Nepal needs a new development agenda-OP Ed in Kathmandu Post

On Sep 18, 2013 10:43 AM, "Kripa Basnyat" <kbasnyat@pwescr.org> wrote:

Via APWLD

Nepal needs a new development agenda-OP Ed in Kathmandu Post

Below is an excerpt from the opinion column of Renu Rajbhandari, Chairperson of the National Alliance of Women Human Rights Defenders, that appeared in the Kathmandu Post on 16 September 2013

At the UNGA, Secretary General, Ban Ki Moon, will table his report, "A life of dignity for all: accelerating progress towards the Millennium Development Goals and advancing the United Nations development agenda beyond 2015". This report is important because it will lay the foundation for the creation of sustainable development goals and give direction to proceeding discussions and programmes that will frame future development strategies.

 

So what is Nepal's vision for a new development agenda? How should the global economy be re-framed to benefit the poor, women and the most marginalised? How should development address endemic problems like violence against women, trafficking and forced migration? I have seen little evidence of these questions being discussed in Nepal. If Regmi is to go to the UNGA, he needs to go with a mandate from the people, with a vision that is shared by the people, particularly the most marginalised amongst us. We should be shaping the global development agenda in a way that is truly people centered.

…

So will our government have the courage and political will to go to the UN and demand a genuinely transformative agenda—one that is not driven by the World Bank or by multi-national corporations but by people? We should send representatives to the UN with a different vision, a vision of development justice, which requires five transformative shifts—(1) redistribute wealth, resources and power; (2) create just and sustainable economies where labour is valued and economies work for people, not for speculative profit; (3) ensures social justice, gender justice and genuine human rights enjoyment where all human life is equally valued; (4) creates environmental justice where polluters pay and a new sustainable public sphere is prioritised; and (5) includes real, democratic accountability to the people, particularly those who have had their voices silenced.

Within this framework, we will need specific goals, targets and indicators. Will our government demand a gender goal that requires governments to prioritise the elimination of violence against women? Will it demand a goal to end wealth and resource inequalities between countries, between rich and poor and between men and women? Will it demand goals for universal social protection, for living wages, for new global tax systems that create revenue for the transformation needed here in Nepal?

read the full article here: http://www.ekantipur.com/the-kathmandu-post/2013/09/15/related_articles/travel-matters/253657.html

 

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