While delivering special lecture on Millennium Development Goals (MDG) at Kathmandu University, he said that Nepal´s overall progress on MDGs is satisfactory even though few challenges lie ahead. [break]
Haakon said that maternal health has been actually the most challenging issue for the rest of the developing and the least developed countries.
“Very big part of the world is still struggling to better maternal health, while Nepal has come up with significant result regarding this. The secret behind this must be the huge number of 50,000 female health workers in the country and their effective work,” he said.
Similarly, he was happy that Nepal was doing better in the field of gender equality and education as well and noted that the country is a fastest mover in context of Human Development Index since 1980.
According to Haakon, meeting MDGs by 2015 is not impossible, though it is very much challenging. “Overall, changes are remarkable regarding the issues of poverty, education, gender equality, child education and HIV/Aids, while other three goals -- maternal health, environmental sustainability and global partnership are still very big challenge,” he added.
During question-answer round, Haakon also responded to a query about the strategy for the goals after 2015, the deadline set by the United Nations.
He answered that he was aware that there are obstacles ahead but that should not stop the eight important MDG agendas, rather he believed in constructing new and better frameworks to deal with the issues.
In an interesting comparison of his country Norway to Nepal, the crown prince said Norway was like today´s Burundi in 1831, like Mozambique in 1868 and like Uganda in 1898 while today´s Nepal is like Norway in 1937, especially regarding child mortality rate.
“Norway has come a long way, I see you are moving twice as fast,” he noted. He also added that even though there are challenges ahead, Nepalis should equally count their victories as the country has witnessed positive changes in several spheres.
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