Development in Nepal is necessary for peace to be both sustainable and democratic

-David Wood, Head of DFID Nepal

The Human Development Report 2003 lays out very clearly the challenges facing both developed and developing countries as we seek, jointly, to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Unfortunately it is also a wake up call for both of us.

The widening gulf between rich and poor countries was starkly revealed when the UN announced that while the US and some others were booming in the 1990s, more than 50 countries suffered falling living standards. The UN’s 2003 report charted increasing poverty for more than a quarter of the world’s countries, where a lethal combination of famine, HIV/Aids, conflict, failed economic policies and corruption have turned the clock back.

The UN Administrator called the 1990s a decade of "development on the cheap". The UN report describes a situation where agricultural markets in rich countries are heavily protected. OECD farmers are given $450 billion of taxpayer’s money every year to produce food – equivalent to the whole of Africa’s GDP. The responsibility for progress clearly lies with the developed countries, who are the main perpetrators of agricultural protection. The West needs to tear down trade barriers, dismantle its lavish subsidy regimes, provide deeper debt relief and double aid from $50bn to $100bn a year. This would provide the resources for poor countries to invest in the building blocks of development – health, education, clean water and rural roads.

The MDGs provide an unprecedented framework for international cooperation in the fight against world poverty. The UK Government is proud to be part of the donor community in committing ourselves to this framework. We recognise the challenge it poses to rich countries as well as the poor ones.

The UK’s overseas development assistance budget is set to increase to nearly 7 billion dollars in 2005/6 or 0.4% of GDP. We are also working on an International Financing Facility to increase th3e total level of development assistance from rich counties from approximately $55 million to %100 billion in the years to 2015.

But progress on aid volume alone is not sufficient. We need to move faster on aid effectiveness. We must streamline our approaches and work together more harmoniously to reduce the heavy transaction costs that poorly coordinated aid can incur. Only by doing this can we hope to provide the space for governments to focus on policy development, and provide clear performance frameworks to their citizens and to donor governments.

We also need to make sure that there are in-country mechanisms where governments can raise concern about donor behavior and we, in return, can transparently assess policy progress by poor countries. In DFID, we believe the Annual Reviews of nationally owned Poverty Reduction Strategies (PRS) should be the lynchpin for this process. We suggest that the international community should come together around this instrument.

Finally on Nepal………

I was delighted that he report was able to confirm the progress Nepal is making towards the MDGs, for example in relation to the education and gender equality, under 5 mortality and access to water and sanitation targets. But an enormous amount remains to be done. The numbe3rs in poverty may have risen in the last few years, and the incidence of hunger and maternal mortality remains extremely high. Nepal remains stubbornly 143re in the world in terms of the HDI and large parts of the country remain extremely poor.

Nepal is currently one of the most difficult environments for development in the world. The prospect of a renewal of the Maoist insurgency is extremely worrying. There is no question in my mind that peace is the first prerequisite for progress with poverty reduction in Nepal, but also that development is necessary for peace to be both sustainable and democratic.

I was struck by Jeffrey Sach’s recent remark that "Poor countries cannot afford to wait until they are wealthy before they invest in their people." In recognition of this fact, the UK will approximately double its development programme to Nepal between 2001 and 2004/5. I hope we will be able to further increase it, as long as reform and development remain on track.

Remarks made by the author on July 21, 2003, at the Launch of Human Development Report 2003, in Kathmandu.

Future of Nepal’s political system will be determined at the ballot box both at central and decentralized levels.

This year’s report is particularly important and relevant for Nepal since it is focussed on the Millennium Development Goals. We in the United Nations System are convinced that the MDGS as we call them in short have the potential to transform the world. We believe they are an idea whose time has come and have no doubt that they can also in a very direct way change the social, economic and political face of Nepal.

Let me explain these statements which many of you may consider as surprising.

A Global Partnership of self-interest

The MDGs were adopted by 189 nations at the Millennium Development Assembly in New York in September 2000 based on the realization that an unequal and divided world as we have it now can simply not survive. The continuous denial of a dignified life free from fear and want to the majority of people on this earth will continue to breed tension and conflicts that do not stop at the borders of industrialized nations. Our of the Millennium Development Summit and the Monterrey Conference on Financing for Development a new global consensus has emerged demanding that mutual commitments are matched by mutual accountability: a political bargain has been built around a partnership of self-interest between the countries of North and South under which sustained political and economic reform by developing countries will be matched by direct support from the rich world in the form of the trade, aid and the investment needed if they are to succeed. The MDGs are in fact the UN’s effort to set the terms of a globalization driven not by the interest of the strong but managed in the interest of the poor. Already we have seen significant commitments for increased development assistance following the Monterrey Conference. Dramatic changes in the global trade regime are expected to form party of the global compact. Let me mention in this context that we must of course not be naïve and expect such changes to occur very quickly. Yet it is significant that both sides have accepted their necessity in a partnership of self-interest as I said before.

I have just returned from Europe where I had the opportunity to launch the Human Development Report in Germany and Austria and I am happy to report to you the enormous interest the goals are receiving in these countries. The presence of the Head of DFID, Mr. David Wood with us here today is also an expression of the commitment of one of Nepal’s most important donors to the Millennium Compact.

Setting Targets

Many of you will have seen earlier a report in English or Nepali language on progress towards realization of the MDGs in Nepal. Additional copies are available here. Reviewing the report you will have noticed that at the heart of the MDG campaign lie eight simple goals that are of direct relevance to the lives of each and every citizen. These represent the ultimate bottom-up grassroots pocket-book development agenda; they are firmly focussed on the bread and butter issues everywhere and one certainly does not need a Ph.D. in economics to participate in the debate. From a sheepherder in Humla to a shopkeeper in Hetauda, the idea of cutting poverty, putting children to schools, building a cleaner environment and providing better health care for mothers and infants is something that everyone can relate to in a very tangible way. It makes development local and thus provides unique entry points by focussing on the issues that really matter to ordinary people.

Already the National Planning Commission represented here by the Honourable Vice-Chairman Dr. Shankar Sharma has decided to reflect the MDGs in the government’s planning process and annual budgets. The Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) contains specific measurable targets and indicators in line with the MDGs.

Even more important is the translation of these goals into concrete tangible sub-goals targets and indicators at the decentralized level. Workshops have been held with the Local Development Offices (LDOs) of all 75 districts informing them of the MDGs and encouraging them to reflect them in their respective district development plans and budgets. Let me emphasize here that we are not advocating a one-size-fits-all approach. What matters is the setting of specific targets in line with the specific circumstances that prevail locally and commitments by all concerned to keep these targets high on the agenda, until they are fully realized.

Monitoring

This then brings me to the most important issue of monitoring. As you would have noticed our MDGs report for Nepal serves the primary purpose of tracking progress towards realization of the goals. The MDG data which will be published every year are intended to become the test of success or failure in the overall development process at both central and decentralized levels.

The benchmark of whether policies are working will be whether they are impacting on key MDG targets:

Are more children in school?

Is maternal mortality declining?

Is poverty dropping?

Are we making progress on HIV/AIDS?

If the MDG reports show that the answer to that is "no" then it clearly points to the need of change in policies. If it is "yes’ then it provides a powerful vindication of current strategies.

Thus the MDG reports are in fact a real time accountability framework tracking year by year what is working and what isn’t.

Political Process

At the heart of democracy lie elections. In Nepal ultimately the future of the political system will be determined at the ballot box both at central and decentralized levels. Already the MDGs have electrified the development community by connecting the development process to real public opinion – and thus policy making in both North and South.

From Cameroon to Cambodia presidents are already starting to run on platforms to achieve the MDGs, and in many countries oppositions are developing policies to oppose sitting governments based on their failure to do so. Donors are realigning their support around the MDGs, development agencies are doing the same and so is much of civil society.

Rather than using the language and subject matter of academic seminars and Finance Ministry meetings the report seeks to take the issues to classrooms and teashops, fields and factories showing everyone from the Head of State down to school children where their country is lagging behind its neighbors and where is leading – where more attention needs to be paid and where things are on track, where more resources are essential and where they are not being effectively used.

Many of you will probably ask how could such MDG campaign take off in a country like Nepal considering her topography, linguistic, ethnic cultural and social organizations to step in and unleash a powerful movement that will ultimately impact on the policies of the entire nation. Few of you will probably disagree with my earlier statement that monitoring the performance of politicians and bureaucrats in the realization of development is of vital importance to the nation. Decentralization and social mobilization are critical elements of a workable management and monitoring system. Ultimately these will only yield results if citizens of all castes and creeds, women, men and children stand up and hold elected and appointed leaders responsible for the realization of agreed targets.

Human Rights Accord

Little progress can be achieved in the development of Nepal unless and until conflict is resolved. Restoring peace becomes therefore also one key element of Nepal’s MDG strategy. This is not the occasion to discuss conflict resolution detail. I would, however like to mention in closing that during recent weeks and months we have seen an alarming increase of human rights violations and unless an appropriate monitoring system is established soon the country may rapidly slide again into a cycle of violence making our discussion on the MDGs entirely academic.

I would, therefore like to appeal to all concerned to move quickly in formally adopting the human rights accord that has already been elaborated by the National Human Rights Commission. Similarly plans are at hand to establish a comprehensive monitoring system for the human rights accord. Experience from other parts of the would shows that a well designed human rights accord combined with an effective monitoring system can be a critically important factor not only for building confidence and preserving a ceasefire but also an invaluable building block for the overall peace process.

I am convinced that the successful combination of a human rights based peace process and dynamic MDG comparing could lead to a situation where almost all MDG objective are realized in Nepal by the target year 2015.

Statement made by Dr. Henning Karcher, UNDP Resident Representative on the occasion of the Launch of the Human Development Report 2003, on July 21, Kathmandu.

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