Nepal : Supporting for Human Capital Development Initiative

Project Name

Supporting for Human Capital Development Initiative

Project Number

54153-001

Country / Economy

• Nepal

Project Status

Active

Project Type / Modality of Assistance

• Technical Assistance

Source of Funding / Amount

TA 9974-NEP: Supporting for Human Capital Development Initiatives

Source	Amount
Technical Assistance Special Fund	US$ 500,000.00

TA 9974-NEP: Supporting for Human Capital Development Initiative (Supplementary)

Source	Amount
Technical Assistance Special Fund	US$ 1.00 million

Operational Priorities

• OP1: Addressing remaining poverty and reducing inequalities
• OP2: Accelerating progress in gender equality
• OP6: Strengthening governance and institutional capacity

Sector / Subsector

• Education / Education sector development

Gender

Effective gender mainstreaming

Description

Nepal is at a pivotal stage in its development as it transitions into a federal system. Despite shocks from the 2015 earthquakes and 20152016 trade disruptions, the economy rebounded to grow at an average annual rate of 7.3% during FY2017 FY2019. The government aims for Nepal to graduate from least-developed country status by 2022 and reach middle-income status by 2030. The recent move to a federal governance system mandated by the 2015 constitution offers opportunities to deliver better services for poverty reduction and enhanced economic growth. The key challenge for Nepal is using this window of opportunity to lay a stronger foundation for sustained increase in economic growth and provide jobs for its young and growing labor force to realize the country's aspirations. Addressing these challenges requires diversifying Nepal's economic base away from a heavy reliance on agriculture, remittances, and informal services towards higher-value industry and formal sectors, reducing the high unemployment rate (11.4%) and preparing the current as well as future workforce to be productive and competitive in the global market. Building a diversified and agile workforce with strong foundational and higher-order skills while simultaneously upgrading technical and specialized skills among new entrants and existing workers in the labor force will be critical to the country's development goals. Thus, under the 15th development plan for FY2020FY2024, the government has prioritized investing in human capital along with raising productivity in agriculture and industry sectors, and effective implementation of the federal governance system to achieve high and inclusive economic growth.

Project Rationale and Linkage to Country/Regional Strategy

The TA facility is aligned with (i) ADB's strategy 2030, (ii) the government's new Education Development Plan (20212030), and (iii) the Sustainable Development Goal 5. The TA facility will support strategic policy advisory and technical inputs on school education and TVET issues, strategy development, financial management, engineering and procurement, quality assurance, and evaluation approaches. It will bridge capability gaps, apply best practices, and foster innovative solutions for common challenges in the sector. In particular, the TA will bring in international expertise not available in-country in the areas of curriculum, pedagogy, assessment, publicprivate partnerships, industry partnerships and TVET delivery. The TA facility approach is suitable as it will enhance project preparation efficiency and improve project implementation readiness by (i) allowing the same experts to be mobilized for similar due diligence activities, (ii) facilitating learning on project processing and implementation across different projects and programs, (iii) creating synergies from working with common expertise and improving knowledge transfer, and (iv) strengthening coordination and synergy among various technical inputs and capacity building efforts. Overall, this TA facility will reduce transaction costs compared to resources required for separate stand-alone transaction TA projects. Nepal's education TA portfolio currently has two TAs, namely: (i) TA 8521: Supporting Education and Skills Development, aimed to support policy advisory, project processing, development partner coordination and implementation approved in 2013 with TA amount of $1.5 million, which will be closing in November 2020 and the resources are expected to be fully utilized; and (ii) TA 9215: Supporting Policies and Implementation in the School Sector, approved in 2016 and expected to close in December 2021 in the amount of $6.2 million, is a piggybacked TA to the ongoing results-based lending (RBL) loan Supporting School Sector Development Plan. This TA is currently financed by ADB, the European Union, and the Government of Norway and has sufficient funds to support implementation of the ongoing SSDP project and is expected to be fully utilized during the current SSDP RBL implementation.

Impact

Project Outcome

Description of Outcome

Progress Toward Outcome

Implementation Progress

Description of Project Outputs

Status of Implementation Progress (Outputs, Activities, and Issues)

Geographical Location

Nation-wide

Summary of Environmental and Social Aspects

Environmental Aspects

Involuntary Resettlement

Indigenous Peoples

Stakeholder Communication, Participation, and Consultation

During Project Design

During Project Implementation

Business Opportunities

Consulting Services

The TA facility will provide a total of 50 person-months' consultant inputs (20 person-months international and 30 person-months national) to support the preparation and implementation of the ensuing projects. The consultants will be recruited using individual consultant selection method and deployed based on the requirements of each project being prepared or implemented. Individual consultant selection, rather than firm selection, is considered appropriate, because the TA facility involves multiple activities that are not necessarily interdependent and will require a varied range of consultants and services. ADB will engage the consultants following the ADB Procurement Policy and Regulations (2017, as amended from time to time) and its associated project administration instructions and/or staff instructions.

Procurement

NA

Contact

Responsible ADB Officer

Van Dael, Rudi Louis Hendrikus

Responsible ADB Department

Sectors Group

Responsible ADB Division

Human and Social Development Sector Office (SG-HSD)

Executing Agencies

Ministry of Education, Science and Technology

Ministry of Women, Children and Senior Citizens

Timetable

Concept Clearance

-

Fact Finding

-

MRM

-

Approval

08 May 2020

Last Review Mission

-

Last PDS Update

14 Dec 2022

Funding

TA 9974-NEP