Building institutional capacity in the use of trade-related international support measures: Nepal - Setting priorities in addressing institutional constraints, findings and recommendations

The Committee for Development Policy (CDP) Secretariat of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) has developed a capacity building project on Removing Institutional Constraints in Utilizing Trade-Related International Support Measures (ISMs) for Least Developed Countries (LDCs). The project seeks to improve the capacity of four participating LDCs (the Gambia, Lesotho, Nepal and Uganda) in utilizing LDC-specific trade-related ISMs to enhance export growth in goods and services of priority interest to these countries. In Nepal, the specific activities of the project include: 1. Identification of priority exports products that may benefit from ISMs. 2. Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) analyses of each selected priority export product to match exports to ISMs. 3. Private sector and public sector surveys to identify constraints to exports as well as the potential and specific institutional capacity needs for using ISMs for overcoming such constraints. 4. A Cost Benefit Analysis (CBA) to determine priority ISMs and identify interventions for the removal of institutional constraints in the use of those ISMs.This report focuses on the findings of the project implemented in Nepal. The findings are followed by recommendations for removing institutional constraints in Nepal to using the ISMs selected through the CBA.