Decentralized Rural Development Project

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The Decentralized Rural Development Project seeks to improve market access, and increase the agricultural output for rural communities in selected areas of Bhutan. To this end, the project components are as follows. Component 1 - rural access and economic infrastructure - will finance local public goods, i.e. farm roads, power tiller roads, irrigation channels, which have already been identified at the local level as priorities for rural communities, as part of the 9th Five Year Plan (FYP). The second component - renewable natural resource centers - will finance the construction for, and programming of the so-called Renewable Natural Resources (RNR) Centers, as the focal point of the Ministry of Agriculture, to help farmers take advantage of productivity, and income gains, through demonstration, knowledge sharing, and capacity building. Finally, the third component - institutional strengthening - will finance capacity-building at the local-level administration, for planning aspects, and for the physical reporting of project implementation performance, to ensure the appropriate transfer of funds to the local level. In addition, capacity building will also be supported for an adequate environmental, and social screening and assessment.