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Poverty
National And International Perspectives

By Uttam Maharjan

POVERTY is a multi-dimensional privation of human beings that includes, in its basics, socio-economic as well as psychological components. As a matter of fact, poverty is the fate of 1.2 billion people living across the world when viewed from their inability to earn less than one US dollar a day.

Fledgling Stage

Like other Third World countries, Nepal too is in the clutches of poverty. Infrastructure development is almost at the fledgling stage in the country. Infrastructure ramifications like education, healthcare, transportation, communication and drinking water and sanitation are still undeveloped despite several institutional attempts by various successive governments.

Poverty alleviation has been emphasissed since the first periodic plan. However, it has been given special prominence only since the Eight Plan. While crafting the Ninth Plan, the development planners came up with a long-sighted concept of reducing poverty to 10 per cent over a period of 20 years. Poverty was targeted to be reduced to 32 per cent by the end of the Ninth Plan, to 23 per cent by the end of the Tenth Plan, to 15 by the end of the Eleventh Plan and to 10 by the end of the Twelfth Plan. At the beginning of the Ninth Plan, poverty hovered at 42 per cent.

Although the long-term vision was glamorous, the failure of the Ninth Plan to achieve the target has proved to be a severe setback for the development planners, forcing them to revise their entire vision on poverty alleviaton so much so that the current plan has no such long-term vision; the only target set is to reduce poverty to 30 per cent by the end of the plan period.

But given the topography of the country and the miserable socio-economic conditions of the vast majority of the rural people poverty alleviation is not so simple a task. As per the National Populaton Census of 2001, 85 per cent of the people live in the rural areas. And the rural areas are in development backwaters in every aspect. Poverty, unemployment, ignorance, superstition, lack of healthcare facilities and lack of other amenities are closely interlinked with rural life. The rural folk are so poor that they find it heavy going to manage even two square meals a day.

Agriculture is the mainstay of the country's economy. Over 81 per cent of the people are involved in agricultural and allied activities. But the seasonality of agricultural work and inadequate availability of off-farm employment have compounded the living conditions of the rural farmers. Besides, old-fashioned agricultural methods, lack of improved farming inputs, lack of irrigation facilities and the like are a great stumbling-block to agricultural development. The contribution of agriculture to the country's Gross Domestic Product is only 39 per cent, streets below the expected level of 80 per cent.

The other sectors of the economy-trade, commerce and industry- are also equally pathetic. The economy of the country has yet to recover from the global recession. As a result, exports are falling. As per the quarterly review of Nepal Rastra Bank, exports have declined by 18.5 per cent over a 6 per cent decline during the corresponding period of last year, whereas imports have increased by 7.3 per cent over a 5.4 per cent decrease during the corresponding period of last year. This has obviously widened the already unfavourable balance of trade.

Poverty is a world-wide problem. The United Nations is much concerned about alleviating poverty in developing and underdeveloped countries. Rich and industrialised nations must help poor countries to fight poverty through development assistance- monetary and technological. It is noteworthy that the UN has called upon developed countries to provide poor countries with 0.7 per cent of their GDPs. But the USA, the greatest economy in the world, has provided just 0.1 per cent, and EU nations 0.3 per cent. Only Finland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and some other nations have fulfilled the UN request.
During the Millennium Summit held in 2000, the world leaders issued a directive seeking to halve the number of people earning less than one US dollar a day by 2015. The directive also targeted the elimination of hunger, illiteracy and disease from the face of the earth. The other goals of the summit were to provide universal education, to reduce child mortality, to curb AIDS and to improve development prospects.

Similarly, during the Monterrey Summit held in 2002 poverty alleviation was mooted. And, the UN said that USD 100 billion would be required to halve the number of poor people earning less than one US dollar a day by 2015. The 16-page Monterrey Agreement proposed to double a foreign aid of US$ 50 billion for developing nations but unfortunately the proposal was not passed.

Poverty is a relative term. A poor American might be actually rich by Nepalese standards. So, to bring uniformity into the definition of poverty, the UN has devised a criterion by which those earning less than one US dollar a day are considered poor. By this criterion, 1.2 billion people living across the world are poor. Given the per capita income of US$ 220, the country obviously falls under the category of poor countries.

It may be reiterated that poverty is more rampant in developing nations than in deveoped ones. Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia are extremely poor regions. Some developing countries, especially those in Asia, have made remarkable headway in development endeavours. China and India are striking examples.

Developing nations are facing hassles in development endeavours. To help them, the Brussels Plan of Action needs to be implemented. Foreign aid is an effective tool for accelerating development activities in developing countries. But donor nations and agencies have now put forward preconditions for developing countries to be eligible for such development aid. Donor nations and agencies have become aware that foreign aid is often misused. So, they have put forward such conditions as good governance, corruption control and good use of aid money. It is true that lack of good governance, rampant corruption and non-transparency in development projects have exacerbated the conditions of developing countries.

Nepal is a case in point. The country has been receiving foreign aid for five decadess. And, the foreign aid policy has also been formulated. Still, the country is lagging behind in development endeavours. Bluntly speaking, five decades of using foreign aid has had a very minimal effect on the development of the country, although some positive results have mainfested themselves in certain sectors.
Is there no room for alleviating poverty in Nepal? Yes. But the government lacks vision and commitment. Political parties shoot a line about alleviating poverty. Every five-year plan stresses poverty alleviation. But no tangible headway has been made in poverty alleviation yet. This must be taken as the misfortune for the teeming poor of the country.

Political Will

What is really needed for poverty alleviation is, therefore, strong political will and commitment. If the government and political parties really want to alleviate poverty in deeds, not in words, then poverty can come down. Otherwise, just institutionalising poverty alleviation will not work at all. So, the exigency of poverty alleviation lies in political will and commitment. Cooperation from other sectors is secondary vis-à-vis such political will and commitment.

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