National 9 (Spotlight Weekly)

Plea Against Poverty

UNFPA explains the importance of integrating population and development

By A CORRESSPONDENT

Despite having made some gains in the areas of education, health and population management, Nepal still remains a least developed country in terms of human development indicators. Forty percent of the country's population lives below the poverty line, subsisting on $2 or less a day.

Nepal has made some progress in demographic, social and economic indicators like annual population growth, public health expenditure, fertility rate and expenditure on primary health, but the overall indicators are far from satisfactory.

In terms of life expectancy, Nepal has one of the lowest rates in South Asia. Nepal's average life expectancy is 60.1 years for male and 59.6 for female. In sharp contrast to the rest of the world, the life expectancy of women is lower in Nepal. Even in a war-ravaged country like Afghanistan, life expectancy of females is higher than that of males, at 43.5 and 43.0 respectively, the lowest in South and Central Asia.

In South Asia, Sri Lanka has the highest life expectancy, with 69.9 for males and 75.9 for females. In the area of primary school enrolment, the progress is slow but gradually picking up. In terms of literacy, 38 percent of males and 74 percent of females are illiterate.

Published by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the State of World Population Report 2002 reveals that Nepal GNI per capita is lowest among the South Asian countries with $1,370 in the year 2000. One of the alarming trends is growing HIV prevalence rate among males and females aged between 15-24. According to the report, the HIV prevalence in Nepal is 0.27 among males and 0.28 among females, which is second highest in the region after India. Although the threat of HIV infections is growing, the prevalence of contraceptive use is still low.

"UNFPA will continue to support the efforts made by the government of Nepal to fight against poverty, as we have been supporting Nepal in the area of population management," said J. Bill Musoke, UNFPA Representative, launching the report, titled "People, Poverty and Possibilities". "Nepal has made certain progress in the areas of literacy, child and women health. But it has to go long way to achieve success."

As poverty remains a major problem of the world, no program can be expected to yield results unless it addresses the needs and concerns of the marginalized sections of society. In its quest to address the core issue of the world, UNFPA's annual report also accepts poverty as a major challenge in the world to manage the population.

Studies have shown that the poorer a country is, the higher its population growth rate tends to be. According to the report, least developed countries will most likely triple their population by 2050, from 600 million in 1995 to 1.8 billion. Nepal's population will reach 52.4 million by the year 2050 from today's 24.2 million.

Interestingly, countries with higher population growth are facing higher prevalence of poverty. Slower population growth has encouraged overall economic growth in developing countries. "Since 1970, developing countries with lower fertility and slower population growth have seen higher productivity, more savings and more productive investment. Incomes, the usual measure of poverty, have rises across the board," the report said.

"Successful developing countries have also invested in universal health care, including reproductive heath, and education. They have moved to reduce gender inequality and remove obstacles to women's participation in the wider society." What all this means is that Nepal cannot reduce the level of poverty unless it controls population growth.