World Bank Trust Funds

To improve quality of healthcarecomma enhance health insurance coverage for poorcomma and strengthen health emergency preparedness in the Selected Provinces.

To increase women’s and girls’ access to integrated and multi-sectoral GBV prevention and response services in select municipalities.

This would be done by: strengthening knowledge and skills in SA approaches and tools; piloting SA initiatives; supporting networking among SA practitioners; and monitoring and evaluating SA approaches. It will also strengthen three local CSOs to support SA work: one for trainingcomma one for networkingcomma and one for research and M&E. The impact of the initiatives would becomma over timecomma to promote more accountablecomma honestcomma transparent and responsive government agencies delivering public services.

The objective of the Project is to enhance the opportunities and share of rural artisans (especially the poorestcomma internally displaced peoplecomma landless and the vulnerable) in the crafts and cultural market.The project will target poor and disadvantaged people (including women and differently-abled)comma particularly in lagging and conflict affected districts that have been marked by social unrest and stress. This innovative project aims at addressing a root cause of unrest and distress migration by enabling the beneficiaries to access sustainable livelihoods by strengthening their traditional skills and make inroads into mainstream markets.

Capacity building and Institutional Strengthening of the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation to effectively manage mountainous protected areascomma with an emphasis on conservation of flagship species. The objective of the proposed IDF grant is to strengthen the institutional capacity of the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation (DNPWC) under the Ministry of Forests and Soil Conservation (MoFSC) to facilitate the effective management of Protected Areas (PAs) in the mountain regions with an aim to stabilize andcomma if possiblecomma increase the population and habitats of critically endangered wildlife in Nepal's threatened mountain ecosystems.

Institutional Strengthening of the Public Procurement Monitoring Office (PPMO) to support the implementation of the recently passed Nepal Public Procurement Act 2007. Development Objective To promote good governance and public service delivery through supporting public procurement reforms to enhance the quality of procurement outcomes in terms of: higher volumescomma efficiencycomma effectivenesscomma transparency and better value for money. Link to CAS and/or ESW (core diagnosticscomma e.g.comma CPARcomma CFAAcomma PERcomma CEMcomma etc.)comma and relationship to Bank operations : According to the 2004 CAScomma Nepal will have to undertake a number of governance reforms in order to stimulate a more pro-poor and inclusive growth process. The CAS stresses the significance of capacity building efforts in improving governancecomma and the role of efficient public procurement in the economy. As recommended by the CPAR 2002comma the Government of Nepal enacted a Public Procurement Law in 2007 along with Public Procurement Regulationscomma 2007. It is essential that these laws and regulations be fully implemented since the most recent assessment of the Nepal Public Financial Management Systemcomma the Public Financial Management Sector Work recently carried out jointly by the Government of Nepal and the World Bankcomma found once again that procurement performance remains a very significant issues and achieved a low rating (C) for value of money and controls in procurement. The Government has a huge challenge to ensure effective implementation of the Lawcomma and the Bank needs to continue its support and engagement in this sector. Work to implement the Procurement Law is completely in concert with the governance initiative as envisioned in the updated CAS 2007. To assist Government in preparing a strategy for and initiating actions to implement the public procurement law so as to enhance the quality of procurement outcomes in terms of: higher volumescomma efficiencycomma optimum budget utilisationcomma effectivenesscomma transparency and better value for money which would lead to better governance and improved public service delivery.