Kathmandu, September 15:

Though human development is being touted as a major device to motivate people towards meeting development goals to revitalise the economy, it still seems weak in Nepal thanks to lethargic Service Delivery Mechanism (SDM). Not only SDM, but also increased conflict and government’s indifference towards the human development sector has hit the overall economic sector.

Senior development experts expressed concerns that if Nepal wants to meet its development goals by meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015, it has to strengthen its institutional mechanisms, making SDM more effective in future. During 1993-94, Nepal’s GDP growth rate was about seven per cent, but in 2006 it stood at less than two per cent due to weak institutional system, lack of people’s participation in development activities and week human development.

Sri Ram Raj Pandey, assistant resident representative at United Nations Development Programme opined opined that human development is the real tool to drive development initiatives. It is pathetic to note that there are no secretaries in 68 per cent village development committees (VDCs), as per a recent UN survey. Given such a context, how can the government spend a million rupees allocated to each VDC as per budget 2006-07 in the absence of officials.