South Asia News
Nepal one of top ten fastest developing nations, says UN
Nov 4, 2010, 15:25 GMT
Kathmandu - Nepal is one of the ten nations making the swiftest development gains, according to the United Nation's Human Development Index report released in Kathmandu, Thursday.
The report names Nepal as the third after China and Oman, among a list of ten nations making fastest development gains in terms of the Human Development Index in last four decades.
'Nepal's impressive progress in health and education can be traced to major public policy efforts,' the report said.
Free primary education for all children was legislated in 1971 and extended to secondary education in 2007.
'The gap between Nepal's life expectancy and the world average has narrowed by 87 percent over the past 40 years,' the report concluded.
However, the report says the economic development has been poor. Nepal continues to be among the poorest nations, with a yawning gap in the education sector between villages and the cities.
The report put Nepal's poverty rate at 65 percent according to the Multidimensional Poverty Index, which assesses the nature and intensity of poverty at the individual level in health, education outcomes and standard of living.
According to Asian Development Bank (ADB) Nepal remains one of the poorest countries in the world with per capita income of 447 US dollars per annum.
Nepal stands at 138 in a list of 169 countries listed in the UN human development index. The UN has been making the index public annually since 1990.
'Although Nepal's achievement in the Human Development Index is remarkable, a lot more needs to be done on the issues pointed out by the report,' said UNDP Country Director, Anne-Isabelle Degryse-Blateau.
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