Growth is the outcome of traditional inputs like labor and capital and factor productivity. In today’sopen and liberalized economy, productivity is the key for sustained high growth

In the post historical political change era also, election manifestos could not be catalysts and game changers at the operational level, particularly from the standpoint of the country’s rapid socio-economic transformation, economic prosperity and well being of the downtrodden despite such priorities accorded in them. As such, three interrelated practices or tendencies, among others, are worth noting.

One, it is customary among political parties to make tall commitments in  manifestos in a competitive way during the election time, but, in many cases, without strong bases and backups that could help  justify the promises and then enrich their credibility.  Second, and more dangerously, in many instances, opposite steps compared to the pledges have been taken in the past after coming to power leading to trust erosion.

Thirdly offshoots of the above two, perhaps Nepal, is a classic examples in which a system of rewarding or punishing the political parties through defeats or new mandates grounded on commitment based performance is yet to be institutionalized and strengthened as a prerequisite to genuine democratic system.  These are some of the reasons why people often are either apathetic or skeptical of election manifestos.

For more than one decade, the country’s agenda was predominated by the restoration of peace, peaceful transformation to democratic polity and formulation of a new constitution, and hence there was some space for excuses. The context has now changed and the major task before the election is to set the agenda in manifestos in a way that ensures economic prosperity of the nation and people in a short span of time an overriding priority of the new constitution.

Noticeably, prosperity as per the constitution should be rooted in equity, inclusion and self-reliance development discourse which entails bringing about strategic and policy shift in a bold way. In view of this, how shifts are ascertained in the manifestos to be compatible with these will be a testimony of the political parties.

Higher or even two digit growth, drastic poverty eradication, massive   employment generation, rapid physical and social infrastructure development  and overcoming of supply side bottlenecks, expansion of social protection,  regional balance, inclusion, equity, empowerment and uplifting of downtrodden, self-reliance, good governance and service delivery have prominently figured in the manifestos.  These may come to the forefront this time also in one way or the other with, may be, more focus on federal dimension, including the bottom up development paradigm.

The crux of the problem is that along with big gaps between election commitments and achievements, challenges in different crucial fronts such as growth, employment, equity, poverty, governance, delivery and external balances have been augmented immensely and hence will need concrete proposals to overcome commitment deficits. Overlooking of priorities, sequencing and coherency in strategy, policy, programmes and implementation means and little attention to structural and institutional constraints have made both the goals and accompanying agenda non-achievable.

Why there is a need of preparing manifestos in a more coordinated and complementary way could be better explained by a crucial example.

For advancing to the path to prosperity it is essential that the economy moves to the path to a higher growth trajectory in a more sustained way. This is a prerequisite. When sustainability says in strict economic comes to the forefront, it entails conceiving employment, equity and self-reliance dimension as an integral part of the growth process in both ex-anti and ex-post terms often overlooked leading to both economic and social crisis as the experience of many countries reveal.

Growth is the outcome of traditional inputs like labor and capital and factor productivity. In today’s open and liberalized economy, productivity is the key for sustained high growth. Higher productivity requires high quality infrastructure without disruption, skilled and qualified human resources, more updated or new technology, quality institutions and good governance.

In Nepal’s specific context, agrarian transformation along with rapid shift to the modern sectors simultaneously making industrialization the solid base of structural shift is the key which demands a judicious balance in the growth of production, development of infrastructure and expansion of services taking competitive strength of sectors into account. Here the role of institutions, including state, private and cooperatives both vertically and horizontally as well as strategic shift and policy clarity will be the key. Therefore, a comprehensive not isolated approach is the prerequisite for a breakthrough.

Balanced development will need huge investment more productively. The low saving rate, low but declining capital expenditure and unproductive nature of private investment entail that structural and policy induced expansion and changes in investment composition will be essential to embark on the path to higher growth.

Huge foreign direct investment in prioritized sectors will be urgent. Election manifestos should be guided by three elements viz, what, why and how more explicitly and candidly for bringing breakthroughs in them.