Nepal Agriculture Sector Development Programme Supervision Report Mission Dates: 4 - 24 September 2020 Document Date: 09/11/2020 Project No. 2000001418 Report No. 5530-NP Asia and the Pacific Division Programme Management Department Abbreviations and Acronyms ADBL Agricultural Development Bank Limited ASDP Agriculture Sector Development Program AWPB Annual Work Program and Budget BCC Behaviour Change and Communication B2B Business to Business B2S Business to Service CAESC Community Agriculture Extension Service Centre CD Country Director CIC Corridor Investment Committee CPO Country Programme Officer DG Director General EOI Express of Interest FCHV Female Community Health Volunteer FEBL Financial Education and Business Literacy FY Fiscal Year GESI Gender Equality and Social Inclusion GoN Government of Nepal HHM Household Methodology HVAP High Value Agriculture Project in Hills and Mountain Areas IFAD International Fund for Agricultural Development MADC Municipal Agriculture Development Committee MAU Municipal Agriculture Unit M&E Monitoring and Evaluation MDD-W Minimum Dietary Diversity of Women MIS Management Information System MOALD Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development MOU Memorandum of Understanding MPCIF Market-oriented Public and Community Infrastructure Fund MSP Multi-Stakeholders’ Platform MSNP Multi Sector Nutrition Programme NPR Nepalese Rupees OSV Off-season Vegetables PCO Programme Coordination Office PDR Programme Design Report PCU Programme Coordination Unit PIC PCO Level Investment Committee POs Producer Organizations SDC Swiss Agency for Development Cooperation SDG Sustainable Development Goal SDR Special Drawing Rights SIP Strategic Investment Plan SP Service Provider TA Technical Assistance TOC Theory of change ToR Terms of Reference VC Value Chain VCD Value Chain Development VCDF Value Chain Development Fund WA Withdrawal Application 1/17 A. Project Overview Region: Asia and the Pacific Division Project at Risk Status: Not at risk Country: Nepal Environmental and Social Category: B Project Name: Agriculture Sector Development Programme Climate Risk Classification: 2 Project ID: 2000001418 Executing Institution: Ministry of Agriculture Development Project Type: Storage, processing and marketing Implementing Institutions: not available yet CPM: Tarek Kotb Project Director: not available yet Project Area: not available yet Approval Date: 11/12/2017 Last audit receipt: 17/10/2020 Signing Date: 04/06/2018 Date of Last SIS Mission: 24/09/2020 Entry into Force Date: 04/06/2018 Number of SIS Missions: 3 Available for Disbursement Date: 10/04/2019 Number of extensions: 0 First Disbursement Date: 14/05/2019 Effectiveness lag: 6 months MTR Date: not available yet Original Completion Date: 30/06/2024 Current Completion Date: 30/06/2024 Financial Closure: not available yet Project total financing IFAD Financing breakdown Asia and the Pacific Division $1,800,000 IFAD $38,200,000 Domestic Financing breakdown Beneficiaries $6,681,000 Other Domestic $3,440,000 Private sector local $3,488,000 National Government $11,480,000 Co-financing breakdown, Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation $3,000,000 Project total financing: $68,089,000 Current Mission Mission Dates: 4 - 24 September 2020 Days in the field: Remote mission Mission composition: Mr. Shyam Khadka, Mission Leader and Project Management Specialist, Mr. Hari Prasad Dhakal, Procurement Specialist; Ms Kiran Hunzai, Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist; Tribhuban Paudel, Gender and Social Inclusion Specialist, Mr. Pradeep Shrestha, Financial Management Specialist, Mr. Sanjeev Kumar Shrestha, Value Chain Development Specialist, and. Mr. Bashu Aryal, CPO IFAD joined the Mission during the kick-off, presentations and pre-wrap-up and wrap-up meetings. Dr Tarek Kotb, Country Director, IFAD joined the Mission in the kick-off, pre-wrap-up and wrap-up meetings. Field sites visited: Virtual field visit to Bheri Municipality - 1 Kolchaur, Jajarkot, Siddha Kumah Municipality - 3 Salyan and Lekbesi Municipality - 9 Surkhet 2/17 B. Overall Assessment Key SIS Indicator #1 ∅ Rating Key SIS Indicator #2 ∅ Rating Likelihood of Achieving the Development Objective 4.17 Assessment of the Overall Implementation Performance 3.83 Effectiveness and Developmental Focus 4 Project Management 4 Effectiveness 4 Quality of Project Management 3 Targeting and Outreach 5 Knowledge Management 4 Gender equality & women's participation 4 Value for Money 4 Agricultural Productivity 4 Coherence between AWPB and Implementation 4 Nutrition 3 Performance of M&E System 4 Adaptation to Climate Change 4 Social, Environment, and Climate Standards requirements 4 Sustainability and Scaling-up 5 Financial Management and Execution 4 Institutions and Policy Engagement 5 Acceptable Disbursement Rate 2 Partnership-building 5 Quality of Financial Management 4 Human and Social Capital and Empowerment 4 Quality and Timeliness of Audit 4 Quality of Project Target Group Engagement and Feedback 5 Counterparts Funds 5 Responsiveness of Service Providers 5 Compliance with Loan Covenants 4 Environment and Natural Resource Management 4 Procurement 4 Exit Strategy Potential for Scaling-up 4 Relevance 5 3/17 C. Mission Objectives and Key Conclusions Background and Main Objective of the Mission Designed with the goal of contributing to the achievement of Nepal’s SDG 1 and SDG 2 targets by reducing poverty and nutrition insecurity amongst women and men in hill and mountain areas of Karnali State, the Agriculture Sector Development Programme (ASDP) is a joint initiative of the Government of Nepal (GoN) and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). The Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development (MOALD) of the Government of Nepal (GON) acts as the Lead Project Agency (LPA) of the Programme and implements programme activities in close cooperation and coordination with the State and Municipal (local level) governments as well as the private sector entities. ASDP’s total estimated cost of US$68.1 million is funded through: a loan of US$ 38.2million (SDR 27.2mn) and a grant of US$ 1.8mn (SDR 1.3mn) from IFAD, US$ 3mn from Swiss Agency for Development Cooperation (SDC) and rest by GON ($11.5 mn), programme beneficiaries (US$ 6.7mn) and the private sector (US$ 3.5mn). ASDP was approved by IFAD Board on 11 December 2017 and initial advance was disbursed in May 2019. A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was signed between MOALD and Helvetas-Nepal, on 11 December 2018 for supporting implementation of establishment of municipal agricultural development committees (MADCs) and pluralistic extension service under component 1.4. It is expected to be completed by 30 June 2024. This is the second supervision mission for ASDP. Its key objectives were to: (a) review overall progress made by the programme since the last supervision mission (23 September - 05 October 2019) also considering the contribution made by interim implementation support missions (23-31 July 2020), (b) review the annual work programme and budget (AWPB) for FY 2020/21 and implementation plan prepared by the programme management and provide comments and suggestions for finalising the plan and submitting to IFAD in the context of COVID-19; (c) review the performance of the programme management team, duly considering staff turnover and availability, in achieving programme outcomes and associated outputs and activities as stipulated in the design report; (d) review the M&E and MIS system put in place and provide guidance for further improvements; and (e) assess coordination and linkages mechanism put in place between/among three tiers of governments (federal, state and local) for a smooth and coordinated implementation of activities on the ground. This Program supervision mission came at a time when social distancing standards related to COVID-19 were in place, which the mission strictly adhered to using virtual platforms and other means of telecommunication. The mission led by Mr. Tarek Kotb, Country Director (CD), IFAD held a kick-off meeting on 4 September with MOALD which was chaired by Mr. Rajendra Prasad Bhari, Secretary and benefited from the participation of Dr. Rajendra Prasad Mishra, Joint Secretary, Dr. Rewati Raman Poudel, DG, Agriculture, Dr. Banshi Sharma, DG, Livestock, and Mr. Shankar Prasad Sapkota, Under Secretary, MOALD. This was followed by a briefing meeting on 6 September and verbal debriefing by the Mission on 15 September with the PCO. The Mission benefitted from a remotely held field visit programmes in Surkhet, Salyan and Jajarkot on 9 and 10 September. The Mission led by the CD shared key findings and recommendations with the programme team led by Mr. Bhoj Raj Sapkota, Programme Coordinator and PCO staff in a pre-wrap-up meeting held remotely on 21 September 2020. A final wrap up meeting with Government was held on 24 September 2020 under the chairmanship of Mr Rajendra Prasad Bhari, Secretary, MOALD with participation from the National Planning Commission and the Ministry of Finance and other key stakeholders. Key Mission Agreements and Conclusions While the Program is experiencing major delays in implementation, it has made some significant achievements since the last supervision mission, especially in reaching to 4,494 beneficiary households through value chain development. In this light, overall project performance is rated as moderately satisfactory. Following the joint review of the achievements on the ground with the PCO and the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development and the wrap-up meeting