Summary:
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Nepal has also made tremendous progress in gender equality and health, meeting its goals of gender parity in school enrollment in 2019 and drastically lowering the mortality rate for children under five to 28 deaths per 1000. Issues with the economy, security, and climateAchieving these milestones have not been straightforward, especially for a nation that went through a difficult peace-building process after enduring an armed struggle for ten years, from 1996 to 2006.
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The longer-term presents several difficulties, such as the lack of flexibility in encouraging Micro, Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (MSMEs), for which we are already providing help to the national authorities.
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Using the potential of Nepal’s “baby” businessesMy colleagues and I from the Resident Coordinator’s Office have assisted the Government of Nepal in developing the Seamless Transition Plan by offering technical support (STS).
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Past DohaHanaa Singer, the UN Resident Coordinator in Nepal, presented the nation’s achievement in passing the LDC graduation threshold during the 5th UN Conference on LDCs in Doha, together with other government representatives and development partners.
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We must accept the additional responsibility of ensuring irreversible and sustainable graduation as we near the finish line and get ready to leave our status as one of the world’s Least Developed Countries.
“My parents worked as porters in the 1970s, when Nepal was first added to the UN list of Least Developed Countries (LDCs), transporting food and other supplies 68 kilometres from the sole highway in the nation to their district of Arghakhanchi.
During that time, the average yearly per capita income was $70; more than 60% of individuals experienced hunger and extreme poverty.
Until the 1990s, my parents could not feed us a daily meal; I vividly remember queueing up at the Sarkari Khaddya Godam – the government food warehouse- to get subsidised food.
Pursuing development goals
The condition in the nation is substantially different now, fifty years later. After meeting the threshold levels on two of the three indicators—the Economic Vulnerability Index and the Human Asset Index—that measure the nation’s health, education, and economy’s exposure to natural shocks like drought, natural disasters, and instability in agricultural production—Nepal was eligible to leave the category of “Least Developed Country” in 2021. This was the third time the country had done so.
The accomplishments of Nepal go far beyond fulfilling these requirements. As measured by the World Hunger Index, hunger decreased from severe to moderate in 2022, and poverty dropped to 17% in 2020. Rural areas of the nation are now better connected because of improvements to the country’s infrastructure and highways.
Nepal has also made tremendous progress in gender equality and health, meeting its goals of gender parity in school enrollment in 2019 and drastically lowering the mortality rate for children under five to 28 deaths per 1000.
Issues with the economy, security, and climate
Achieving these milestones has not been straightforward, especially for a nation that went through a difficult peace-building process after enduring an armed struggle for ten years, from 1996 to 2006. The devastating 7.8 magnitude earthquake that struck Nepal in 2015, which also took over 9,000 lives, reduced GDP growth by about 1.5 percentage points from an estimated 4.6% that year.
The Fourth UN Conference on LDCs was held in Istanbul shortly after I began working for the UN in Nepal in 2010 as a development analyst. It was a significant milestone in Nepal’s lengthy journey to LDC graduation.
To carry out the “Istanbul Plan of Action,” Nepal established its 12th national plan, prioritising LDC graduation. Three years later, the 15th plan set a fixed graduation date for Nepal in 2024; however, the COVID-19 epidemic caused this date to be postponed to 2026.
Helping the government and other development partners prepare for this crucial transition is a significant part of my job as the economist at the UN Resident Coordinator’s Office (RCO) in Nepal. How will it affect local communities across the nation? How can we cooperate to reduce any risks? These inquiries have helped me in the past three years as I’ve worked at the RCO.
GGraduation will probably keep Nepal’s economy stable in the immediate future. The longer-term presents several difficulties, such as the lack of flexibility in encouraging Micro, Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (MSMEs), for which we are already providing help to the national authorities.
Using the potential of Nepal’s “baby” businesses
My colleagues and I from the Resident Coordinator’s Office have assisted the Government of Nepal in developing the Seamless Transition Plan by offering technical support (STS). This strategy seeks to hasten economic transition by attracting foreign direct investment, growing the revenue base, gaining access to development financing, notably climate finance, and stimulating private investment.
Working with neighbouring LDCs and utilising the knowledge of the UN development system at the national, regional, and international levels have been crucial to the successful transition process.
The UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (2023–2027) has adopted LDC graduation and inclusive economic transformation as one of the central cross-cutting pillars to guide the activities of the entire UN system in the country. Preparing Nepal for this transition requires a broad spectrum of UN support.
These initiatives will contribute to job creation, improve local governments’ capacity to provide services and promote Nepal’s numerous Micro, Small, and Medium-Sized Enterprises, which account for about 99 per cent of all businesses in the nation. These MSMEs, or “baby industries,” many of which are driven by women, have great potential to advance the SDGs and Nepal’s development goals if they are linked to regional value chains.
Past Doha
Hanaa Singer, the UN Resident Coordinator in Nepal, presented the nation’s achievement in passing the LDC graduation threshold during the 5th UN Conference on LDCs in Doha, together with other government representatives and development partners.
We must accept the additional responsibility of ensuring irreversible and sustainable graduation as we near the finish line and get ready to leave our status as one of the world’s Least Developed Countries. We must also collaborate to ensure that no parent will ever struggle to provide for their family or send their children to school the way my parents and many others from my generation once did.
For me personally, as well as for Nepal, this is a proud occasion. With our graduation, Nepal is showing the world that it is prepared for its next chapter.
