Nepal Urban Governance and Infrastructure Project

The objective of the Urban Governance and Infrastructure Project for Nepal is to strengthen the institutional and fiscal capacities of participating municipalities for strategic municipal infrastructure and service delivery. There are five components to the project, the first component being Urban Development Grants (UDGs) for strategic municipal infrastructure and service delivery. The component will provide UDGs to participating municipalities for financing strategic municipal infrastructure subprojects focusing on, among others, rehabilitation and improvements in municipal roads, drainage, drinking water supply, and onsite sanitation, as well as associated design and supervision costs. The second component is the institutional strengthening of the participating municipalities. The component will adopt a demand-based approach to provide institutional strengthening support to the participating municipalities. The third component is the support to municipalities for COVID-19 recovery. This component provides support and relief to vulnerable groups in 12 municipalities to help mitigate the short, and medium-term negative impact of the COVID-19 crisis through rapid labor-intensive public works (LIPW). The fourth component is the contingent emergency response. The project includes a Contingent Emergency Response (CER) component to respond rapidly at the Government’s request in the event of an eligible disaster, including climate-related events and pandemics. Finally, the fifth component is the project management and coordination. This component will provide support to the MoUD for managing, coordinating, and monitoring the implementation of the proposed project, and for enhancing its federal policy and regulatory role for urban development.