Nepal's poverty reduction hinges on remittances: UN expert

By A Staff Reporter
Kathmandu, Dec. 10: Nepal has succeeded in reducing multidimensional poverty by 12.7 per cent between 2014 and 2019, and its Human Development Index has improved, as have indicators related to health and education, the UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, Olivier De Schutter, said on Thursday after conducting an 11-day official mission to the country.
“But significant gaps remain,” the UN expert added.

Stating that Nepal has one of the most progressive constitutions in the world, he said that many of its promises are still to be fulfilled.
“Women are still lagging on a number of indicators. Though banned, caste-based and ethnicity-based discrimination remain a reality in social life. Land issues remain unresolved, despite the efforts to accelerate the rehabilitation of former bonded labourers and to ensure landless Dalit benefit from land redistribution.”

Poverty reduction owes more to remittances than to proactive government anti-poverty policies, De Schutter said. "A quarter of the decline in poverty can be attributed to outmigration only, with estimates showing that, without remittances, poverty would have increased in Nepal,” he said.
Remittances in Nepal were 10 times larger than foreign aid and 2.5 larger than total exports only in 2017.

While public works programmes such as the Prime Minister’s Employment Programme have considerable potential, in practice the programme has yet to deliver on its promise of providing 100 days of work per person per year, he said.
“In the country, 80 per cent of workers are informal, which exposes them to higher rates of abuse, largely because the government lacks the ability to enforce minimum wage legislation in the informal sector,” he added.

“Graduation from LDC status is a major milestone for Nepal,” said De Schutter. “Poverty reduction must be at the heart of the country’s transition strategy to ensure that no groups are left behind.”
The UN expert met with communities who suffer from intersecting forms of deprivation. Most were landless daily wage labourers working in agricultural or informal jobs and struggling to send their children to school. Many were from historically disadvantaged and discriminated groups including Dalit, Madhesi, and indigenous people, as well as women,
“During my mission, I met with countless families whose children, especially girls, engaged in agricultural or domestic work,” De Schutter said. “Wealth inequality is a major factor: Over 20 per cent of children in poverty work, compared to only five percent of children from rich families."

“The government must take child poverty seriously and take the necessary steps to end child marriage and labour and improve quality of and access to education,” he added.
During his mission, the Special Rapporteur visited Bagmati, Karnali, Lumbini provinces, as well as Province 2 and met with government officials and UN staffers.