WB Recipe To Beat Poverty

By Our Correspondent

Major reductions in poverty are possible, but achieving these will require a more comprehensive approach that directly addresses the needs of poor people in three important areas: opportunity, empowerment and security, according to the World Bank’s latest World Development Report 2000/2001: Attacking Poverty.

The new study report was released last week.

According to the World Bank, the new study, the Bank’s most detailed-ever investigation of global poverty, adds that economic growth is crucial but often not sufficient to create conditions in which the world’s poorest people can improve their lives.

"This report seeks to expand the understanding of poverty and its causes and sets out actions to create a world free of poverty in all its dimensions," World Bank President James D. Wolfensohn writes in the foreword to the report. It both builds on our past thinking and strategy and substantially broadens and deepens what we think is necessary to meet the challenge of reducing poverty."

The report builds on the view that poverty means not only low incomes and low consumption but also lack of education and poor nutrition and health. Based on the testimony of poor people themselves, and changes in thinking about poverty, the report goes further and expands the definition of poverty to include powerlessness, voicelessness, vulnerability and fear.

The report recommends governments of developing countries at all levels, donor countries, international agencies, NGO’s, civil society and local communities, mobilize behind these three priority areas: opportunity, empowerment and security.

"Advances in these areas are complementary. Each is important in its own right, and each enhances the others," says Nora Lustig, Director of the World Development Report 2000/2001. "We hope that this framework will be helpful to countries in developing their own poverty-reduction strategies according to their own circumstances. There is no universal blueprint."

According to Lustig, these priorities can allow the poor to have greater independence and security in their day-to-day lives.

At a time of unprecedented wealth for many countries, 2.8 billion people - almost half the world’s population - live on less than $2 a day.

The report says that of these people, 1.2 billion live on the very margins of life, on less than $1 a day. In high-income countries, fewer than one child in 100 dies before reaching five years of age, while in the poorest countries, the number is five times higher. In well-off countries, fewer than five percent of children under the age of five are malnourished; in poorer countries, as many as 50 percent of the children suffer from eating too little food, it is stated in the report.

"This destitution persists even though human conditions have improved more in the past century than in the rest of history," the report notes. "Global wealth, global connections, and technological capabilities have never been greater."

But the distribution of these gains is extraordinarily unequal. The average income in the richest 20 countries is 37 times the average in the poorest 20 - a gap that has doubled in the past 40 years.

Hotel Industry In Dire Straits

By BMD

The hotel industry has now become the largest sector among the travel-related businesses of Nepal providing employment opportunities. The entire tourism sector is believed to provide employment to over 200,000 people directly. Of them, the hotel sector has alone absorbed around 180,000 people. About one million people are said to benefit from the tourism industry indirectly. However, the hotel industry is not in good shape. It faces a number of challenges, which if not addressed in time, could see its collapse, hoteliers warn.

The hotel business has become very competitive with the number of hotels going up considerably after the government liberalised the economy. But the number of visitors visiting the country has yet to go up proportionately. The existing number of hotel beds is said to be more than enough to cater to around 1.2 million tourists. Hoteliers themselves concede that the difference between the number of hotel beds and tourists has contributed to the ‘unhealthy’ competition.

They are of the opinion that the government policy is responsible for the present scenario of price undercutting and price war in the hotel industry.

According to Ajaya R. Sthapit, Secretary of Hotel Association Nepal (HAN), the hotel industry is suffering from price undercutting as the number of visitors is not increasing. "The hotels’ products are also perishable. This only leads to a price war situation."

Sthapit said the present situation wouldn’t have come if tourist arrivals were improving.

Hoteliers hold the government policy responsible for the slackness in the hotel business. They want the government to stop issuing licenses to set up new hotels in over-saturated areas such as Kathmandu, Pokhara and Chitwan.

"Considering the maximum number of hotels in these cities, the government must issue new licenses only after conducting a feasibility study of available infrastructure," says Narendra Bajracharya, President of HAN.

The existing provisions of the Labour Act are also said to be hampering the hotel business. Sthapit said the Labour Act is not in favour of the hotel industry as it is overprotective of the workers.

"The provisions in the Act are often responsible for paralyzing the industry. The name of the Act should be changed to Industrial Services Act so as to bring about a balance between the industry and the workers," he said.

Keeping in mind the frequent strikes and protests being launched by the hotel employees, hoteliers want the government to recognise the hotel business as a hospitality industry under the essential industry.

Yet another challenge faces the hotel industry. The hotel employees have been pressurizing the hotel industry to levy a 10 per cent service charge on the guests, for the benefit of the employees. This type of provision is found in many developed countries such as the US and Japan.

But the hotel industry is not ready to levy this charge. The industry people fear that once this provision is implemented, the hotel business will collapse. They say that this could lead to the employees not providing quality service to clients.

SD'S Dahal Wins Tourism Award

By Our Correspondent

Ballav Mani Dahal, Sub-editor of Sunday Despatch weekly, has won the Travel Trade Award instituted by the Nepal Tourism Board for his article "Political will power essential for strong RNAC" in the Tourism Awareness/ Education category.

NTB announced awards in seven categories. The tourism body organized the competition to encourage travel writers and honour their contribution in tourism promotion and create awareness on tourism in general.

Ballav joined the Gorkhapatra Corporation in 1994.

Similarly, Navin Singh Khadka of the Rising Nepal bagged the Travel Trade Award in two categories.

His article "High Altitude Porters’ Plight May Distract Trekkers" and "Shopping Tourism" were adjudged the best in the Conservation/Eco-Tourism category and Write-ups on Tourism in General category respectively.

Similarly, travel writers Dhruva K. Deep, Ms. Valerie Parkinson, Ramesh C. Arya and Rudra Prasad Sharma have received awards in other categories.

The winners will each be awarded with a certificate and a cash prize of Rs. 20,000 on World Tourism Day (September 27, 2000).