. The Poverty Reduction Strategy reflected in the Tenth Five-Year Plan sets out ADB and Nepal's common goals and priorities for development and reducing poverty in the country.

Sustained poverty reduction efforts require commitment from the Government and efficient utilization of the country's scarce public resources. Such efforts become difficult when communities are not empowered, decision-making is not decentralized, and predictability, transparency, and accountability are lacking. ADB accords high priority to good governance and sound development management through its governance policy.

ADB provided Nepal its first assistance program for governance to help reform civil services in 2001. ADB believes that an efficient, transparent, and accountable civil service and public policies are crucial to the implementation of development programs. Only through an efficient civil service would Nepal be able to achieve its development objectives.

Nepal has made good progress in addressing the challenges in implementing the governance reform agenda. However, this is just a beginning and it will need sustained commitment and efforts from the Government and development partners to achieve the desired results. ADB will remain focused on governance reforms to help Nepal achieve its development goals.

Yoshihiro Iwasaki
Director General
South Asia Regional Department
Asian Development Bank