Pradeep Adhikari (1593249)

MSc Advanced Urbanism

My statement on Agenda 21 Nepal:
Nepal was also one of the 180 nations which, signed its commitment to the principles of
Sustainable development ,1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, and submitted the
documents to the 5th Session of the Commission on Sustainable Development in April
1997, and the whole commitment is documented as "Agenda 21". In the document
from UN Sustainable Development website (UN Department of Economic and Social
Affairs 1997), many information are still unavailable regarding the different sectors of the
sustainable development agenda. However, in 2002, National Planning Commission of
Nepal, together with the Ministry for Population and Environment promulgated an
agenda 'HMG/N's
Sustainable Development Agenda for Nepal (SDAN) as a
reaffirmation of then HMG's pledge to implement Agenda 21, which was reinforced in
World Summit on Sustainable Development 2002 (Nepal 2003). This paper is an
attempt to critically analyze the agenda based on the information taken from these two
sources.
The information regarding the sustainable development of Nepal is described under four
different aspects. One of those, Economy, is to be strengthened by International Cooperation,
Trade,
Financing,
Technology
development,
Industries,
Transportations and Sustainable Tourism (Eco-Tourism) (UN Department of
Economic and Social Affairs 1997; Nepal 2003). But all of those sectors have to follow
the Environmental Impact Assessment with higher priority towards use of renewable
resources and least adversity towards the environment. As it has been already a
member of WTO, Nepal not only can take favor of the global trade but also has to follow
the standards regarding environmental concerns. Because of the lesser investments
requirement and Nepal being gifted with diversified topography, tourism makes high
position in the economy of Nepal. These agenda tells a lot about the topography,
Mountains, Rivers and Lowlands but do not speak about the diversity of cultures that
can be the strongest aspect of tourism industry. For Trade also, Nepal being landlocked
country has to depend upon the Indian ports for global trade. That means Nepalese
trade to the global world is always influenced by the Indian interest into it which the
agendas fail to talk upon. Due to the low financial resource base, Nepal has not been
able to utilize its full potential of hydroelectricity. Until now, only 40% of National
population have been able to consume electricity (Nepal 2003). But Nepal has huge
potentials for hydroelectricity production so that it can change its economy drastically by
exporting the electricity. Indeed it is bordered by a heavily populated energy starved
region to its south (Nepal 2003). The agendas have recognized hydropower as
important trading good, however, fails to talk about how to generate huge investments

to produce hydro electricity . Meanwhile, SDAN stresses about the environmental and
topographical impacts of the hydropower constructions and changing scenario of
climate change and global warming. About the Technology, the agenda 21 believes
Nepal to be able to participate in the exchange and promotion of information network
system. This can be beneficial in term of lesser impact to the environment. But the
agenda does not reveals about the implementation of the strategy. Moreover, as agenda
stresses, biotechnology has bright future in Nepal. As Nepal has 118 types of forest
ecosystems which is inhabited by 9.3% of world's birds species (Nepal 2003), Nepal
can be place of attraction for biotech development.
Another Aspect of Agenda 21 is the Natural Resources Aspects of sustainability of
Nepal. In this aspect, various sectors are mentioned. They are Agriculture,
Atmosphere, Biodiversity, Desertification and Drought, Energy, Forests,
Freshwater, Land management, Mountains, Oceans and Coastal Areas, Toxic
Chemicals and Waste and Hazardous Materials. While Nepal does not have to deal
with Ocean and Coastal areas and even Desertification and Droughts, due to the high
Himalayas and Glacial rivers, it has to suffer the direct impact of climate change and
global warming phenomena. Even the infrastructure development in the hilly regions for
e.g. road construction, hydropower construction have to be assessed in term of its
impact upon the physical environment. For example it may cause landslide, loss of
forests and forest ecosystems. In agriculture sector, the agenda stresses about the
effects of pesticides however, due to the traditional method of farming, due to the lack of
irrigation projects, and even lack of the local governance in Nepal for so many years,
the productivity has fallen drastically down and there is no sign of improvement. The
agenda has not addressed any complementary reforms that are needed to upgrade the
agriculture productivity. Agenda 21 only stresses the need of ecological mapping as the
basis of land use planning and SDAN states about the advantages about the linkages
between crop cultivations, livestock farming and the forest resources which is quite
interesting way of taking agriculture as sustainable practice for poverty alleviation. But
both the agendas do not tell anything about how to draw added investments, how to do
land reforms, and how to sustain the food security to the people in the time of calamities
(for example, draught, landslides, floods, hailstorms, etc). Even in the field of waste
management, agenda 21 has remarkable concerns about waste disposal, recycling and
reuse. SDAN further simplifies the strategy as reduction in waste volume and increase
in reuse and recycle. But the recycling the waste has still been considered informal
economy generated usually carried out by low paid informal labors and the agenda has
failed to figure out the need of the recycling plants as well as the need and sizes of
standard landfills. As a result all the rivers of Kathmandu valley has been under terrible
condition of pollution.

The third Aspect of Agenda 21 is the institutional Aspects of Sustainability of Nepal. In

this Aspect the agenda has explained about Integrated Decision Making, Major
Groups, Science, Information and International Law. Community has been
considered under the central position for all the decisions. Meanwhile in Nepal due to
the lack of local election for last 18 years have limited all the strategies of development
to the local level. At least SDAN as it was drafted in 2002 could have addressed the
situations about the insurgency of the Nation. However lack of elected decision making
body has shaded the agenda and development policies in terms of implementations.
Remarkable aspect of agenda is the integration of women, indigenous group people
and the youths in the policy making and development works. Also as agenda 21
explains, NGOs are important contributor for implementations (UN Department of
Economic and Social Affairs 1997). However, the researches and other developmental
works may not be up to the mark as is expected in the agenda.
The last Aspect of Agenda 21 is the Social Aspect which has various sections under it.
They are Poverty, Demographics, Health, Education and Human Settlement.
Agriculture, Tourism, Developmental works like road, bridges, hydropower, etc are
believed to reduce the poverty below single digit percentage by 2017 (Nepal 2003).
However, still the percentage of population below poverty level is still 25.2% (The World
Bank 2015). Initially in 1997 almost half (49%) of the population where under absolute
poverty (UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs 1997). About the health sector,
Agenda's concern with the nutrition, clean drinking water, public health, strategy of
having sub health post at all the communities so that all the citizens can have accesses
to the health institutions are all remarkable. However lack of health educations and
health professionals, lack of elected governing bodies have been the short sightedness
of the agenda. Similar is the case of education sector, as the nation is lacking to provide
all the schools with enough teaching staffs, books and stationeries, Girls education and
adult educations are improving but obviously not up to the mark the agenda might have
predicted. For human settlement especially in the context of urbanizations, compact
planning with mixed type land use and use of sustainable transportations means
( walking, cycling, public transportations) have been emphasized in SDAN which
complies with the international idea about the sustainable urbanism.

Publication bibliography
Nepal (2003): Sustainable development agenda for Nepal. Kathmandu: His Majesty's
Govt. of Nepal National Planning Commission and Ministry of Population and
Environment.
The World Bank (2015): Data Nepal. World Development Indicator. Available online
at http://data.worldbank.org/country/nepal, updated on 2015, checked on
10/8/2015.

UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (1997): National Information-Nepal.

Sustainable Development. Available online at
http://www.un.org/esa/agenda21/natlinfo/countr/nepal/eco.htm, updated on
4/1/1997, checked on 10/7/2015.