As per the country´s progress report issued on Tuesday, Nepal is well on it track on eradicating extreme poverty and hunger. As per the report, indicators show the people whose income was less than a dollar a day has dropped from 33.5 percent in 1990 to 16.4 percent at present. [break]
The target was to reduce poverty by 50 percent. Similarly, the population below national poverty line has come down to 23.82 percent from 38 percent in 2000, even though the target was to bring it down to 21 percent.
In case of achieving the goal of universal primary education, the net enrollment rate has reached 95.3 percent this year from 63 percent in 2000. "Now the government needs to meet 100 percent target in primary education in the next two years, which seems achievable," said Jagdish Chandra Pokhrel, team leader of the MDG report committee under the National Planning Commission (NPC).
The country has again lagged behind at ensuring women rights as it is unlikely to meet the target of gender equality and women empowerment.
But the country has made remarkable progress on reducing child mortality, performing better than the set target four years before the MDG deadline. Nepal has reduced the infant mortality (per 1000 live births) to 46 percent in 2011 from 64 in 2000. Similarly, the mortality rate per 1000 live births of below five years-age children has also declined to 54 percent from 91 percent.
Majority of health-related MDGs have already been achieved, whereas others are on track to be met, the progress report shows. However, the contraceptive prevalence rate, with the emerging trend of using emergency contraceptive pills, is the new challenge the government needs to tackle, Pokhrel pointed out.
In context of recovering from the decade long Maoist insurgency and political instability with major national political agenda, including peace building, constitution writing, and state restructuring, the achievements are remarkable, said UN Resident Coordinator Jamie McGoldrick.
NPC Joint Secretary Pushpa Lal Shakya said that the issues in which least progress have been made -- such as environment sustainability, disparity between male and female, urban and rural and rich and poor, is posing a challenge -- must be highly prioritized through policy making and its implementation in the coming days.
Government´s Chief Secretary Lila Mani Poudel said that the report has reflected the aspiration of Nepali people for just and prosperous society. Remembering the initial phase of MDG process, Poudel claimed that the delay in allocating funds to the Least Developed Countries in 2000 by the developed countries also affected the implementation process here.
As per UN Millennium Declaration 2000, 189 member countries and 23 international organizations have agreed to achieve the MDG goals by 2015.
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