By: Bikal Dhungel
1) How to end the massive problem of under-nutrition: This is an
evidence that better nutrition = better health = better human
development = economic development. Poor nutrition = poor health =
poverty trap = poverty. 47% of children in Nepal are stunted,
mal-nutrition is alarmingly high. Nutritional deficiency is not only
the problem of today, it has a long term impact. Deficiency is
connected to reduced cognitive abilities which will cause in poor
results in school and this finally cause fewer opportunities in the
future regarding income. The very first step of economic policy
should be to end this trap. The question is now how to end this
trap. To end this trap, you should find information about who are
struggling with nutrition. Substantial amount of time should be
spent on distribution policy. Learning from other countries are
vital. Countries with similar level of development have distributed
Food Ration Card for the basic nutrition. Then there are policies to
reduce food waste. There are agricultural policies which are
targeted to food production in the form of small entrepreneurship.
In some cases, there are also free distribution of energy biscuits
financed by aid money. Economically saying, even if the country
provides subsidized foods, it will be less costly because if not,
this person cannot contribute to the welfare of a nation given
his/her cognitive deficiency. It might also be that the country need
to pay for his/her treatment in the future. So, prevention should be
focused instead of treatment.
2) How to create an affordable healthcare system for all: 80% of
Hospital are located in urban areas whereas the majority of people
live in rural area. The unavailability of healthcare system due to
any reason has caused poor health condition of rural inhabitants. In
urban area, hospitals are over-crowded and unhygienic especially the
government ones and it will not be wrong to say that hospitals are
not only the place to treat the disease but also a place to catch
infection. The Health insurance market is not available for the
large majority. But if it were there, people would be willing to pay
a portion of their income because if you are unlucky and something
happen, it might cost you a huge fortune in most of the cases.
People are forced to sell their properties to pay that cost. So,
health based poverty traps are visible everywhere. The economic
impact of this can be huge. For this reason, most of the development
countries have compulsory health insurance scheme for their citizens
and those in the lower level of income group will be subsidized.
This is however easily said than done. So, the division of task
should be there. Governmental policy should be focused on prevention
through public health campaigns, educational programs, environmental
standards , public policy etc and the private sector can concentrate
on health insurance scheme and to bear the costs of treatment, there
should be a good deal between the actors about who should take how
much of the share. Where government fails, private sector emerges
and they might not always act on the interest of the public but
governmental regulation should offset this. Still, this is not
something one can design in one of two days or even years, but it is
possible in the long term.
3) How to fill up the education gap to reach 0% illiteracy: The
65% literacy rate Nepal has today is not a satisfying number. 35%
illiteracy is enough for all sorts of problems regarding health,
culture and political instability. Illiterate people have higher
tendency to believe in superstitions that can be harmful. In rural
areas, people for example trust the traditional healers instead of
doctors. Illiterate people are less likely to send their children to
school even if the schools are available. Illiterate people are more
likely to discriminate based on gender or caste. Illiterate people
can easily be manipulated to achieve political interests for example
the use to violence that the Maoists have done in the past.
Illiteracy is one of the reason of poor health etc. Providing
educational infra-structures including the qualified teachers and
school materials are challenges that are especially high in rural
areas. In urban areas, this is not a problem but still, the quality
of education should attract the focus of experts. In government
schools, the rate of failure in SLC exams are extremely high, close
to 90%. This is a pure weakness of management and the quality of
teachers. First of all, providing at least a secondary education to
everybody is a key to further development. Education is related to
better health, entrepreneurship and a peaceful society where any
form of discrimination, or superstitious beliefs rarely exist. So,
the challenge to fill up this gap should be thought thoroughly.
4) How to solve the Infra-structural Dilemma: Have a look at a
Google map of Nepal, you will discover that almost half of the
country, the northern side are only mountains where people cannot
live. So, Nepal is actually much smaller than the total area of
147,181 sq km. About two thirds of the remaining area is of high
hills where the population density is sparse. Only about 20% area,
the southern plains, houses most of the people. The hills and rivers
possess a real challenge to build infrastructures like roads and
bridges there. Even if there is an access of road, due to the lower
density of population, most of them cannot be fully utilized. So,
the recommendation here is that, costly infrastructures should not
be built blindly. There should be calculations, how many people live
in the area and how much would it cost to install basic
infrastructure there like paved roads, schools, hospitals etc and if
that cost of higher than to bring these people to other areas where
settlements could be built, it should choose the latter. It will be
equally unjust for other tax payers to spend huge amount to build
roads that can be helpful for few people. Economic calculations must
be there. Development alone is not enough, it should be just, it
should be sustainable and it should be in a position to be used.
5) How to achieve self-sustaining agricultural system: In a
globalized world, no country is fully self sustaining and only few
can achieve prosperity by itself. But if it could self-sustain in
terms of foods, it is better because it is in lower risk of
starvation in case of war. The Common Agricultural Policy ( CAP ) of
the European Union is based in this principle. Even though it will
cost them cheaper to import foods, they are subsidizing their
farmers so that in case of emergency, they don't have any kind of food
shortages. For Nepal, being a small country, it is highly dependent
on neighbouring countries for almost all kind of foods. This has
created some serious problems sometimes. The landslide for example
blocks the road and food supply will be stopped causing the food
prices in the cities to skyrocket. If there are environmental
problems in importing countries for example heat waves, it will
cause a massive rise in prices. Moreover, the importing country can
also use the food as a political instrument to put pressure. All
these are not good for Nepal. So, self-sustaining food system is
necessary. It is again possible by small scale farming in the first
place, that will also reduce food price and makes less dependent on
foreign countries. But this alone cannot sustain us. Food production
should slowly grow, it should be industrialized. Small scale farming
cannot feed the nation, only if the absolute majority of the people
are farmers. This is not true in today's scenario. The service
sector is rising and most of the educated people choose other
sectors than farming. The process was similar in rich countries.
When they transform from poor to middle income to rich countries,
the size of agricultural sector decreases. It is same everywhere.
Only 70 years ago, Agricultural sector comprised about 20% of German
economy, today it is less than 1%. The productivity growth of these
countries can also be attributed to the switch from agricultural to
industrial sector. Roughly saying, about 0.5% people can feed the
whole nation today due to their agricultural productivity supported
by machines and industrialization. So, for development and food
security, it is necessary to be self sustaining. But a good news is
that, Nepal is moving towards the right path. If it continues remain
in this path, someday, it can sustain itself.
6) How to ensure urban sustainability and rural development:
Urban sustainability here means how to create livable cities.
Kathmandu is not a livable city. The air pollution there cause
deaths of thousands of people yearly due to respiratory diseases.
The water system has failed. Most part of the city should buy water
for daily consumption. There is no good sanitation system. Waste
management is another example of failure. Every types of wastes are
lying everywhere giving a safe heaven for diseases to spread. All
these have caused increasing cases of diarrhea, typhoid and other
health problems that then possess burdens on hospitals that were
built when the population of the city was half a million which house
today more than three million. Decentralization would stop this
process from increasing further. Better housing plans, better town
planning, road planning, water and sanitation system, environmental
standards for vehicles, waste management system etc will solve the
problems mentioned above. These are also easy things to do. It does
not require a superior technology. It only require minimal capital,
rules and the power to enforce these rules.
7) How to create an entrepreneurial society: All above mentioned
policies will not sustain in the lack of entrepreneurial society. To
keep life going, entrepreneurship is vital. Humans are actually
entrepreneurial animal by nature because we should survive. Most of
the people living in the whole world do not have their own lands
where they can grow foods for themselves. They have to sell their
skills in order to earn a living. So, after achieving basic
requirement, humans should involve in creation, create something
with value and exchange this value. This will move their life
further. No country in the world has achieved prosperity without
entrepreneurship. This is however, the result of learning, ideas,
information and a good environment. The job the government is to
create an environment and the rest is the task of individual itself.
8) How to eradicate all forms of discrimination: Discrimination
is bad for growth and bad for sustainable peace. Achieving high
standards of living does not necessarily mean that there will be no
discrimination. There is discrimination in rich America, there is
discrimination in Europe and in Japan, Australia, Singapore and
actually everywhere. Women in the western world earn 20% less in
average than men who do the same job. People are still discriminated
in some places due to their beliefs, skin colour, sexual orientation
or something else. Some places have dropped these sorts of
discrimination to minimal level by working on awareness programs,
education etc but the way to that point was everything else than
easy. Nepal is a country of over 100 languages, many castes, many
religion, rich, poor, middle, lower middle, upper middle, people
with different political views, radical, liberal. Nepal is fire.
People are fighting for every little things, from which colour the
flag should be to which street should be named what. Powerful few
can do anything they wish whereas the poor are struggling for basic
rights. There are all forms of discrimination everywhere. Policy
makers have no clue where to start. It is like trying to keep a milk
in a pot with 1000 holes. It is important to solve these issues but
going through the sequence of above policies will make the work done
with few resources. Education is vital here but not enough. The main
thing is that, it should not give rise to violent conflict. Once you
light a fire based on these issues, it will leave a deadly scar that
will remain for a long long time.
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