‘Poverty, illiteracy major challenges’

By A Staff Reporter

Kathmandu, June 10: The Millennium Development Goals Progress Report 2002-Agenda for Action, an Agenda for Partnership, published by the United Nations Country Team of Nepal states that poverty is still a major challenge. The report says acess to primary education is low, children under five are underweight, literacy rate of women is very low and maternal and child mortality is still very high. HIV/AIDS epidemic in Nepl is confined to vulnerable groups, but the prevalence rate is increasing alarmingly. In addition the country’s natural resources continued to be threatened, according to the report.

The findings of the report say that the ocuntry is not yet on track to achieve any Millenium Development Goal; targets that the world’s leaders set at the Millennium Summit in September 2002 to reduce poverty in all its dimensions and manifestations. Through specific baseline and numerical targets, the report offers a chance to examine achievements, to identify shortfalls, and to indicate priority areas for development assistance.

"Withoug monitoring, without tracking the progress of quantifiable indicators, such as income-poverty, literacy rates, net enrollment in primary education and maternal mortality rates, it is impossible to know whether or not poverty reduction and human programmes and policies are producing the desired results. Without such information, strategies cannot be evaluated and fine tuned to be made more effective," said Henning Karcher, UNDP Resident Representative in Nepal. He further added, "MDG report can create a foundation for achieving the goal of successful poverty reduction and human development much more effectively," according to a press release.

This document is the first progress report for Nepal on the status of attainment of these Millennium Development Goals, or MDGs. Through specific baselines and numerical targets, the report offers a chance to examine Nepal’s achievements, to identify shortfalls, and to indicate priority areas for development assistance.

It hsows that halving the proportion of people living in extreme poverty by 2015 in nepal will be difficult to achieve. Continued political instability, growing fiscal instability and diminishing export markets are major challenges in the road to recover.

Food insecurity remains a principal cause of poverty for the majority of the Nepalese people and is a key factor in malnutrition among children. While nutritional deficiency among under-five children appears to be slowly declinin since 1990, under-nutrition remains a problem. Today, nearly 10 million people live in absolute poverty, defined as a level of income insufficienty to procure a basket of minimum food (2124 kilocalories per person per day) and non-food items.

The government has completed the preparation of an Interim-Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (I-PRSP) and is in the process of preparing a full –fledged PRSP to coincide with the Tenth Five Year Plan by June 2002. Poverty reduction will remain the principal objective of development interventions to be reflected in both policy documents.

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