Need Assessment for Nepal 2010

Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) 'Need Assessment for Nepal 2010' released 24th August 2011 revealed that the country suffers from a resource gap to the tune of Rs 451.43 billion (a 32.34 per cent) over the last 5 years of the MDGs period. This further slims the country´s chances of achieving the goals by 2015. However, it points out that during 2011 and 2015, a total of Rs 1,395.8 billion is required to achieve targets.

In the context of shifting global priorities towards fighting global recession and climate change implications, it is difficult to manage.

Nepal is on track to achieve goals like universal primary education, rise in household income, improvement in child health and maternal health.

Targets that Nepal is likely to miss, according to the report of National Planning Commission (NPC) and UNDP, include the ones like halving the population below minimum level of dietary energy consumption, proportion of underweight children (aged between 6-59 months) and proportion of stunted children (aged 6-69 months).

Nepal also faces difficulty in achieving targeted survival rate to Grade 5 in primary education, literacy rate for 15-24 years old, proportion of births attended by skilled attendants, universal access to reproductive health, and proportion of population using an improved sanitation facility.

If Nepal is to achieve the targets, it must reduce proportion of population below minimum level of dietary energy consumption to 21 percent by 2015 whereas such proportion stood at 25.4 percent in 2010.

Likewise, the report notes the proportion of underweight children in 2010 stood at 36.4 percent against the target of 29 percent, proportion of stunted children is 46.8 percent against the target of 30 percent, survival rate to Grade 5 in primary education is 77.9 percent against cent percent target and literacy rate for 15-24 years old is 86.5 percent against the target of cent percent.