Good Governance
For Sustainable Development

By Sanu Maiya Pradhan

SUSTAINABLE development is a compelling morale and humanitarian issue. But is also a security imperative. Poverty, environmental degradation and despair are destroyers of people, of societies, of nations. This unholy trinity can destabilise countries and even the entire regions. The spread of democracy and market economics combined with breakthrough in technology, makes us dream of a day when, for the first time in history, most of humanity will be free of ravages of tyrrany and poverty, the sustainable development requires institutions, policies, people and effective partnership to carry out the common efforts.

Threat

For Nepal the greatest threat to sustainable development is poverty, which has also been a key source of many conflicts. At present the focus is on strengthening the environmental institutions, promoting a balance between the overall economic development and the environment and developing human resources so as to provide basic facilities to the people. Nepal has to endure the negative impacts of the evils of poverty. Some 38 per cent of the national population live below the poverty line. Slow economic development, lack of resource mobilisation and a clear vision on the part of the planners and administrators and most importantly, the lack of social awarness among the people have been the major factors for pushing Nepal to the bottom of the list of the least developed nations in the world. Bad governance and the increasing Maoist insurgency have marred the country in the last seven years.

Bad governance is something which Nepal's development partners had always pointed out to the previous government. They always urged that corruption be curbed and that the administration be transparent and efficient. Our concern at present should be at good governance. This would cover the fields of ethics (less vulnerability of human rights), equity (less disparity within country), inclusion (less marginalisation of people), security (less instability and vlanability), sustainability (less environmental destruction) and development (less poverty).

Corruption diverts resources away from development activities that are vital for poverty eradication. Corruption harms private sector development, erodes the investment climate and undermines the financial system of the developing countries like Nepal. There in no doubt the Nepalese people themselves have become sick of the rampant corruption of government officials and politicians. High ranking officials must be aware of this and be accountable to their duties and responsibilities if corruption is to be controlled. Corruption has become a bane to the country and the people, and it is weakening democracy and demeaning the country's prestige.If the people in the government are honest and responsible, corruption can be controlled. The government should severely punish those who are involved in corruption. The government should keep an eye on its officials. They should be dealt with according to the law. The office of the Auditor General has been pointing out what has gone wrong in fighting corruption and has been giving suggestions in its annual report but no government has given attention to the remedy of the problem.

The civil servants are not accountable and responsible to their duties and only a few of them are afraid of the corruption control bodies such as the Commission for Investigation of the Abuse of Authority (CIAA) and the Judicial Commission for the Investigations of Property. Bad governance, poverty and exclusion have provided fertile ground for the deterioration of the present law and order situation in the country.

However, Nepal has made substantial progress in the fight against corruption. This year has seen important legislation, giving the Commission for Investigation for Abuse of Authority (CIAA) greater power to investigate and act against government employees accused of corruption. Now that the CIAA has accelerated its job of bringing the corrupt to book, that too by raiding and filing cases against the top politicians and bureaucrats. People have felt the need of expanding its offices to other parts of the Kingdom where corruption is rampant.

Security is the biggest challenge for Nepal's development at this moment. As long as the Maoist insurgents continue their wanton destruction of country's infrastructure in the name of People's Movement, create havoc by applying terror tactics of exerting money and ornaments from innocent civil servants or plundering food stuff from villagers, recruit children as combatants or use women and children as human shields, and the government continues to ignore the large segment of the population that suffers from malnutrition, sickness and illiteracy, the country cannot pick up the desired pace of development.

The solution to the Maoist insurgency and introduction of good governance is the only one answer for materialising people's aspiration. People here are frustrated with endless political squabbling, rampant corruption and bureaucratic inertia in the development administration. But if good governance is achieved the enormous reservoir of goodwill of the international communities and adequate natural resources at home can yield better results for the country. Good governance is the functioning of the government in which the people have their say in the decisions making process. Especially on those decisions that decide for themselves they need to be educated about what suits them best.

Awareness

Nepal should invest heavily on education. Unless civic education is pegged with bringing about a dramatic social change in the society for the all round development of the people, not much can be attained in the development front. Education should be taken as a component to generate awareness regarding human rights of individual citizen.

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