Forgot your password?
USAID’s Contribution To Development In Nepal
BY KTM Metro Reporter in Kathmandu
March 3, 2010: In February 2010, a series of articles written by FrontLines Editorial Director Ben Barber posted on the website www: usiad.gov tell the stories of development activities undertaken by the assistance of USAID in Nepal as follow.
The United States has been involved in the development of Nepal since 1951 a decade before the creation of USAID, and has provided Nepal with more than $1 billion in foreign assistance for education, farming, infrastructure, health, and government. USAID’s budget in Nepal has continued to be between $35 million and $45 million per year for the last few years.
USAID has strongly supported the peace process that has ended the decade-long fighting in 2006 and has made possible to hold elections for a Constituent Assembly that has ousted the 240-year-old monarchy in 2008.
USAID has funded Nepal peace projects since 2003, has been supporting informal, political talks between the three main political parties: the Maoists, the Nepali Congress, and the Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist and Leninist Party.
Chief Secretary to the Nepali Government Madhav Ghimire has said that the U.S. asistance has proved critical in ending the conflict and moving toward reconciliation between the victims and combatants. Mr. Ghimire said, “USAID and the U.S. government helped us create an environment conducive to resolve armed conflict in the country.”
Mr. Ghimire has said that USAID has funded meetings between the Maoists, other political parties, the Nepal Government, and two facilitators to help the different sides work together to resolve conflicts; the USAID team is currently helping Nepal create a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to promote reconciliation between the civilians that have suffered or have lost loved ones during the conflict and the combatants on both sides; USAID is also helping the Ministry of Peace and Reconstruction in strengthening local peace committees to move the peace process out of the center into local levels.
In the 1950s U.S. assisted Nepal in eliminating malaria from much of the country, in founding the College of Education, training the first public health nurses, and creating the first telephone exchange. In the 1960s, USAID backed Nepal to administration reforms, set up 104 health units, add a surgery wing to Bir Hospital, boost air traffic from 25,000 to 210,000 flights per year, and open an industrial park.
In the 1970s, USAID helped Nepal to double primary school enrollment, build the Western Hills road to link the Terai to the hills, triple the number of people getting health services, introduce family planning, and boost use of fertilizer by 18 percent.
In the 1980s, USAID helped Nepal to promote the private sector and NGOs, increase the female literacy to 18 percent, to make some food-short areas the surplus producers, and to increase the real income by an average of 62 percent.
In the 1990s after the reintroduction of the parliamentary democracy, USAID helped Nepal in improving government services, privatize some state-run businesses, get women to run for local and national offices, deliver Vitamin A to nearly 80 percent of districts, and handed over 123,000 hectares of forests to community forest user groups.
