2024-05-27

Funding Agency: Asian Development Bank
Client: Asian Development Bank
Date: March 2023 –  March 2024

Sudurpaschim (Far West) province,1 with an area of 19,539 square kilometers, has been largely unexplored. Despite being blessed with scenic beauty and natural resources, the province has not been able to gain the most out of them due to remoteness, limited infrastructure, and low levels of human and capital investment. Poverty is deep and widespread with more than 45% of its population living below the national poverty line. 2 Human development index of the province is 0.41, below the national average of 0.49 (footnote 3). To alleviate poverty and uplift the socioeconomic status of Sudurpaschim, an in-depth analysis is needed to guide policymakers in planning future interventions in the province. Therefore, Nepal’s Ministry of Culture, Tourism, and Civil Aviation (MOCTA), with the support of the National Planning Commission (NPC), and the Asian Development Bank, seeks to prepare an integrated economic and tourism development study for Sudurpaschim. The sector should be developed in a holistic way linking it with agriculture, forest-based products, and infrastructure to support the development aspirations of this province.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) will engage a consulting firm with international experience (comprising a team of international and national experts) by ADB Procurement Policy (2017, as amended from time to time) to conduct the proposed study in approximately 9 months beginning Q1 2023.

The study will require national and international consultants’ inputs in the areas of:

• mapping an integrated approach to development based on international practices;
• gender and social inclusion;
• human resource development; and
• institutional development. National consultants’ inputs will be needed in data collection, preliminary analysis, and relevant support deemed necessary by the study. The development planner/economist as a team leader and tourism specialist as a deputy, both with international experience, will lead this study with inputs from the national experts and in close consultations with ADB, MOCTA, and concerned authorities of Sudurpaschim Province.

 Objectives of the project:

The objective of the study was to identify possible project profiles with a multisector development approach aimed at supporting the government’s national strategy of reducing provincial disparities as envisioned in its 15th five-year plan (FY2020-FY2024).

Overall Services provided:

The scope of this study will be to:

1. Conduct a comprehensive review (consisting of desk and field) of economic and tourism potential in close consultations with provincial and local governments, the private sector, development partners, and civil society;
2. Suggest a long-term strategy and short-term action plans aligned with Sudurpaschim Tourism Master Plan and other relevant reports;
3. Develop tourism products/services (destinations and packages);
4. Outline specific policies and investments required for infrastructure, logistics, and human resource development;
5. Incorporate complementary initiatives to promote green, resilient, inclusive development in destination areas; prioritize initiatives;
6. Prepare priority project profiles as part of the action plan;
7. Conduct pre-feasibility studies of selected projects, and
8. Organize knowledge dissemination workshops to raise public awareness of Sudurpaschim’s economic and tourism potential that will help energize all sectors of the society toward the development of this province.