The World Bank has rated the first phase of Rebuild Kerala Development Programme (RKDP) – First Resilient Kerala Programme – as ‘satisfactory’. The World Bank’s Implementation Completion and Results Report (ICR), released a few weeks ago, observed the State government “largely met and at times exceeded” the challenges of implementing cross-sectoral reforms to strengthen disaster and climate resilience.
The State could achieve all but one of the targets included in the first Development Policy Operation series (DPO1) that comprised eight prior actions deemed critical to achieving the objectives.
The government has been unable to develop river basin management plans for the Pampa and the Periyar as envisaged in the programme. Official sources said the Kerala River Basin Conservation and Management Authority Bill is in its final stage of drafting. The proposed legislation will pave the way for the constitution of a River Basin Conservation and Management Authority that will prepare the river basin management plans.
Objectives achieved
Nonetheless, the Rebuild Kerala Initiative (RKI) that has been overseeing the RKDP has achieved all other objectives including the adoption of new protocols for enhancing emergency preparedness, notifying the establishment of five agro-ecological zones, establishing a committee to revise the Kerala Town and Country Planning Act to make master plans risk-informed as well as a cross-sectoral committee to prepare a policy and institutional programme for strengthening water supply.
While the second DPO series (or DPO2) had to be dropped following a change in the Centre’s financing strategy in 2020, the programme was replaced by the Programme for Results (PforR) that will essentially build upon the achievements of DPO1 and focus on avenues such as sustainable fiscal and debt management, disaster risk finance and social protection system, and risk-informed urban master plans in Kottayam, Idukki, Alappuzha and Pathanamthitta districts that forms the Pampa river basin.
Additional Chief Secretary (Finance) and RKI chief executive officer Rajesh Kumar Singh said the satisfactory outcome has prompted the World Bank to build an active pipeline of further projects for Kerala from various donors. The State’s track record in successfully implementing externally aided projects worked in its favour.
While the State government has disbursed funds amounting to $250 million received as programme loan from the World Bank, another $250 million is expected from agencies including International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and French bilateral development finance agency Agence Francaise de Developpement (AFD), he added.
