Prospects for the gender MDG in Nepal

21 April 2005

Apart from Pakistan, Nepal is the poorest country in Asia, ranking 140 out of 177 in the UNDP Human Development Index. A major challenge for development is that poverty cannot be reduced as long as gender inequality persists. In Nepal, mens and womens responsibilities, opportunities and influence are unequal and, in some communities, these inequalities are very severe. The Gender Development Index (GDI) value for Nepal is 0.484, ranking the country 73rd out of 144.

The injustices for millions of Nepalese women across the country include:

limited or no control or access to income ( Only 3.9 per cent of women in Nepal have house and land ownership)
pressure to work harder and in more hazardous work conditions than men to secure livelihood and other means of survival. (women work 16 hours a day)
feeble representation in policies and decision making (only 5.8 per cent of the House of Representatives and only 7.8 per cent in civil services are women)
limited or no opportunity for human development
inferior social positions

Promote gender equality and empower women is one of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and elimination of gender disparity at all levels of education by 2015 has been set as a key target. Education is of vital importance in Nepal but without tackling economic, political, social and cultural inequalities, this Goal will be difficult to achieve by 2015, the major problems being:

Priority for gender development is very weak. Most of the development programmes in Nepal focus only on health and education and not enough attention is paid to the gender dimension of poverty.
The gender programme in Nepal is not situation specific, lacking recognition of the current internal conflict. Gender development demands a context specific approach as women are heavily subject to violence and intimidation.
Only gender disaggregated analysis of poverty is considered for programme implementation. The qualitative analysis on What is the problem and what is the solution for problem hasnt yet been conducted in delivery of the development programme.
Most programmes to promote gender equality in Nepal are very vague and not supported by gender sensitive monitoring indicators.

In response to the Beijing Platform for Action (BPfA) for mainstreaming gender, the Government of Nepal in its ninth plan of action put heavy emphasis on

there is little or no mention of practical strategies for mainstreaming gender in development agenda

community based development, as well as the need for the policies and programmes to enhance the participation of women in mainstreaming development programme. However, there is little or no mention of practical strategies for mainstreaming gender in development agenda. The available strategies do not generally focus on gender relations, and rely heavily on development models addressing psychology rather than holistic social development. Also, a mainstreaming programme without substantive changes in the policies, mandates, and doctrines that govern and regulate organization action is meaningless. Mainstreaming requires strong data in both quantitative and in qualitative terms, highly skilled human power to recognize opportunities, which can act as a catalytic agent to promote gender equality and should be based on gender theory. In the absence of above, Nepals prospect of achieving MDG 3 by 2015 seems not only difficult but maybe impossible.