Nepal registers mixed progress towards achieving MDGs: Report
Nepal has made mixed progress considering difficult situation in the country in recent years, says a new progress report on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) launched in the Nepali capital on Monday. However, conflict remains a major problem along with glaring issues of exclusion and discrimination, which still exist among large sections of the country’s population.
Launching the report amid a function this morning, vice chairman of the council of ministers Kirtinidhi Bista said despite difficult situation caused by prevailing conflict, the progress on MDGs in Nepal has been encouraging and if the trend continues most of the goals will either be attained or will reach very close to the targets by the year 2015.
“For the least developed countries like Nepal, national efforts alone are not sufficient to achieve these high goals. The government has estimated that Nepal would require external support equivalent to USD 7.6 billion in the selected areas for the next ten yeas,” said Bista. He also urged all development partners of Nepal to assist in the government’s efforts towards realizing these goals.
Making presentation on the progress made by Nepal towards achieving the UN-set Millennium Development Goals, vice chairman of the National Planning Commission Dr. Shankar Sharma, however, admitted that mobilizing foreign aid to finance the programmes aimed at achieving MDGs would, indeed, be a challenge. He said higher level of debt and shrinking development space also posed challenges in that direction.
Dr. Sharma, however, said Nepal had made remarkable progress towards achieving MDGs that include eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, achieve universal primary education, promote gender equality and empower women, reduce child mortality, improve maternal health, combat HIV/AIDS and other diseases and ensure environmental sustainability.
Dr. Sharma said progress made by Nepal over the last 15 years—since the restoration of democracy—were quite significant.
Addressing the function, deputy resident representative of the UN system in Kathmandu, Ghulam Isaczai, said that despite the intensifying violence and political instability that has threatened and held up development activities across the country, the new report showed a positive trend to meet many of the MDG targets in Nepal.
Isaczai said while Nepal was likely to meet targets like reducing extreme poverty and child mortality, the country is unlikely to meet its target of reaching universal primary education and reserving the spread of HIV/AIDS as it currently stand.
Isaczai said it is important that Nepal strengthen its political institutions because it is only under a vibrant and functional democracy that conflicts can be resolved and sustainable development achieved.
For the last three years, Nepal doesn’t have a functioning parliament nor has elected people’s representatives at any level of the government.
The Report Card
While the country overall witnessed a dramatic progress in cutting poverty from 42% in 1996 to 31% in 2004, this development was not equitable. The poorest region most affected by the conflict like the Midwestern region still has a poverty incidence almost 20% higher than that of the Central region, says the report.
Intensifying violence and political instability have been hampering the effective utilization of aid, asserts the report. Furthermore, it has taken a heavy toll on the economy and the people. Yet, if Nepalese are to be free from poverty by 2015, Nepal will experience a total financing gap of US$7.6 billion for the period of 2005 and 2015, the report prepared by leading Nepali experts in consultation with HMG, UN agencies, civil society groups and donor community,, with the financial support of UNDP, said.
“The intensifying security threat compounded by political uncertainty has seriously held up development activities. However, most of the targets show positive trends to meet the goals by 2015,” said UNDP Deputy Resident Representative, Mr. Ghulam Isaczai. “It is extremely important to invest in equitable development and human security in a broader sense to promote peace and development for all Nepalese,” he added.
According to the report, Nepal is likely to meet Goal #1 of halving the proportion of people living below the national poverty line by 2015. It is also likely that goal #5of reducing under-five mortality by two-thirds by 2015 will be met. Similarly the target of halving the proportion of people without access to safe drinking water is likely to be met with the situation fairly improving.
In addition, some extra efforts from the side of the government and the donor partners may help in achieving three goals i.e. Gender Equality (Goal #3), Improve Maternal Health and (Goal #5), Ensuring Environmental Sustainability(Goal #7 ).
However the report strongly states that Goal #3 -of achieving universal primary education is unlikely to be met. Furthermore, unless special initiatives to reach children from disadvantaged families are introduced, it will be difficult for Nepal to maintain the same pace of improvement and reach 100% Millennium Development Goals target.
Similarly halting and reversing the spread of HIV/AIDS (Goal #6) by 2015 is also unlikely to be met despite the improving situation. The trend shows that unless programmes are implemented on a war footing, a generalized epidemic with high mortality in the most economically productive group will begin and will start a vicious circle. However the target of halting and reversing the spread of Tuberculosis is likely to met by 2015.
Increased feminization of poverty
The report observes an increased ‘feminization’ of poverty. Despite a wide range of measures adopted to enhance women’s participation in public life, persistent gender disparities in education hinder women’s equitable participation in employment.
Similarly, the ‘feminization’ of agriculture combined with on-going conflict in recent years has contributed to greater vulnerability among women in the farming sector. Women now represent nearly half of the work force in the agriculture sector and seem to be replacing men in subsistence agriculture.
Promote Schools as Zone of Peace
“Although the school enrolment campaign of 2005 has added 200,000 more children, it is hard to know how many will continue school next year in the absence of policy for their retention”, says the report. Unless special initiatives to reach children from disadvantaged families are introduced with strong monitoring mechanisms, it will be difficult for Nepal to reach its target of 100% boys and girls achieving primary schooling. The authors also urge for effective interventions to help children in conflict affected areas and promote schools as zone of peace.
30,000 new born children die each year
While the overall health of children has improved, the proportion of neonatal deaths has increased from 40% of infant mortality in 1987 to 60% in 2001. Nepal’s newborn mortality is the third highest in the world. The report estimates that nearly 30,000 children die each year in Nepal during their first month of life.
The country also has the fourth lowest percentage of births attended by skilled personal and the fact that 80% of deliveries take place at home is a serious obstacle to reducing maternal and child mortality.
In addition, the analysis diagnoses child malnutrition as the underlying cause for half the child deaths. About half of Nepalese children under three years of age are stunted, and most children suffer from micronutrient deficiency.
To address these challenges, the report has recommended simple, home based, district-level interventions supported through training for health workers and midwives and publicly financed provision would reduce the number of neonatal deaths. nepalnews.com by Sep 05 05
Related links: UNDP Nepal
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