By A Staff Reporter, Kathmandu, Apr. 9: International Economic Cooperation Coordination of the Ministry of Finance has launched Development Cooperation Report, 2020.

DCR, 2020 is a detailed account of development cooperation, both in the form of Official Development Assistance (ODA) from various bilateral and multilateral development partners and cooperation received from International Non-Governmental Organizations (INGOs) in the fiscal year 2019/20, the period from 16 July 2019 to 15 July 2020The report presented the composition and analysis of development cooperation received from various bilateral and multilateral development partners during the period and their engagement in various sectors, types and modalities of disbursement.

As per the report, an ODA of 2,003 million USD was disbursed in 2019/20 compared to 1,578 million USD in the previous year, an increase of 21.2 per cent. On the other hand, there has been a notable decline in the INGO contributions from 215.3 million USD in 2018/19 to 131.8 million USD in 2019/20.

Of the total ODA disbursed in Nepal in 2019/20, 512.9 million USD (25.6 per cent) was disbursed specifically for COVID-19 response and recovery. The report highlights that of the total ODA, 69.9 per cent was provided as loans, 18.7 per cent as grants and 11.3 per cent as technical assistance in 2019/20.

The increasing share of loans in ODA reflects the result of Nepal’s eligibility in concessional loans from the Multilateral Development Banks and institutions. There has been an important shift in the form of increase in the portion of budgetary support by the development partners. The portion of budgetary support has reached 36.9 per cent of total ODA in 2019/20 from 15.2 per cent in 2018/19.

The report said that there was a significant improvement in the on-budget channelling of assistance. Of total ODA, 1,672.9 million USD (83.5 per cent) was channeled on-budget in the review period compared to that of FY 2018/19 where 78.4 per cent of ODA was channeled as on-budget funding.

The report emphasized the importance of more integrated cooperation based on country results framework and use of national systems as well as the possible areas of improvement to enhance the effectiveness of development cooperation in Nepal.

Ministry of Finance thanked all the development partners, including international Non-Governmental Organizations, for their continued cooperation in regularly reporting and validating their development cooperation information in the AMIS, without which the publication of the report would not have a reality.