Urge to prioritise poverty, inclusive growth

Poverty and inclusive growth should be given high priority, according to a high level government official.
"Poverty and inclusive growth policies should be accorded highest priority and considered as top national agenda," said chief secretary Madhav Ghimire at the concluding ceremony of high level joint learning event on Pro Poor Growth, organised jointly by National Planning Commission, Ministry of Local Development, German Development Cooperation (GIZ) and Poverty Alleviation Fund here on Friday.
He also stressed the need of capacitating communities and local bodies to increase their access to the services of governmental and non-governmental sectors and to manage the development initiatives at the local level.
On the occasion, secretary of National Planning Commission Yub Raj Bhusal highlighted the need of targeted and fast-track programmes to have quick results to decrease gaps between the rich and the poor.
"Investment on human capital and broad-based economic sector pave ways for creating jobs and establish linkages among different sectoral approaches," he added.
"Pro poor policies should be implementable and its impacts need to be visible at the local levels," suggested secretary of Ministry of Local Development Sushil Ghimire.
Similarly, Dr Horst Matthaeus from GIZ said that a political economic analysis is not systematically used in formulating public policies. He also suggested the tool specifically be used in pro poor growth policies in Nepal.
Executive Director of the Fund Raj Babu Shrestha, on the occasion, said that outcomes of the joint learning event would be circulated and shared with top policy makers to promote dialogue and integrated to the national level policy-making.
The learning event was delivered and designed by the UK based Overseas Development Institute in association with another UK based consulting company ITAD Ltd.
The three-day event that had a high level representatives from the government, development partners, academia and civil society, and community members concluded today with five key recommendations.
The meeting hoped that such analysis would serve with a number of recommendations for the government to conduct policy audit and analysis of drivers for pro poor growth.
The high level joint learning event also recommended the government to conduct policy audit and analysis of drivers for pro poor growth, include more rigorous political economy analysis of programs and projects, emphasis on deteriorating urban poverty and comprehensive sector analysis vis-à-vis pro-poor growth.
While there was appreciation of increasing voice of rural poor in planning, the participants encouraged government to make similar efforts to engage the urban poor.

The five-point recommendations
* Conduct a policy audit of the extent to which current policies favor the poor.
* Analyse drivers of pro-poor growth in Nepal.
* Develop agriculture, but support the rural poor to take up non-farm jobs, including through migration to urban areas.
* Hold public hearings in the regions on proposed policies before promulgation.
* Development partners should help develop capacity of government and non-state actors to plan, implement and monitor pro-poor growth.