Regular monitoring fromn higher bodies must: Tamrakar

Kathmandu, Oct. 2 (RSS): Minister for Industry, Commerce and Supplies Ram Krishna Tamrakar chaired the third quarterly and annual progress evaluation and fifth and sixth bi-montly Problem Resolution Committee meeting of departments, projects and corproation under the Ministry here today.

On the occasion Minister Tamrakar emphasised the need for achievement of bodies providing training in skill development to be not only quantitative but standard and employment oriented also.

Pointing out the need for regular monitoring from the higher bodies in order to achieve the target of development programmes, Mr. Tamrakar suggested that the service oriented and production oriented corporations give special attention towards enhancing their managerial capacity and manpower skills in order to make progress towards the target.

Stating that sick industries will begin making a profit if employees work honestly and with dedication, Mr. Tamrakar also stressed the need to enhance the capacity of corporations and industries for quality.

Stating that the need of the day was to provide accessible services to the people and for this purpose each and every industry and corporation had to attain maximum achievement towards the set annual target, Minister Tamrakar said that only efficient, commitment, disciplined and dedicated manpower could achieve the set target.

Disclosing that the performance of departmental and corporation heads would be evaluated by linking their activities with efficiency, Minister Tamrakar said, "hereafter, all the chiefs should show performance in the real sense and not just on paper and the tendency of repeating old matters at review meetings would not take place."

Stating that people's grievances against the performance of the department and subordinate offices were being received, Minister Tamrakar gave directives to sort out the reasons for grievances and eliminate them as soon as possible.

Secretary at the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies Mohan Dev Pant said that as our activities in boosting trade and industry would make significant contributions, all the chiefs should be sensitive and serious towards achieving positive results.

He said further, "the production of every factory should be at least 65 per cent of capacity and corporations should shun the habit of looking to the government only.

WB pleads for comprehensive approach to attack poverty

BY A STAFF REPORTER

Kathmandu, Oct. 2: Major reduction in poverty are possible but achieving these will require a more comprehensive approach that directly addresses the needs of poor people in three important areas: opportunities, empowerment and security, according the World Bank's latest World Development Report 2000/2001: Attacking Poverty.

The new study, which is the World Bank's most detailed-ever investigation of global poverty, adds that economic growth is crucial but often not sufficient to create conditions in which the world's poorest people can improve their lives.

Speaking at the Kathmandu launch of the report here today, Mieko Nishimizu, the World Bank Vice-President for South Asia, said development "is a learning process of change, where people of a society choose to gain more control over their own destiny, enrich lives by widening their horizons, reduce afflictions and shackles of poverty, and improve the very vitality of life."

Nishimizu said, "I think of development strategy first and foremost that of a society – a living and dynamic strategic framework that is based on a long-term vision of the society's own that identifies structural barriers for its transformation, that selects those who can serve as catalysts for change and that is founded on a participatory process among the people to reach down deeply into the society in creating revising, adapting and realising that vision."

"I think of the World Bank's role as a facilitator for the process if a society's own transformation, invited by the people to serve as a catalyst for change as honest neutral brokers which, after all, is the heart of our corporate strength," said Nashimizu. "Thinking in this way, success of the World Bank's assistance can not be judged by high rates of return, but by whether its outcomes begins the process if sustained social learning, spreading to a broader society over time – whether the very acorn of such sustainable institution building has been firms planted and is beginning to grow as a strong oak. It is open-ended process that cannot and should not be designed one hundred per cent upfront."

More than two years in the making, the World Development Report draws on a large volume of research, including a background study, Voices of the Poor, which systematically sought the personal accounts of more that 60,000 men and women living in poverty in 60 countries. In addition, the report's authors conducted extensive research and consultation with a wide array of government's non-governmental organisations, civil society groups, universities, development think-tanks, private business groups and others around the world. An on-line discussion of an early draft of the report produced hundreds of responses from 44 countries.

"The report builds on the view that poverty means not only low incomes and low consumption but also lack of education and poor nutrition and health," said Roberto Zagha, the Bank's Director for Poverty Reduction and Economic Management in South Asia, presenting the report highlights to a Kathmandu audience comprising senior government officials, academics, NGO representatives, donor officials and private sector and media personalities. "Based on the testimony of poor people themselves, and changes in thinking about poverty, the report goes further and expands the definition of poverty to include powerlessness, voicelessness, vulnerability and fear," he said.

"These different dimension of poverty interact in important ways," said Zagha. "We know that economic growth is crucial to sustained poverty reduction. But we also recognise the fundamental role of institutional and social change to the strength of development processes and the inclusion of poor people."

The report recommends that developing country governments at all levels, donor countries, international agencies, NGOs, civil society and local communities, mobilise behind the three priority areas: opportunity, empowerment and security.

This report seeks to expand the understanding of poverty and its causes and sets out actions to create a world free of poverty in all its dimensions," World Bank James D,. Wolfensohn writes in foreword to the report. "It both builds on our past thinking and strategy and substantially broadens and deepens what we think is necessary to meet the challenge of reducing poverty."

National Planning Commission Vice-Chairman Prithvi Raj Ligal chaired the event. He spoke about the poverty orientation of the Ninth Plan and on plans afoot to frame a home-grown comprehensive poverty reduction strategy that would take into account lessons learnt from the mid-term review of the ongoing ninth Five Year Plan in order to lay the groundwork for the 10th plan. Ligal also spoke about the NPC's efforts at putting together a poverty alleviation fund, an initiative at building wider partnerships to target development resources to deprived, but deserving communities.

The Citizen's Poverty Watch Forum, a coalition of pro-poor NGOs and development thinkers based in Nepal, also made a presentation at the event, calling for an overhaul of policies and development priorities to achieve a sharper anti-poverty focus and lasting results.