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The world is unequal and there are inequalities between and within countries. Inequalities are huge among races, communities and gender. To reduce such inequalities, national and international actions which are committed and rigorous are required. For development and poverty reduction, the first step must be the creation of new wealth, domestically. But domestic wealth alone cannot be sufficient in a country like ours that heavily depends on external resources for all types of developmental activities. Still, one should keep in mind that without creating new domestic wealth through accelerated economic growth, any attempt towards reducing inequalities and poverty through external resources is a mere day dream.

The pace and quality of economic growth depends on many factors, both internal (domestic) and external (international). Though, national actions and policies are more important, global (external) actions cannot be undermined. In Nepal , which heavily depends on external sources for development, in some cases, the role of external actions is even more important than internal ones. Therefore, it can be said that both these actions are complementary and reinforcing in reducing poverty and inequalities.

Recognising the importance of global actions in elimination of poverty and reducing inequalities, at the Millennium Submit of the United Nations (UN), held in September 2000, member states adopted the Millennium Declaration and committed themselves to eight goals (popularly known as the millennium development goals- MDGs) and targeted to achieve them by 2015. At the summit, the member nation leaders felt that the actions at the national level, especially in the case of least developed countries (LDCs), are not enough to meet the first seven MDGs (see Box 1).

It was also recognised that international actions, especially by the developed countries, are necessary to facilitate the LDCs to meet the targets under the MDGs. Therefore, the need for a more effective aid and debt relief was highlighted and entrusted as an effective instrument to achieve MDGs. International actions in the areas of trade, agriculture, food security, health, employment, technology transfer, and digital divides, among others, were given top priority in the action plan. The eighth MDG (MDG 8) accordingly calls for a ‘Global Partnership for Development’.

MDG 8 intends to further develop an open trading and financial system that is rule-based, predictable and non-discriminatory, including a commitment to good governance, development and poverty reduction, and address the special needs of LDCs. The strategy adopted to achieve these goal include, tariff and quota-free access for LDCs exports; enhanced debt relief for heavily indebted poor countries; cancellation of official bilateral debt; and more generous official development assistance for countries committed to poverty reduction. Similarly, member countries also committed to address the special needs of developing countries that are landlocked or small islands. Other areas of cooperation are: deal comprehensively with developing countries’ debt problems to make debt sustainable in the long term; develop decent and productive work for youth in cooperation with developing countries; provide access to affordable essential drugs in developing countries in cooperation with pharmaceutical companies; and make available the benefits of new technologies, especially information and communications technologies in cooperation with the private sector.

MGD 8 is based on the principle of ‘shared global responsibility’ and it aims to ‘strengthen the partnership between developed and developing countries for a better world’. The MDG 8 is more important for LDCs like Nepal , which have underdeveloped infrastructure, a weak industrial base, and huge unemployment, among others. High dependency on foreign aid and assistance in investment in development sectors such as agriculture, health, employment, and technology further increases such importance. In addition, being landlocked, Nepal is facing additional developmental challenges with limited possibilities for economic diversification and vulnerability to environmental risks. The country also faces supply-side constraints relating to institutional capacity, human resources, transportation, communications, and technologies along with increasing social disruption and political uncertainty. These constraints seriously affect the domestic development strategies to meet the MDGs and therefore demand a huge amount of financial and technical resources and reforms at the political, social, and economic levels.

The Millennium Development Goals

The eight MDGs, which range from halving extreme poverty to halting the spread of HIV/AIDS and providing universal primary education, all by the target date of 2015. The first seven MDGs are:

1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger (specifically to reduce by half the proportion of people living on less than a dollar a day, and reduce by half the proportion of people who suffer from hunger).

2. Achieve universal primary education (ensure that all boys and girls complete a full course of primary schooling).

3. Promote gender equality and empower women (eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education preferably by 2005, and at all levels by 2015).

4. Reduce child mortality (reduce by two thirds the mortality rate among children under five).

5. Improve maternal health (reduce by three quarters the maternal mortality ratio).

6. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases (halt and begin to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS, and halt and begin to reverse the incidence of malaria and other major diseases).

7. Ensure environmental sustainability (integrate the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programmes, reverse loss of environmental resources, reduce by half the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water, and achieve significant improvement in lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers, by 2020).

Because of mammoth demands amidst scarce domestic capacity, Nepal ’s developmental efforts should be strengthened and reinforced through global partnership/support; otherwise it will not be possible for Nepal to achieve the MDGs, timely and effectively. Therefore, Nepal sees a tremendous potential in Goal 8 “partnership for development” and urges developed countries to further mobilise their part of the commitment under Goal 8 and make more efforts to help the country meet the MDGs.