[Nepal] More work needed to achieve development goals - report

from reuters Alert Net

KATHMANDU, 13 October (IRIN) - Nepal, along with many other developing country in the Asia Pacific region, is falling behind in efforts to meet the UN's Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), said a new report 'A Future Within Reach' jointly prepared by the United Nations and the Asian Development bank (ADB).

"The data before us is disturbing," said Kim Hak-Su, UN Under Secretary General, during a two-day South Asia MDGs forum held in the Nepalese capital Kathmandu, this week where. Over 100 local and international experts met at the forum to make regional MDGs campaigns more effective.

According to the report, over 400 million people in South Asia still live in poverty. "This means that South Asia is making less progress in combating hardcore poverty," explained Hak-Su. He added that more than 300 million people, who are racked by chronic hunger, struggle daily for survival.

The eight MDGs range from halving extreme poverty to halting the spread of HIV/AIDS and providing universal primary education, all by the target date of 2015. They form a blueprint agreed to by all the world's countries and all the world's leading development institutions.

One of the key challenges has been reducing human poverty in countries with some of the highest child mortality and maternal mortality rates in the world, explained the report. Nepal remains one of the countries lagging furthest behind in achieving its MDG targets.

Among Nepal's worst realities are the annual deaths of 65,000 children under five, according to the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF). In addition, over 4,500 Nepalese women die every year due to pregnancy-related complications. Nearly half a million Nepalese children do not attend school.

Nepal has set national MDG targets to halve extreme poverty, reduce the proportion of people suffering from hunger, enroll all children in schools, reduce child and maternal mortalities and halve the incidence of malaria and other diseases and halt spread of HIVAIDS.

"Political instability and conflict have been the major causes for us failing to achieve our targets," said Poshan Pandey, a member of Nepal's National Planning Commission (NPC). He explained that the decade-long armed conflict in the country had made implementation of such development goals challenging.

He added that there is now a real opportunity for improved development, with a national peace process under way between Maoist rebels and the interim government since April.

"The task before us is both urgent and immense," said the ADB's vice-president, Liqun Jin. "Success is possible only if the governments and all development partners in this sub-region, including the private sector and civil society, work very closely together.