National 4 (Spotlight Weekly)

"Conflict Is The Number One Constraint In Front Of Us"

— Dr. Shankar Sharma

Dr. Shankar Sharma is the vice president of the National Planning Commission (NPC) - the apex planning body of the country. He spoke with SANJAYA DHAKAL on issues related to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the constraints faced by the government in doing so. Excerpts:

How is the progress on the achievement of MDGs?

As per the latest data, we can easily achieve the target of halving the number of people below the poverty line. Likewise, we are also confident on achieving the other three targets like those on reducing the Child Mortality Rate, increasing the access to safe Drinking Water and the net enrolment ratio provided the current trend continues. And we are pretty much confident that this trend will continue because we have introduced a program called "Education For All" since this year - and all the 17 donor countries have contributed in a basket fund for this. In this fiscal year's budget, we could raise the development budget allocation to the education by 86 percent. Moreover, we have also the full-fledged implementation of the Health Strategy 2002 since this year. For instance, in thirteen districts we are implementing the package of basic health system. This will be gradually extended to other districts, as well. The development budget on health, too, was increased by almost 96 percent this year. The donors are also making commitments for the medium term implementation of the health and education related projects. I believe that we can further accelerate the pace of this trend, particularly on the health and education related indicators. All in all, I can say at this point that we can achieve four out of the seven goals (eighth one is to be achieved with the help of developed countries) including the halving of poverty, reducing child mortality, increasing access of drinking water and achieving universal education. However, we are keeping our fingers crossed that in the next one decade we will also be able to achieve the remaining goals.

What are your plans about meeting the goals like ending gender inequalities, which look least likely to be achieved?

In order to address the gender inequality problem, we have introduced the scholarships to 50 percent of girl children. Last year, we had allocated only Rs 50 million for this purpose. This year, the budget to provide scholarship has been increased to Rs 350 million. More importantly, the focus of this scholarship is on the poorest of the poor section - intended to help the vulnerable and backward people. In order to reduce the Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR), we plan to provide 1.5 to 2.5 years of training to the Maternity Health Workers of every VDCs so that they can become the auxiliary nurse/midwife.

How critical are the goals that are less likely to be achieved?

They are most critical. Take for instance, the issues of MMR and gender. They are fundamentals for the human development. And we are going to do whatever it takes to ensure that these goals, too, will be met in the due time.

To what extent would the conflict have an impact on Nepal's efforts to achieve the MDGs?

Conflict is the number one constraint in front of us. In the past we used to complain the lack of priorities, programs and resources. Fortunately, we have been able to overcome these problems to a great extent. We have already identified our priorities, which is spelt out in the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP). The donors have been kind enough to come forth with generous support. So, the only problem remains the conflict. Just recently, Maoists looted 25 sacks of medicines and equipment meant for the Measles Vaccination drive in Okhaldhunga district. The access and movement of people has been curtailed. However, as we are talking about long-term goals, which we need to achieve by 2015, there are enough rooms to hope that we will be able to get over the present situation by then. In any case, the impacts/disturbances of conflict, I must say, has been minimum on health and education related development activities.

What else does the government need to achieve the MDGs on time?

Well, as far as I am concerned, even though we might have money, equipment, programs and targets, we will not be able to perform if we lack proper manpower to execute them. This is another big problem for us. Take for instance, we find it difficult to locate trained health workers and teachers who can work in remote corners. The government also plans to transfer the schools and health posts to the local bodies so that the health workers, doctors and teachers could recruited at the local level. We are also looking at different modalities to improve the situation. I believe that more than resources, we will be having the problem of shortage of quality and trained manpower to execute programs.

How has the government integrated the MDGs in its development plans and programs?

The MDGs are clearly reflected in our plans and policies. Gradually, the policies of not only our country but others' as well are becoming more MDG-focused. Earlier, our focus used to be scattered. But now we have narrowed it down to make them MDG-centric. We are currently drafting sectoral business plan to make our PRSP even more compatible with the MDGs. This will make not only the interventions compatible but also allow us to have a clearer idea about the resources that will be required to achieve the goals.

How is the UN helping in achieving the goals?

The UN has been helping in various of our exercises geared at internalizing the priorities and goals. That apart, the UN has already created a separate office, which will approach the citizens of developed countries directly to raise awareness about the need to help the developing countries meet the MDGs. This campaign is aimed at helping create public pressure on the developed countries to take more initiatives in this direction.

How are the other donors helping specifically on the MDGs?

Well, they have not yet come out with special programs on MDGs. But they do have targets to make their assistance more MDGs-oriented in a gradual manner. As far as the issue of whether the donor assistance will increase is concerned, there are two aspects to this fact. One is whether the global kitty of the donors for development assistance has increased and another is whether the volume of assistance to Nepal has increased. For the latter part, we can say that the donor assistance has increased considerably. For example, in the next three years, the assistance from the Department for International Development (DFID) is going to double; and so is the USAID assistance. Of late, the assistance from the Scandinavian countries has increased by more than double. Our traditional donors like Germany and Japan, too, have continued to support us. So far the global volume of development assistance is concerned, the developed countries have already pledged to increase the level of their overseas assistance from the current 0.2 percent to 0.7 percent of their GNP.