Accelerate Bhutan’s Job Transformation through Renewable Natural Resource Value Chains (WB-P506825)

Countries
  • Bhutan
Geographic location where the impacts of the investment may be experienced.
Financial Institutions
  • World Bank (WB)
International, regional and national development finance institutions. Many of these banks have a public interest mission, such as poverty reduction.
Project Status
Proposed
Stage of the project cycle. Stages vary by development bank and can include: pending, approval, implementation, and closed or completed.
Bank Risk Rating
B
Environmental and social categorization assessed by the development bank as a measure of the planned project’s environmental and social impacts. A higher risk rating may require more due diligence to limit or avoid harm to people and the environment. For example, "A" or "B" are risk categories where "A" represents the highest amount of risk. Results will include projects that specifically recorded a rating, all other projects are marked ‘U’ for "Undisclosed."
Voting Date
Apr 25, 2025
Date when project documentation and funding is reviewed by the Board for consideration and approval. Some development banks will state a "board date" or "decision date." When funding approval is obtained, the legal documents are accepted and signed, the implementation phase begins.
Borrower
Government of Bhutan - Ministry of Finance
A public entity (government or state-owned) provided with funds or financial support to manage and/or implement a project.
Sectors
  • Industry and Trade
The service or industry focus of the investment. A project can have several sectors.
Investment Type(s)
Loan
The categories of the bank investment: loan, grant, guarantee, technical assistance, advisory services, equity and fund.
Investment Amount (USD)
$ 30.00 million
Value listed on project documents at time of disclosure. If necessary, this amount is converted to USD ($) on the date of disclosure. Please review updated project documents for more information.
Project Cost (USD)
$ 30.00 million
Value listed on project documents at time of disclosure. If necessary, this amount is converted to USD ($) on the date of disclosure. Please review updated project documents for more information.
Bank Documents
Primary Source

Original disclosure @ WB website

Updated in EWS Feb 27, 2025

Disclosed by Bank Oct 1, 2024

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Project Description
If provided by the financial institution, the Early Warning System Team writes a short summary describing the purported development objective of the project and project components. Review the complete project documentation for a detailed description.

According to the Bank’s website, the Project Development Objective is to increase value addition and employment in selected RNR value chains in Bhutan.

The project will strategically focus on scaling up proven solutions in a selected number of existing value chains (component 1) and create space across subsectors to build the foundations for accelerated VCD for commodities with emerging market opportunities (component 2).

 

Early Warning System Project Analysis
For a project with severe or irreversible impacts to local community and natural resources, the Early Warning System Team may conduct a thorough analysis regarding its potential impacts to human and environmental rights.

Environmental Risk Rating is Moderate. From the environmental perspective, the major potential risk and concern is to ensure the sustainable harvest of living natural resources, including NTFPs. Although the project doesn’t have a plan for any major civil construction, however, small and medium-sized infrastructure for the value chain is proposed for aggregation, cooling, processing, and value-addition services at strategic locations. The project's main anticipated environmental risks and impacts are likely to relate to managing the sustainable harvest of NTFP, community and occupational health and safety (OHS), noise, vibration, dust pollution, and waste generation and management from the small-scale constructions. The enhanced use of pesticides can be a concern, and the use of bio-pesticides and integrated pest management would be practiced.

Social Risk Rating is Low. The project will include capacity development of producers and linking buyers with producers, and facilitating access to marketing. Hence the need for labor and associated risks are (SEA/SH, labor influx, unscrupulous labor practices, etc.) not likely to occur. The community health and safety issues are also not likely to be negatively impacted. There will be no land acquisition and involuntary resettlement in the project. Impact on indigenous people and cultural heritages are also not likely. The social risk may emanate from excluding stakeholders and potential beneficiaries (especially the vulnerable and the disadvantaged, people living under poverty and in remote areas) from consultation and project benefits.

 

Investment Description
Here you can find a list of individual development financial institutions that finance the project.

IDA Shorter Maturity Loan (SML): US$ 30.00 million


Contact Information
This section aims to support the local communities and local CSO to get to know which stakeholders are involved in a project with their roles and responsibilities. If available, there may be a complaint office for the respective bank which operates independently to receive and determine violations in policy and practice. Independent Accountability Mechanisms receive and respond to complaints. Most Independent Accountability Mechanisms offer two functions for addressing complaints: dispute resolution and compliance review.

World Bank

Joachim Vandercasteelen
Economist

Meerim Shakirova
Senior Natural Resources Management Specialist

Amadou Ba
Senior Agriculture Economist

Borrower/Client/Recipient

Ministry of Finance

Implementing Agencies

Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock
Thinley Namgyel
Secretary
tnamgyel@moal.gov.bt

Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources
Karma Tshering
Secretary
karmatshering@moenr.gov.bt

ACCESS TO INFORMATION

To submit an information request for project information, you will have to create an account to access the Access to Information request form. You can learn more about this process at: https://www.worldbank.org/en/access-to-information/request-submission

ACCOUNTABILITY MECHANISM OF THE WORLD BANK

The World Bank Inspection Panel is the independent complaint mechanism and fact-finding body for people who believe they are likely to be, or have been, adversely affected by a World Bank-financed project. If you submit a complaint to the Inspection Panel, they may investigate to assess whether the World Bank is following its own policies and procedures for preventing harm to people or the environment. You can contact the Inspection Panel or submit a complaint by emailing ipanel@worldbank.org. Information on how to file a complaint and a complaint request form are available at: https://www.inspectionpanel.org/how-to-file-complaint

How it works

How it works