Workshop on PRSP progress report

Date: May 4th, 2005

Venue: Yak & Yeti hotel

List of participants (pdf, 26Kb)

Objective: To present HMGN’s PRSP progress report prepared by the NPC and analysis of poverty trends completed jointly by CBS and the Poverty Assessment team of the World Bank

Details:

The workshop took place on 4^th May at Yak & Yeti hotel with the objective to present HMGN’s PRSP progress report prepared by the NPC and analysis of poverty trends completed jointly by CBS and the Poverty Assessment team of the World Bank. The workshop was attended by over 200 representatives from line ministries, development partners, local research community and local media reporting agencies and WB senior management.

• Dr. Shankar Sharma (NPC Vice Chairman) presented 2nd annual review of PRS implementation results. Highlights of his presentation are as follows: (i) while GDP growth has remained low – characterized by negative growth in tourism, and low growth in manufacturing and services- and capital expenditure is in declining trend, other macro indicators such as inflation and balance of payment numbers are under control, (ii) PRSP/MDG progress is still on track and development activities are being expanded in rural areas including those in conflict-affected areas, (iii) given the situation of the conflict in the country, the implementation modality of service delivery has shifted so that the emphasis is on devolution and community participation, activation of users’ groups and CBOs, increasing the flexibility of resources, use of alternative delivery systems, and providing security shield to large-scale projects, and (iv) Nepal’s development expenditures are heavily dependent on foreign assistance with 88% of capital expenditure being financed from donor’s contribution, hence any decline in foreign assistance would reduce effectiveness of PRSP implementation package and consequently have negative impact on future PRS/MDG performance.
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• Mr. Tunga S Bastola (CBS Director General) briefed the participants regarding 2003-04 Nepal Living Standards Survey describing the objectives and implementation aspects of the survey methodology, and highlighting survey results such as improvements in access to facilities, education and health, agriculture, non-farm enterprises, remittances and subjective adequacy of private consumption and public facilities.
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• Ms. Elena Glinskaya (Senior Economist, World Bank and Poverty Assessment task-leader) presented the analysis of poverty trends in Nepal between 1995-96 and 2003-04 covering areas such methodology of poverty estimates (poverty line and consumption expenditure), poverty trends, profile of the poor, sensitivity analysis and proximate causes of poverty decline. She emphasized five main findings: (i) there had been a substantial decline in poverty, as seen from decrease of head count rate from 42 to 31 percent between 1995-96 and 2003-04, (ii) urban areas made a faster progress in terms of poverty reduction and per capita consumption growth relative to rural areas, (iii) some geographic regions (Rural Eastern Hills) and population groups (agricultural wage earners, large households, illiterate and landless) are lagging behind, (iv) these results are robust and consistent with other measures of welfare, and (v) proximate drivers of poverty decline include surge in remittances; increase in agricultural wages, non-agricultural wages and incomes; increased urbanization; and decline in dependency ratio.