Kathmandu, November 16

The Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations Amina J Mohammed, has said that the Nepali government has paved a clear way forward for the nation’s development.

“We have seen that the government has a clear vision about development and the way forward for prosperity and the UN will further strengthen its support to the government to achieve its goals,” she stated.

Speaking with journalists today, Mohammed added that Nepal’s progress on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) has been satisfactory.

“I have held discussions with the president, prime minister, minister for foreign affairs, chief executive officer of

National Reconstruction Authority and other stakeholders regarding the government’s agenda to achieve the SDGs by 2030,” she added.

Moreover, Mohammed also mentioned about the need to enhance the education sector which would help the government achieve its goal of a prosperous Nepal. She stated that in July next year the United Nations will be organising a global political conference at the UN headquarters in New York and Nepal’s education sector will be evaluated then. “The UN has numerous global campaigns including the education sector to help countries achieve the SDGs.”

Meanwhile, she also spoke about climate change, health, sanitation, carbon emission and transitional justice in

Nepal.

“The UN has made a commitment to provide help in some crucial aspects of climate change and other aforementioned issues for better results,” she added. “Issues related to climate change and some other areas are not limited to Nepal only but the country needs to play a leading role to cope with such issues.”

She added that the UN has also started to partner and cooperate with Nepal in the energy sector to boost the country’s economy. “I see that the government has a clear vision on development and wants to graduate from the status of a least developed country to a developing nation and to achieve this goal it needs to join hands with bilateral and multilateral agencies,” Mohammed mentioned.

Moreover, she also stated that the UN was willing to join hands with the central government to enhance the capacity of the local and provincial governments to achieve the SDGs. “All the 753 local bodies need to take ownership of SDGs and other good governance issues for a better output,” she said.

“It will depend on how the central government allocates budget to the local bodies to achieve the Sustainable

Development Goals,” she mentioned. “It is a big challenge for the government but we have observed that it is on the right track.”

Mohammed said that since the country’s tourism sector has been growing in recent years she is optimistic that the government will be able to fulfil the people’s expectations of a prosperous Nepal. “The government needs to now

focus on the youths so that they can come up with better innovations to offer more effective products and services to enhance the market.”