Thematic Paper presented at Union Network International (UNI) Asia Pacific Regional Conference held at Kathmandu on December 15-16, 2007

POVERTY REDUCTION, DEVELOPMENT AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

Concepts and Nepali Context

Keshav Prasad Bhattarai1 Poverty menaces and Deprivation   More than 200 years ago noted English man of letters Samuel Johnson (1709-84) said that 'poverty is a great enemy to human happiness, it certainly destroys liberty and it makes some virtues impracticable and others extremely difficult ’. Yes' poverty was there in past and it is among us at present. The genesis of poverty and sense of ownership over natural resources are coterminous. Obviously poverty is a human creation with most inhuman and ugly effect. Generally speaking, inability to afford an adequate standard of consumption is poverty, but noted Economist Amartya Sen  analyses poverty in terms of both income and capability deprivation. According to Sen rise in income may not necessarily generate capability, similarly income can not be converted into capability but capability itself has  profound income generating impact .Therefore agreeing with Sen , by poverty we also mean state of living under severe level of deprivation regarding 'fundamental freedom of actions and choice' (1).   Poverty therefore is a capability deprivation with relations to the absence of ownership and entitlements regarding productive skills and abilities, inheritance and transfer entitlements. Such absence comprises entitlement to trade something that some body owns, own something produced by his or her ability and resource management skills. (2). An Iranian politician turned academician Majid Rahnema defined poverty in simple term as a situation lacking 'deficiencies or deprivation of material, non material and existential kind.(3) In 1987, Father Wresinski, defining poverty, suggested that social vulnerability is the absence of one or more assured capacities which permit individuals and their families to carry out their basic responsibilities and enjoy their fundamental rights. The insecurity which results from such a condition leads frequently to extreme poverty and tends to prolong itself over time, becoming persistent and gravely compromising the ability to recover the exercise of these rights and responsibilities within the foreseeable future.. (4) Going to wider repercussions of poverty, he stresses, 'behind any poor community is another which is poorer. Behind poverty stricken street is another even worse and behind a poor family we can almost always find another poorer’ (5) Therefore we can understand that poverty and deprivation is a situation when someone is denied minimum requirements for survival, wellbeing, status and freedom, creating more and more poverty and deprivation.                          Thus we can comprehend poverty as inability to meet one’s basic needs or non availability of minimum necessities as required by economic, cultural and biological survival. It is lack of power and self confidence to change one’s life and inability to command love and respect from others.  Also it is a situation when any individuals quite unable to carry his /her responsibility towards family and society.

2. Nepali Context and efforts on Poverty ReductionFailures in building peoples’ assets and addressing their concerns have forced us to live in a horrible state of poverty, as if we are a state without a state. This is ultimately responsible for our present situation -most vulnerable to all kind of socio -political and economic catastrophes.

.After Maoist were brought into the peace process it was supposed that economic activity will be accelerated and Nepal will see greater achievements in creating new jobs for millions of youths in rural and urban areas and alleviate poverty to large extent. This was to give new economic power to people and the Constituent Assembly election will institutionalize both the peace process and socio-economic development.

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But this could not happen. Industrial and trade centers around the country could not gain desired trust and supports from the partners themselves. Neither the state could show its presence by maintaining law and order situation even in major urban areas. Because of this, both national and foreign investments got their ways of safe way out. As a result of flow of capital as well migration of educated and skilled man power to other countries, Nepal's effort to reduce poverty and create prosperity is receiving hard hit. Economic growth is again being stagnated and limited job markets have been squeezed more and more.

This indubitably has killed the inspirations and aspirations of our population specially the youth who in turn are fleeing the country in thousands a day and leaving Nepal a country without young and energetic population. As a result, we are left with more and more dependency upon remittance rather than increasing in-country incomesAccording to UNDP since the 1970s there has been a steady decline in poverty in Nepal and large improvements in the levels of human development. The proportion of Nepalis living in poverty dropped from 42% in 1995/96 to 31% in 2003/04. In spite of these gains, poverty alleviation remains the priority concern of Nepal's government as over eight million of its citizens still live in poverty and the gap between the better-off and the poorest sections of society is widening. (6)

The Tenth Plan (2003-2007) has set poverty reduction as its overarching goal. It has made a new departure and formulated more participatory approach, policies and strategies on a prioritized basis. In order to achieve the goal of poverty reduction, the Tenth Plan has laid out four pillars: 1. Higher sustainable and wider economic growth2. Social sector and rural infrastructure development3. Targeted programs4. Good governance (7)

In recent years, there has been an unfavorable environment for overcoming the longstanding structural barriers to pro-poor economic growth. The continued conflict even after peace process had a large negative impact on the economy. This has made it difficult for the government to implement its policies, and drew attention and resources away from development towards security. The introductions of progressive reforms and of decentralized local governance have been seriously hindered by the absence of popularly elected bodies at all levels (8)

In assisting the Government of Nepal to realize its overall poverty reduction strategy, UN and donor agencies has embarked on several projects including achieving the MDGs in Nepal, Programme Support Initiative of Human Development and Enhancing Nepal's Trade Related Capacity to get a better understanding of the prevailing socio-economic situation and to provide significant upstream policy advice to the government. Both have made significant contributions to the PRSP and the 10th Plan. (9)

The new trade and human development initiatives will begin to make an impact. The Enhancing Nepal's Trade Related Capacity (ENTRC) project will explore Nepal's trade potential in promising new areas, help develop and market commodities where Nepal has a competitive advantage expand the government's engagement with the private sector to develop the country's trade potential, and build institutional capacities to plan for trade development. (10)

Similarly The World Bank (WB) Asian Development Bank, European Community and other donor countries has heavily supported Nepal to improve access to basic health, primary education, and agriculture development, expand rural roads, improve livelihoods and empower the rural poor. The support programme intends to help Nepal implement its development programmes and back the seven-party coalition in its efforts to bring about sustainable peace and development. Recently to address Nepal’s foremost development challenges - inequality and social exclusion and to demonstrate the WB’s commitment to ensure social and economic inclusion of the poor, marginalized and less developed regions, the World Bank has sanctioned its biggest ever support package to Nepal with $253 million in grants aimed to improve schools, roads, water provision, and income-generating activities. These projects are hoped to help the country step up the delivery of basic services, Poverty Alleviation Fund Project II (PAF II) activities and, a community-driven development programme covering all 75 districts and be accessible to some one million rural households. (11)

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3.Vicious Cycle of Poverty Poverty has become the scourge of human society for centuries. It has assaulted human dignity in a most cruel way and with severest form of exclusion resulting war, conflicts, social tension and violence. The severities of its sufferings have climbed up with each of our technological advancement. Also the globalized nature of modern economics has brought wider possibilities of prosperity with equal effect to globalized nature of human avarice. The alarming thing about poverty is that- both the cause and effect of poverty is deprivation and destitution translated to hunger, malnutrition, home less-ness and ill health. Therefore poverty is a multi-faceted human predicament covering the whole range of inequality, oppression and domination relative to the prevailing character of socio- political and economic regimes. It is a source of cultural degrades and patterns of all kind of conflict situations. The irony of poverty is that when people in power feel socially, politically or economically unsecured, more oppression, exploitation and corruption takes place; breeding more poverty and victimizing more to poor. So poverty brings sense of insecurity to the people who rule and people who are being ruled. Thus it creates a vicious cycle of poverty with wider repercussions. This way, poverty hits hard to the state as a whole, narrowing people’s ability to enlarge or protect their interests and stakes both in individual or social terms. In this way poverty has become sum total impact of socio- political, economic, religious and cultural settings of our society.

4. Causes of poverty    According to World Bank study, poverty is caused by lack of income to meet basic requirements of people, a sense of voiceless-ness and powerless-ness in the institutions of state and society and vulnerability to adverse shocks and effects with inabilities to cope with them; causes poverty. Building people’s assets is the only answer to poverty and these assets includes human, natural, physical, financial and social. There fore, poverty is the result of economic, political and social processes that interact with each other and frequently reinforce each other in ways that exacerbate the deprivation in which poor people live.(12) In almost all situations, evidently, poverty is caused by defective state policies, programs and practices incorporated by inefficient social structures and community cultures. They are continuously re-enforced by low graded socio-political leadership plus faulty personal and social practices. Poverty is not only the lack of income and ability but also the lack of supporting structures, cultures and practices to help people break the poverty cycle. Thus low income to meet basic requirements, low level of health and nutrition, sense of voiceless ness, powerlessness and vulnerabilities to adversities and in abilities to cope with them cause poverty. In short prevailing social injustices making people suffer worst at the hands of vulnerabilities to adversities is the main reason of poverty.

5. Ending Poverty/ Building Peoples' capitalEnding poverty means building / developing six kind of major capital .The lack of these causes extreme poverty- Human Capital: health, nutrition and skills needed for each person to be economically productive.Business capital: the machinery, facilities motorized transport used in agriculture industry and services. Infra structure: - roads, power, water and sanitation, airports and seaports and telecommunication systems that are critical inputs into business productivity. Natural Capital: - arable land, healthy soils, bio - diversity and well functioning eco- systems that provide the environmental services needed by human society. Public institutional capital: The commercial law, judicial system, government services and policing that underpin the peaceful and prosperous division of labor Knowledge capital: the scientific and technological know how that raises productivity in business output and the promotion of physical and natural capital. (13)

The Word Bank, which has created a huge mass of knowledge on poverty reduction and has implemented effective support programs and strategies in fighting poverty around the globe, has made some recommendations and action programs that can be useful for all. They are given as follows: Recommended areas of Actions for poverty reduction -

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1. Promoting opportunities for poor by building up their assets,2. Facilitating empowerment by making state institutions accountable and responsive to poor people, strengthening their participation at all level of decisions and removing their barriers,3. Enhancing security- reducing their vulnerability from economic, social to natural,Recommended Actions for poverty reduction -1. Promoting global financial stability and opening rich country's markets for poor, 2. Bridging the knowledge / digital divide between the rich and poor, 3. Providing financial and non-financial resources for international public good, 4. Increasing aid and debt relief to help countries take actions to end poverty within a comprehensive frame work with lead role ensuring that the external resources are used effectively,5. Giving voice to poor people and countries in global forums and build their networks. (14)

6. Meaning, Definition, and nature of development: Development is a strong word, with power 'to charm, to please, to fascinate, to set dreaming, but also to abuse, to turn away from the truth and to deceive people (15). According to the report of the South Commission prepared under the chair of former Tanzanian President Julius Nyerere 'development is a process, which enables human beings to realize their potential, build self-confidence, and lead lives of dignity and fulfillment. It is a process, which frees people from the fear of want and exploitation. It is a moment away from political, economic, or social oppression. Through development, political independence acquires its true significance. And it is a process of growth and a movement essentially springing from within the society that is developing.' (16) Development in another term is a multidimensional process that normally connotes change from a less to a more desirable state. (17) It is very difficult to define development but is very easy to understand it. It is relative to time place and situation. So more than defining development, we can characterize development as -

An expansion of productive capacity of nation as well as people by using modern knowledge and technology,

The fulfillment of necessary conditions for the realization of human potentials, The quality of life reflected in absence of poverty, illiteracy communicable diseases,

inequality, mass unemployment, and human deprivation, Is a reflection of higher level of national independence, self-determination, and self-reliance

in decisions applicable within its borders, Is sustainable in nature with strong legal or social aspect of environmental protection for

the larger interest of future generation, A system of ensuring political pluralism, democratically elected, accountable, transparent,

and effective government, A state where every individual can exercise his / her freedom , human rights and can have

them protected by strong state or social instruments. Is a participatory process of decision making with bottom up exercise in which the mass of

ordinary people understand, initiate, or control the process, (18) Is a process of change that starts with people and the organization and discipline of their

service patterns and practices rather than goods.(19) In short, developments are accepting change and bring change in right size and direction for improving lives of all people.

7.Poverty and development  It is easy to learn that when basic needs of people are met, development is accelerated. Similarly, non -development results into deprivation practices creating poverty, violence, exploitation, repression. Therefore poverty and deprivation is based upon socio-economic, political and legal structure and culture with negative practices. Development in short is social transformation with human face. It is transformation of human environment to satisfy basic needs of the people and from there to realize maximum individual and social potential.

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So when we say development it is absence of poverty,  human sufferings,  illiteracy,  un-freedom, domination, exploitation, and violation of human rights or in short it is absence of human adversaries or absence of neglected survival of man. This means development is a complete journey; journey with all necessities and accessories and a destination of complete living; complete in the sense that when we make journey to development it is made in perfect match not overburdened with one thing and empty handed with another thing . Therefore, development is understood in its approach and effect It it’s a process of rational action on the part of individual, social, national or global to satisfy basic human  needs. It is not a single entity but a set of separate entities with common contribution to maximize human happiness. Thus by development we mean both production and distribution. The development approach cannot be satisfied with raise in income but in quality of income raise and quality of consumption and distribution.

8. Development and Culture Modification or transformation of culture with change in attitudes and belief system of people is the basis of development. Development of a nation requires also the preservation and development of culture. Culture is the essence of nationality. It also nurtures the sense of identity of people.Development of a nation and community also depends upon the working culture, partnership culture, and community living and leadership culture and above all the attitudes, beliefs and traditions shaped by their culture give essence for development in a particular society.

 9. Development by participation and Empowerment It has proved that the efforts made in all these years are no more than a failure when compared with other countries. The main reason of this failure is our faulted developmental approach; the approach of state imposition but not participatory. Participation is most effective development strategy. It is a strategy of organizing   people’s inspiration to achieve their aspiration. It is an encouragement of people to build their involvement in programs targeted to support their stakes. When participation is worked out, people’s needs and supports are assessed, they are encouraged to raise their say in decisions and tackled in democratic order.

Participation does not only bear political linkages it is opted because participation enhances investments and better policy initiatives to raise funds, develop own resources and mobilize them for better results. We also import participation for building institutions to consolidate social capital and accelerate change. Participation also gives legitimacy for development institutions and ensures their accountability. It is so, because Participation in decisions empowers the stakeholders, ensures their inclusion through the help they needed. It promotes state efficiency to proceed with re-organization of political and legal infrastructures and disciplines for meaningful developmental culture of nation and society.

Moreover, participation at best is empowerment of people and enlargement of better opportunities for them. Empowerment through participation also ensures freedom and justice resulting into institutions of broad social inclusion. This gives protections against vulnerabilities arising from all sorts of socio economic and environmental hazards.  Similarly participation broadens opportunities for people and encourages limited personal and social entrepreneurship to join the larger forces of market with boundless possibilities. Therefore it is basically the participation that capitalizes peoples’ potential, enhances their confidence to make collaboration of their primitive infrastructures with national and global infrastructures of larger stream, 

10.Democracy and Development Nepal is looking for a new identity for its people- a country with stable peace, effective democracy, prosperous economy and modern society. Democracy, at best is the antidote of poverty, violence, and injustices. Only democracy is symbolism of citizens' supremacy and their values. It represents a state system, which is an end in itself. Similarly to that effect, it is a means as well, because it supports people to promote and protect their core human values of freedom justice and dignity of life.

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An effective and successful democracy however, requires a level of development and income for all the people in a country and democracy itself is indispensable for such development. This mainly is lacking in our case and for this reason Nepal’s present situation has not been able to inspire, convince and make everyone assertive for the future of their nation as well as their own.A nation can not always betray people's aspirations for justice, peace, democracy and development for all the people at all places and at all times. The peace process after decades-long conflict and violence with intolerable pains and sufferings of peoples has yet to build space for public trust and confidence. Therefore, we as citizens need most to enter into an unlimited territory of democracy, peace, humanity and development and thereof raze the territory of pains, sufferings and severe deprivations. Because it is that the sense of pride developed in citizen is the most important asset and power of the nation for its development and prosperity. No nation can advance, or prosper until we create environment for everyone to stand high with a sense of pride and honor, cheer up on success stories and achievements that has been created with their efforts and valor, but for this a true democratic order is a precondition.

11. Some tips for Making Development people centered In many instances we feel and see that our developmental policies and programs are not giving results or they have not reached their targets. This we say failure development. To make development succeed is to make it people centered and here are some tips for this:1.  Build peoples' assets and investing those assets and make effective use of those assets for enhancing opportunities for them 2. Develop basic infrastructures to help people, Promote and protest quality of such infrastructures, defining these    infrastructures to support poor people, raise investment in pro-poor  sector and inequality sector 3. Empower poor people through: Enhancing their capacity in influencing decisions, ensuring their  participation in decisions and   decision making process, 4. Educate and  train them, removing their disadvantages and barriers, building institutional accountability to them 5. Help people protect, promote, reform and improve their culture.6. Make poor people raise their voice in:  

creating responsible government with accountability to them, rule of law,       remodeling political, legal and social structures,

7.Organize public forums to   facilitate social dialogue; action forums    raise poor people’s voice and ensure their interests

12. Sustainable Development Schumacher says 'development does not start with goods; it starts with people with their education, organization and disciplines….Every country no matter how devastated, which had a high level of education, organization and discipline, produced an economic miracle. (20)  When development acquires human face it goes sustainable.Sustainable development is a comprehensive process involving economic as well as social political and environmental development (21)

Sustainable development is development by the people, of the people and for the people. Development accountable to the future generation - making wisest use of available human and physical resources is sustainable development. Development should be a tool for improving the lives of all people- economic growth, clean environment personal freedom, social and political peace.According to United Nations World Commission on Environment and Development (1987) "Development is sustainable if it meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (22)

Similarly, development if, successfully balances the interest of different groups of people within the same generation and among generations, and does so simultaneously in three major interrelated areas - economic, social and environmental becomes sustainable. So, sustainable development is about equity defined as equality of opportunities for the well being as well as about comprehensiveness of objectives. (23) Also it is about long term conditions for humanity's

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multidimensional well being putting human beings at the centre of concern with entitlement to a healthy and productive life in harmony with nature through sustainable partnership.Our new life style and maximum use of fossil energy has been a major cause of climate change and global warming. This has been responsible for drying up of water sources and melting down of arctic zones and Himalayas. It will create disaster in many geographically fragile parts of the world including Nepal and South Asia. The environmental pressure upon their livelihood and developmental efforts will shrink their opportunities most critically. It will create more conflict and violence among themselves and obviously, global peace and development will have to face bigger challenges, but with very limited options.

13. Nepal's Efforts on Sustainable DevelopmentNo doubt Nepal as one of the poorest country in the world and a country -devastated by continued violence and serious abuse of human rights, has to compromise with so many characters of a modern state. However, it has achieved some of the illustrious example of conservation practices both at national and community level. The national reserves from the highest in the world to dense rain forest at Terai under the protection of National Army have protected the exemplary biodiversity of Nepal and its ecology. Similarly many hill communities have quite successfully restored degraded and once nude forest areas and have developed regulatory frame work for harvesting forest products. Community based activities have been expanded from forest conservation to water, livestock development and resource management. (24)

Community and lease hold forestry program in an integrated manner is under implementation to help maintain social empowerment, gender equality, social justice, equity and good governance. To increase broad base of economic growth policy through community forestry program with focus of increasing involvement of backward classes of women and dalit by maintaining social empowerment, gender equality, social justice and good governance have been devised. (25) The involvement of women, backward and dalit community has given them a new sense of honor and ownership which ultimately has created inspiring success stories of forest conservation. Thus the policy and program of ensuring active participation of local stakeholders in managing local forests areas has maintained eco-balance, conserved biodiversity, protected endangered medicinal herbs, water land and its inhabitants. (26)

The success in community protected and developed forest program in Nepal has been a standard development practices for ensuring greater beneficiary participation and maintaining transparency and accountability in development activities. (27) The Government of Nepal has a clear policy of reducing poverty through expansion of economic opportunities and employment generation based on efficient use of available resources. According to Dr. Baskota again the national strategies in this regard include a broad based process of economic growth, expansion of social services, infrastructure development, empowerment and good governance with special focus on sustainable management of natural resources and conservation of biodiversity. As a part of national effort to support sustainable rural development and protect environment maximum use of renewal energy and reducing dependency on traditional energy and providing access of fair and reliable energy: increasing employment and productivity through rural energy development, and improving life style of rural people and building connections between rural energy development program and socio-economic activities at the local level, Rural Energy Policy has been approved by the government. (28)

14. Role of Trade Unions in Sustaining Development and Fighting Poverty Ending poverty and sustaining development is a common agenda of all workers. Until there is poverty and ill practices of development, workers right and dignities cannot be ensured. Similarly they must be accountable for these as it serves the very purpose of their collective goal. Trade Unions for this can conduct intensive workers education and training programs so that they can carry on these efficiently and effectively. An intensive worker education programme also ensures the development of leadership qualities and ensures effective representations for workers. It also fosters a sense of awareness, regarding the extent to which economic, social and environmental factors impact on industrial relations. It means then, that all available resources should be channeled into:

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1. Developing strategies, to increase worker awareness on poverty alleviation and sustainable development

2. Incorporation of poverty and development agenda in workers' education and develop strategies to provide adequate education and training in skills and techniques for trade unionists in alleviating poverty and protecting environment.

3. Equipping the membership for the management of change4. Share success and failures stories at regional and global level with its relevance and

adaptability to national situation.5. Mobilize trade unions to increase productivity in both trade in goods and trade in service and

create more jobs.6. Make strong union movements in favor of friendly market conditions in regional and global

economy for its national products. 7. Organize social dialogue and build strong advocacy, lobbying and campaigning for poverty

reduction and sustainable development.

15.Conclusion We can not remain weak and poor for long. People can not always support and put their trust upon the state system not able to address their aspiration. Similarly, the weak and troubled states have been continuously been posing threats to international order because they are the source of conflict and grave abuser of human rights resultantly breading terrorism and extended violence - reaching into the developed states. (29)

If we minutely analyze the situation of Nepal for a few years we have ample examples of such development. Therefore reducing poverty and sustaining development is building strong institutions for promoting democracy and development. This means promote governance, improve democratic legitimacy and strengthen self sustaining institutions. (30) Besides poverty is also created and maintained by law, whether by means of statuary enactment, bureaucratic action /inaction or judicial interpretation, so poverty reduction has strong legal aspects too. (31)

Peoples and nations are poor not because they lack natural resources or basic physical infrastructures, they are poor because they lack human capital and they will go on further marginalization if they lack political will and determination in addressing the real problems of people. Not nations it is people who compete in modern economy and peoples preparation to compete for their share is through a better process of creation and application of knowledge. For decades we as nation, have not been able in leading and representing peoples, strength, enthusiasm, enterprise, courage and honor but their weakness, prejudices, selfishness and corrupt practices. This, we think, has limited our collective strength and ability to earn a life of dignity to us. Promotion of human dignity by means of freedom, peace, democracy and respect to nature and right to development has become the ultimate aim of each and every human being and their organizations. Only this can give Nepal a new status.But we cannot have it by chance or default but by design and competent and committed leadership at different sections of society.Rural employment guarantee scheme and similar others including basic education and health may be a best solution to address the problem of growing number of unemployed youth, urban violence, political extremism and caste, ethnic and communal tensions are likely to continue to grow .

 -----------------------------------------------------    References (1). Quoted in World Development Report 200/2001, World Bank, p.1.(2) Amartya Sen, Development as Freedom, Oxford, 1999, p-87-110.  (3) Majid Rahnema in Wolfgang Sachs edited, The Development Dictionary, Orient Longman,    1997,p.213 (4)Willem Van Genugten and Camilo Perez- Bustillo edited The Poverty of Rights, Zed Books,2001, p. 59.  (5) (ibid.60)   (6) .www.undp.org - Nepal File

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(7) Economic Survey Fiscal Year 2006-2007, p.72 see Appendix 1 for detailed description of Nepal's Poverty situation, Efforts on Poverty Reduction and its Challenges.(8). www.undp.org – Nepal File(9) ibid(10) ibid(11)The Himalayan Times, December 8, 2007(12) WDR, 2000/2001, World Bank  13. Jeffery D. Saches, The End of Poverty, Penguin Books, 2005, Page 244-45. 14. James D .Wolfensohn - Voice for the World's Poor, the Word Bank, 2005, page 241 -42(15) Gilbert Rist, the History of Development: From Western Origins to Global Faith, Zed Books, 2002, p.1(16)The Challenge to the South: The Report of the South Commission O U P, 1990, p.10 (quoted in Gilbert Rist … p. 9)(17)Iain Mclean (edited) The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Politics OUP, 1996 p. 137.(18) Adapted from ibid p. 137-138 (19) E.F. Schumacher: Small is Beautiful: a Study of Economics as if people mattered, Vintage 1993, p. 138(20) E.F. Schumacher, Small is Beautiful, Vintage, 1993, p. 138-139,  (21)Tatyana Subbotina, Beyond Economic Growth ,World Bank 2004, P.1 (22) Quoted in Subbotina, P. 9.(23) ibid P. 9-10.(24)Dr. Mahesh Baskota in Dr. Bishnu B. Bhandari and Prof. Osamu Abe compiled Education for Sustainable Development in Nepal, IGES-Japan and SchEMS-Nepal, 2003, p 185.(25) GoN, Economic Survey Fiscal Year 2006-2007, p.116-117.(26) Economic Survey ibid, 117(27) Dr. Baskota ibid(28) GoN, Economic Survey Fiscal Year 2006-2007, P.115-116.(29) Francis Fukuyama, State Building: Governance and World Order in the Twenty First Century, Profile Books, 2004, P. 162 (30) Fukuyama, ibid, 133 (31) Lucy Williams,AsbjØrn KjØnstad & Peter Robson (edited) Law and Poverty: The Legal System and Poverty Reduction, Zed Books,2003,P,7.

The author is former President of Nepal’s Teachers’ Association, Teachers’ Union of Nepal and former General Secretary of SAARC Teachers’ Federation

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