Nepal among top movers in UN report

Nepal is featured in the 'Top 10 Movers' -- a category of those countires among the 135 that improved most in Human Development Index (HDI)-- terms over the past 40 years.
The Human Development Report 2010 'The Real Wealth of Nations: Pathways to Human Development' that was launched worldwide today by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has mentioned China, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Laos, Tunisia, South Korea, Algeria and Morocco as other 'Top Movers'.
Tracing the 40-year trends analysis, the report reveals that poor nations -- including Nepal -- are making 'faster development gains'. Nepal is also ranked third in the non-Income HDI category.
"Although achievements of Nepal has made on the HDI is remarkable, Nepal still needs to do a lot more on the issues indicated by the report to make faster development gains," said Anne-Isabelle Degryse- Blateau, UNDP Country Director in Nepal.
The 20th anniversary edition of the report also documents wide inequalities within and among countries, deep disparities between women and men on a wide range of development indicators, and the prevalence of extreme multidimensional poverty in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.
"Most developoing nations made dramatic yet often underestimated progress in health, education and basic living standards in recent decades, with many of the poorest countries posting the greatest gains," said the Report.
"Long-term progress in health, and education could not be determined by income only thus the report has introduced new indices for gender, poverty and inequality," according to the report.
Political instability and a decade-long civil war have also left more than a third of Nepal's 12.6 million children living below the poverty line and half of Nepali children under five years old suffer from stunted growth as a result of a chronic lack of food, according to the report. "Children from marginalised groups and poor families are under-nourished, and disparities between rich and poor have widened."
"National and international community should be serious in addressing the issues indicated by the report," said Dr Jagadish Chandra Pokhrel, vice-chairman of the National Planning Commission (NPC) on the occasion.
The youngest republic in the world, Nepal is one of the poorest countries due to rising unemployment. Development was severely hit by the 10-year Maoists' armed conflict and the current political impasse.