Poverty in Nepal

Women bear the burden in Nepal © Mark Naftalin

The strategy of the international community in supporting Nepal's efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) has largely focused on economic growth and infrastructure development. This top down approach fails to take account of the country's complex social environment, in particular the resilience of traditional barriers of gender, caste and ethnicity. Together with widening urban/rural inequality and significant regional variation, discrimination against these groups inflicts high levels of poverty in Nepal and continues to pose major hurdles in achieving the MDGs. For example, literacy amongst the dalit caste is believed to be only 23%.

A report jointly published by the government and UNDP during 2007, Voices of the People on Development, provides moving testimony of the plight of the poor, through case studies described in their own words. The official position articulated in the MDG progress report published in 2005 recognises the constraints but nevertheless insists that, apart from difficulties with the Goals for education and HIV/AIDS, prospects for success are reasonably good. For example, the key poverty indicator for extreme poverty ($1 per day) has reduced from 33.5% in the baseline year of 1990 to 24.1% in 2005, suggesting that the Goal of halving poverty by 2015 could be achieved. However, the impact of the 2008 food crisis is likely to represent a setback.

An MDG Needs Assessment Report published towards the end of 2006 estimates that attainment of the MDGs requires development funds of $12.6 billion over the period to 2015. This would necessitate not only a doubling of the level of current aid but also pro-poor spending by the government, especially on education which in 2006 attracted a budget of only 3.4% of GDP. The first budget of the new Maoist government in September 2008 did indeed introduce welfare payments for the most disadvantaged together with extended free education for children of poor families.

Health and HIV/AIDS in Nepal

Risky sanitation for children in Nepal © Mark Naftalin

Whilst official figures for child and maternal mortality are falling in line with the MDG targets, the authorities recognise that the data for maternal health may be unreliable. Many health facilities in rural areas of Nepal have been damaged or destroyed in the wake of the Maoist insurgency. Few have access to an electricity supply. The provision of safe sanitation has been particularly slow in Nepal, remaining at only 46% overall and just 21% in rural areas. It has been estimated that 15,000 latrines need to be constructed every month until 2015 if the MDG is to be achieved.

The government is under heavy pressure for health system reform and the recent MDG Needs Assessment report describes investment in health as "grossly inadequate". The national budget for health is of the order of $2 per capita. Government and development agencies in Nepal have concentrated mainly on direct medical intervention and institution-building. Primary healthcare is largely ignored and is not yet integrated into community health settings. As a result, rural communities are not yet empowered and remain substantially ignorant toward health issues.

Among other problems, this has created a high risk environment for HIV infection. Whilst prevalence in Nepal remains below 0.5%, there is concern that the disease may spread from high risk groups, most likely through the increasing trend of labour mobility.
Food Security in Nepal

WFP beneficiaries in Nepal © Naresh Newar / United Nations' Integrated Regional Information Network

Nepal is listed amongst the 16 countries with the world’s most serious problems of food insecurity. The years of conflict have deterred investment in agriculture. Falling productivity has removed the status of self-sufficiency in food that the country once enjoyed. With 80% of livelihoods dependent on agriculture, many of them subsistence farmers on small plots of land, it is little surprise that Unicef reports that malnutrition is the cause of 60% of child mortality.

A 2007 report by the World Food Programme (WFP) and the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation describes Nepal as chronically food insecure. More recent assessments report 2.5 million to be in need of food aid with a further 3.9 million at risk. A quarter of the population is therefore causing concern to aid agencies. The situation was greatly aggravated during 2008, not only by rising prices but also by India’s decision to suspend exports of rice on which Nepal depends.

The widespread dependence on subsistence agriculture underlies many problems of environmental degradation in Nepal, in particular the depletion of forest resources which in turn leads to biodiversity loss and desertification. This does not mean to blame the poor. What is missing is the linkage between survival strategies, knowledge of the poor and sustainable livelihood options.
Climate Change in Nepal

Yaks negotiate mountain pass, Nepal © Mark Naftalin

Crop yields in Nepal are also damaged by extreme monsoon conditions, the pattern of which appears to have become unsettled, most likely the consequence of climate change. The monsoon floods of 2008 have displaced 180,000 people and caused widespread destruction of crops.

Climate change, to which Nepal is a minimal contributor, also threatens to thaw Himalayan snow and glaciers with potentially disastrous results. Reports published by UN agencies in 2007 conclude that the Himalaya region is warming at twice the global average rate and that glaciers are retreating faster than elsewhere in the world. As many as 20 lakes in the mountainous region have been identified as at risk of glacial lake outburst floods (GLOF). Nepal lacks resources and expertise necessary to evaluate these risks and is considerably behind other Least Developed Countries (LDCs) in preparation of a National Adaptation Programme of Action (NAPA).
Conflict in Nepal

Maoist rebels in Nepal © Naresh Newar / United Nations' Integrated Regional Information Network

Social inequality was a contributory factor in the tragic internal violence that haunted Nepal in the decade following 1996. After the restoration of democracy in 1990, power became centralised in the Kathmandu Valley. This gave rise to a liberal, social middle class, which benefited from globalisation, in contrast to rural communities which continued to suffer a mixture of injustices. These inequalities gave rise to the party now known as the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), founded in 1995 by Pushpa Kamal Dahal, alias Prachanda.

The Maoists cajoled marginalized groups into joining their militia and the subsequent 11 years of violent conflict killed nearly 15,000 people and forced up to 200,000 away from their homes as internal displacements or refugees. Torture and atrocities were committed by both insurgent and government forces.

King Gyanendra © Radio Netherlands Wereldomroep

The key breakthrough on the road to peace came in September 2005 when the Maoists announced a ceasefire and signed a 12 point agreement with the 7 major political parties of Nepal, an improbable display of unity prompted by the King's decision to shut down the elected government. After months of tense negotiations the Maoists signed the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) in November 2006 and declared they would abandon arms and participate in a democratic process.

Those sections of the CPA which aspired to dismantle the structures of conflict have proved difficult to implement. The agreement envisaged that over 19,000 Maoist forces currently assembled in camps under supervision of the UN Mission in Nepal (UNMIN) would be integrated into the army and police within two years. The gulf between these entities carved out in the years of conflict has so far prevented any progress, a source of increasing concern. The Youth Communist League, the youth wing of the CPN-Maoist party, has shown reluctance to engage in conventional politics and remains a further source of potential violence. UNMIN’s registration process uncovered the presence of almost 3,000 child soldiers who were under the age of 18 at the time of recruitment. Their rehabilitation into local communities will present equally challenging demands.

A period of weakened central state control has emboldened disenfranchised groups such as the Madhesi people from the Terai plains region and the Janati indigenous peoples to campaign for greater autonomy. Militant groups from the Terai in particular have indulged in violent activities, displacing their Pahade hill people rivals and disrupting the economy which is dependent on both agricultural and industrial output of the region.
Politics in Nepal

The relative peace has however created a golden opportunity to correct the flaws in Nepal's immature democracy. Ethnic and disadvantaged groups have been poorly represented, the Maoists had been operating a parallel administration in areas under their control - complete with rudimentary taxation and courts of justice - and the King of Nepal, backed by the strong allegiance of the Royal Nepalese Army, had a track record of suspending parliament. The most recent instance in February 2005 resulted in disaster for King Gyanendra with both international and domestic opinion united against him culminating in his overthrow by the Jana Andolan "People's Movement" in a series of public demonstrations throughout April 2006. The new Republic of Nepal was finally created by parliamentary vote in May 2008.

Dalit woman denied citizenship © Advocacy Project

The political components of the 2006 peace agreement established that Maoist representatives would immediately join an interim government to prepare for elections to form a Constituent Assembly responsible for drafting a new constitution. This process encountered many difficulties, the election date being postponed twice, the Maoists at one stage resigning their positions and the government forced to accommodate various demands by altering constituency boundaries, allowing a degree of proportional representation, endorsing the possibility of an eventual federal structure, granting citizenship to over 2 million stateless people, and conceding significant quotas within the Assembly for special groups including women and dalits.

The outcome of the eventual election in April 2008 has transformed the political landscape in Nepal. The Maoists have formed a government but, with barely more than a third of the seats, have been forced into a coalition which includes 70 representatives of the Madhesi party. Prachanda, once condemned by the Americans as a terrorist, is now prime minister. The traditional ruling party, the Nepali Congress, has only 110 out of 601 seats. The first president, Ram Baran Yadav, has little executive power but will doubtless exert influence for his Madhesi people. Although it is early days for the new democracy, there are some worrying signs of division within the Maoists, with Prachanda opposed by a faction which prefers the Chinese model of absolute rule over the unfamiliar art of political compromise.

Though weak and heavily fragmented, Nepal has strong traditions of civil society which now has a fresh opportunity to find its most effective niche in the political process. A less admirable tradition is that of corruption indulged by officials in positions of power, a drain on the economy that remains unchecked. In 2007, all 18 cases against senior officials brought to court by the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) were lost.
Human Rights in Nepal

Police in Nepal © Mark Naftalin

Although the peace agreement expresses commitment to human rights, actions on key issues have so far attracted no shortage of criticism from international observers. The draft bill to establish a Truth and Reconciliation Commission envisages the granting of amnesties to virtually all participants of the conflict. Human rights groups argue that this approach will reinforce the existing culture of impunity and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise Arbour, has called instead for full war crimes trials. Although the Supreme Court has ordered a Commission of Inquiry to investigate 2,000 disappearances in accordance with the CPA, again there has been no activity.

Women protest against human trafficking in Nepal © Mark Naftalin

Women and girls have also suffered from the instability created by the insurgency which has combined with cultural pressures to create a serious problem of human trafficking in Nepal. Various studies have put the number of girls and women that continue to be trafficked every year, particularly to India for the commercial sex trade, at 7,000-12,000. About 20,000 girls are believed to have been sold to agents for indenture as domestic servants in the cities. The environment of poverty aggravates this culture of child labour which includes thousands of children working in dangerous conditions.
The Economy in Nepal

Terrace farming in Nepal © Mark Naftalin

Years of progressive macro-economic deregulation in line with the neo-liberal model have brought little benefit to the poor in Nepal. The country is greatly burdened by debt with a very limited economy, being dependent largely on subsistence agriculture, overseas remittances and average aid of nearly US$400 million per annum. There are fuel shortages and extensive power cuts. Undeterred, Nepal has been persuaded to conform to the rigours of the World Trade Organisation, of which it became a member in 2004, the first to do so from the group classified as "Least Developed Countries". With so many poor farmers lacking capital to modernise and with Nepal's flimsy export earnings greatly dependent on the troublesome sector of textiles, many observers fear that the time is not yet right for the country to compete with global business.



The OneWorld Nepal Guide was first published in this format in September 2005 with a text written by Volunteer Editor Pradipna Raj Panta

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