UN Secretary General’s Visit
An Important Occasion For Partnership

By Chiranjibi Paudyal

SECRETARY General of the United Nations Kofi Annan is visiting Nepal as part as part of his weeklong visit of the South Asian nations. As a member of the United Nations and staunch supporter of the principles of the UN, the visit of the secretary general is very important for Nepal. The visit by a man with great vision to carry forward world the body in the new millennium, has a significant meaning to Nepal, which has made remarkable contributions in the UN activities especially in the peacekeeping operations. The visit is expected to further expand and strengthen partnership in the development efforts of Nepal and will be very fruitful to exchange views on many issues including poverty, spread of HIV/AIDS, peace, security and disarmament in the region, peace keeping operations of the UN and review of the UN Millennium Summit held in last September.

Nepal’s over four decade long partnership with the UN has been very fruitful. A large number of development programmes covering almost every sectors of the socio-economic, energy and environment, good governance and decentralisation, have been launched with the assistance of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Most of the UNDP supported programmes adopt the holistic approach with the active participation of the local community and mobilisation of the local resources. These UNDP supported programmes have made very positive impact in the livelihood of the rural people. These programmes are very helpful for capital formation. small income generation activities, human resource development, women empowerment, and awareness generation and ultimately help enhance the livelihood of the poor. These programmes are also fruitful for the good governance, decentralisation, democratisation and empowerement of the poor people of the country. There is the need to give continuity to the UNDP supported programme, which are very successful, to enhance the livelihood of the rural people with the active participation of local people and mobilisation of local resources.

Even after the end of the cold war, the world has faced so many problems, but poverty, which is the root cause of many conflicts around the world, is the worst enemy of the mankind. The issue of poverty figured out as the major problem of the world during the UN millennium Summit held in last September. Poverty should be the major concern of all development efforts and that needs to be launched effectively in a coordinated way. As most of the UNDP supported programmes are found to be successful there is the need of more UNDP partnership Programme focusing on poverty. The millennium summit, held with the initiative of the Secretary General had also focused on reducing the poverty and during the summit he had said, "unless we redouble and CONCERT our efforts, poverty and inequality will get worse still, since world population will grow by a further two billion in the next quarter-century, with almost all the increase in the poorest countries." South Asia, with one fifth of the population - more than 1.25 billion - is one of the poorest regions of the world. Misuse of development aids, increasing number of corruption cases, disease, terrorism, natural calamities and political instability have made the situation worse in the South Asia region. The visit of the chief of the world body in the region will be an important occasion to focus the resources on poverty reduction. In spite of so many efforts, the world poverty has increased sharply over the past decades. According to the report of the UNDP, the global inequality is worse now than before. The inequality has given rise to the conflicts around the world. In 1950, the gap between the average income between the richest and the poorest country was about 35 to one while by 1992 the gap widened to 72 to one and now this is estimated to have widened further. This is a serious problem which needs to be addressed as soon as possible. The per capita income of the people of about 50 countries and most of them the countries of South Asia and Sub Saharan Africa fell in the last decades. All these problems have left the number of absolute poverty at 1.2 billion people in 1998. The figure is going up. The millennium summit, which focused on poverty had first time in the history of the UN, brought together 189 representatives including the Heads of State and Government. And for the first time in the history of the UN that the world leaders signed the declaration pledging to halve global poverty and hunger by the year 2015. The millennium summit which was inspired by Kofi Annan, a man who has the vision, ability and diplomacy to lay the foundation for the better world, brought the world leaders under one roof to resolve the problem of poverty stricken population. The words of Mr. Annan to the world leaders clearly show his serious concern for poor people, as he said "you have the authority to speak for and the ability to transform the lives of six billions people." This is the honest and direct statement ever made in front of the largest gathering of the world leaders.

Peace keeping operation is one of the most important parts of the United Nations. The world body is currently engaged in 14 peacekeeping operations most of them in the world’s poorest countries with more than 37,000 troops and civilian police deployed from East Timor to Cyprus. Sierra Leone and Democratic Republic of Congo at an annual cost of about 2.2 billion dollars. The charter of the UN clearly enunciates the need and urgency to bring about world peace by halting the scourge of war and ending the dangers of war is as vital now as it was in 1945. Nepal’s strong adherence to the policy of the UN and commitment to make significant contributions in the UN activities had undoubtedly enhanced Nepal’s identity and image throughout the world Around 35,000 Nepalese soldiers have so far served in the various war torn countries of the world and around three dozen Nepalese soldiers have laid down their lives for the in the world after the horrors of the Second World War. When the UN was born, the world’s total population was 2.5 billion and now there cause of the world peace. A total of 51 countries established the United Nations in 1945, with a view to creating peace is more than double that number - 6 billion people - and the member nations of the UN have almost quadrupled to 189. Though new problems have cropped up in the world, the Chief of the world body has rightly started to strike the rock to resolve these problems. The visit of Kofi Annan is an important event and will be fruitful for more partnership with the world body for the socio-economic development of Nepal. At a time when the poverty has become the focus of all development effort, the heart touching statement made by Kofi Annan in the millennium summit are very relevant and shows his sincerity to resolve the problem of the world. He had said," in an age when human beings have learnt the code of human life and can transmit their knowledge in seconds from one continent to another, no mother on the world can understand why her child should be left to die of malnutrition or preventable disease."

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