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. The environment of poverty aggravates a culture of child labour which includes thousands of children working in dangerous conditions.

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).
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.

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