NEPAL: Aid Must Double to Even Approach MDGs
KATHMANDU, 17 October (IPS): Nepal needs to double its foreign aid to 7,9 billion US dollar if it wants to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs – 2015 Målene) set out by World leaders and the UN, but more cash alone will not solve the Himalayan countrys development needs.
A 10-year insurgency (oprør) by Maoist rebels has had a “very deep impact on development”, said Jagadish Chandra Pokharel, vice-chairman of the National Planning Commission (NPC) at the release of Nepals MDG assessment report, Tuesday.
– We have been talking (about reconstruction) as if we would rebuild a couple of facilities and reintegrate those who had taken guns to the jungle and those who had fled their homes, and that would be enough. But reconstruction will require much more deeper debate and analysis, added Pokharel.
For example, in Jumla, one of Nepals most remote, high-altitude districts, experts have worked for years to successfully cross-breed local goats and sheep with varieties from New Zealand and Australia.
According to Pokharel, “If I were to devise a (development) package for Jumla I might assume that that breeding “infrastructure” exists but that would be wrong; none of those goats now exist – they have been eaten.”
– To rebuild that (programme) would take another couple of years Pokharel explained.
A small nation sandwiched between giants China and India, Nepal will actually need to spend 16,4 billion dollar to achieve the eight MDGs by the target date of 2015.
But 4,8 billion dollar will come from government sources and 3,8 billion from households, communities and the private sector, says “Needs Assessment for Nepal”, published by the NPC and the UN Development Programme (UNDP).
The MDGs were devised at a summit of the worlds governments in 2000. They include halving the number of the world’s people who live on less then a dollar a day, providing primary schooling for every child and reversing the spread of HIV/AIDS by 2015.
A 2005 progress report found that Nepal, one of South Asias four least developed countries (LDCs), was moving towards some targets but falling away from others.
It was on track to reach the goal of boosting the enrolment of girls in schools and to cut the number of women who die in childbirth but regressing in slowing the spread of HIV/AIDS and providing safe drinking water to people living in towns and cities.
Last week NPCs former vice-chairman, Shankar Sharma, predicted the country would attain 50-60 percent of the MDGs by 2015.
He also suggested that Nepal follow the lead of other developing countries like Thailand and Cambodia and devise an “MDG-Plus”, to include one or more goals reflecting its unique development needs.
The assessment does that, estimating the resources needed to develop basic infrastructure like roads and electricity, in rural Nepal. It also forecasts how much will have to be spent on specific activities to promote gender equality.
“The largest proportion of the public investment will have to be allocated to the education sector followed by hunger-related activities,” says the assessment.
“However, in terms of the financing gap it is the hunger-related activities where the need is greatest. This is because of the relatively low allocation to sectors such as agriculture and irrigation at present”, it goes on.
In fact, the UNs World Food Programme (WFP) is now carrying out an emergency feeding programme in 10 districts in the northwest where “food gaps” between crops have long tested villagers resilience (udholdenhed). Last winter was the areas driest on record and left many homes food cupboards bare, prompting WFPs first ever emergency project in Nepal.
As much as 25 percent of the nations population has insufficient food, reported the chief of the Department of Agriculture on Monday. Because of droughts in some areas and floods in others, the production of rice, the staple crop, will fall by 300.000 tonnes in 2006-07, predicted Dip Bahadur Swanr, reported The Himalayan Times newspaper.
Minister of Finance Ram Sharan Mahat said Tuesday that such problems require a holistic response.
– I do not think hunger can be isolated from other activities like rural infrastructure works. Once these are in place, it will generate income, which is what you need to banish hunger, he said at the reports release.
– With sustainable peace in sight, I think we must accelerate our activities and programmes, added Mahat.
Kilder: IPS og The Push Journal
