Poorest got the lowest amount of foreign aid; hydropower got peanuts

KATHMANDU, APR 17 -

The Far-Western Development Region, which has the highest poverty level, received the lowest amount of foreign aid disbursement worth US$66.88 million out of the total US$ 1.04 billion Nepal received in the fiscal year 2011-12, according to a government report published on Tuesday.

The Development Cooperation Report showed that the Central Development Region, which includes Kathmandu Valley, received the highest disbursement of US$115.02 million.

The top three multilateral donors included the World Bank Group, Asian Development Bank and the United Nations Country Team, according to the report. Together, they contributed around 55 percent of the total disbursements.

Forty-three percent of the total disbursement, on the other hand, came from bilateral donors, the top three of which include the UK, India and Japan. China’s assistance has been noted ‘significant’ but not ‘well-reported’.

The report finds that these donors have focused heavily on education, followed by local development, road and electricity. Hydroelectricity also received a mere US$44947.

Fifty-eight percent of the aid disbursed reflected in the Government Red Book—around 45 percent of the total aid —was channelled through the national treasury. The Red Book has a record of 78 percent of the total aid disbursed. The report rues the fact that ‘despite the national focus of the Three Year Plan on higher growth and employment,’ the social development sector received 40 percent of the total aid disbursed, while only 29.8 percent was disbursed for infrastructure development.

It also lamented that donor work was ‘relatively fragmented’, with each donor engaged in 11 different ministries/line agencies.

Source: The Kathmandu Post