Nepal has demonstrated remarkable commitment to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), making notable progress in poverty reduction, education, health, gender equality, and energy access. While challenges such as financing gaps, climate vulnerability, infrastructure deficits, and governance issues persist, the article emphasizes Nepal’s innovative strategies, revised indicators, and focus on inclusive growth as key drivers to accelerate progress toward the 2030 targets, inspiring collective action and partnerships for a sustainable future.

Promises of SDGs for Nepal

Nepal has demonstrated a strong commitment to achieving the SDGs, as evidenced by the ambitious targets outlined in the 2017 SDG Status and Roadmap report (1). Some key promises include:

  • Reducing extreme poverty to less than 5% by 2030 (from 21.6% in 2015).
  • Increasing annual per capita income to US$2,500 by 2030 (from US$766 in 2015).
  • Reducing the prevalence of undernourishment to 3% by 2030 (from 36.1% in 2015).
  • Reducing maternal mortality ratio to less than 70 per 100,000 live births by 2030 (from 258 in 2015).
  • Achieving 99.5% net enrollment in primary education by 2030 (from 96.6% in 2015).
  • Ensuring access to electricity for 99% of households by 2030 (from 74% in 2015).
  • Increasing road density to 1.3 km/sq km by 2030 (from 0.44 in 2015).

These targets reflect Nepal’s aspirations to make dramatic progress across social, economic and environmental dimensions of sustainable development. The roadmap emphasizes inclusive growth, with a focus on leaving no one behind and reducing inequalities.

SDG costing, financing sources and gaps

The 2017 SDG Costing report provides detailed estimates of the investment required to achieve Nepal’s SDG targets (2). Key findings include:

Total SDG financing requirement: The average annual investment needed is estimated at Rs 2,024.8 billion per year for the entire SDG period (2016-2030). This represents about 48% of GDP on average.

Sectoral breakdown: The largest investment requirements are for:

  • Physical and industrial infrastructure (30.3% of total).
  • Education (15.1%).
  • Energy (12.8%).
  • Urban development and housing (8.4%).
  • Poverty reduction (7.5%).

Financing sources: The report outlines the following expected contributions:

  • Public sector: 55% of total SDG investment.
  • Private sector: 36%.
  • Cooperatives, NGOs, communities: 4.32%.
  • Households: 4.36%.

Financing gap: The average annual financing gap is estimated at Rs 585 billion (US$5.68 billion) for 2016-2030, representing 12.8% of GDP. The public sector gap is Rs 218 billion and the private sector gap is Rs 367 billion annually.

Plans to fulfill gaps:

  • Increase domestic revenue mobilization to 27% of GDP by 2030.
  • Enhance public-private partnerships, especially in infrastructure.
  • Improve the investment climate to attract more FDI.
  • Seek increased ODA, particularly grants.
  • Develop innovative financing mechanisms at local levels.
  • Improve public finance efficiency and expenditure prioritization.

Revision of SDG Indicators

Nepal revised its SDG indicators in 2023 to better align with national priorities and improve measurability (3). Key changes include:

  • Total indicators reduced from 479 to 425.
  • Nationally relevant indicators increased from 243 to 293.
  • Global indicators reduced from 236 to 132.

Rationale for revisions:

  • Improve data availability and measurability
  • Better reflect Nepal’s federal structure and devolved responsibilities.
  • Align with updated national plans and strategies.
  • Incorporate lessons learned from SDG implementation to date.

Notable revisions:

  • New indicators on disaster resilience, climate change adaptation, and air quality.
  • Enhanced indicators on social inclusion, gender equality, and leaving no one behind.
  • More detailed indicators on quality education and skills development.
  • Expanded metrics for measuring good governance and institutional capacity.

The indicator revisions demonstrate Nepal’s efforts to contextualize the SDGs and create a more robust monitoring framework. The increased focus on nationally-relevant indicators should enable more effective progress tracking.

Nepal’s SDG Progress, Challenges and Way Forward

Progress:
Nepal’s 2024 Voluntary National Review (VNR) report highlights several areas of significant progress (4):

  • Poverty reduction: Extreme poverty declined to 14.6% in 2023 (from 21.6% in 2015).
  • Education: Net enrollment in primary education reached 98.3% in 2023.
  • Health: Maternal mortality ratio reduced to 151 per 100,000 live births in 2023.
  • Gender equality: Women’s representation in national parliament increased to 33.5% in 2023.
  • Energy: Access to electricity reached 93% of households in 2023.
  • Economic growth: GDP growth averaged 6.5% annually from 2016-2023 (pre-pandemic).

The VNR notes that Nepal has made particularly strong progress on social indicators and basic service delivery. However, economic transformation and environmental sustainability have seen slower advancement.

Challenges:
Despite progress, Nepal faces significant challenges in SDG implementation:

  1. Financing gap: Mobilizing adequate resources remains the foremost challenge. The COVID-19 pandemic has further strained public finances and private investment (5).
  2. Data gaps: Lack of disaggregated data hinders effective monitoring and targeting of interventions, especially for vulnerable groups (4)
  3. Capacity constraints: Limited institutional and human resource capacity, particularly at subnational levels, impede SDG localization and implementation (6).
  4. Climate vulnerability: Nepal’s high exposure to climate change impacts threatens to undermine development gains (7).
  5. Economic transformation: Shifting from a remittance-dependent economy to one driven by productive sectors has proven difficult (8).
  6. Infrastructure deficit: Inadequate transport, energy, and urban infrastructure constrains economic growth and service delivery (9).
  7. Social inclusion: Despite progress, significant disparities persist across geographic regions and social groups (10).
  8. Governance: Corruption, weak coordination, and implementation gaps hinder effective service delivery and SDG progress (11).

Way Forward:
Based on the VNR and other studies, key priorities for accelerating SDG progress include:

  1. Enhance domestic resource mobilization: Improve tax administration, broaden the tax base, and combat illicit financial flows to increase revenues (12).
  2. Strengthen SDG localization: Build capacity of provincial and local governments to integrate SDGs into planning and budgeting processes (13).
  3. Improve data ecosystems: Invest in statistical capacity, particularly for disaggregated data collection and analysis (14).
  4. Accelerate economic transformation: Focus on high-value agriculture, sustainable tourism, and labor-intensive manufacturing to create quality jobs (15).
  5. Build climate resilience: Mainstream climate adaptation across sectors and scale up investment in disaster risk reduction (16).
  6. Enhance policy coherence: Strengthen inter-ministerial coordination and align sectoral policies with SDG targets (17).
  7. Leverage technology: Harness digital technologies to improve service delivery, particularly in health, education, and governance (18).
  8. Strengthen partnerships: Enhance collaboration with private sector, civil society, and development partners to mobilize resources and expertise (19).
  9. Focus on leaving no one behind: Target interventions to reach the most marginalized groups and reduce multidimensional poverty (20).
  10. Improve SDG monitoring: Strengthen the national M&E system and conduct regular SDG progress reviews to inform policy adjustments (21).

Conclusion

Nepal has demonstrated a strong commitment to the SDGs and made notable progress across several goals. However, the country faces significant challenges in mobilizing adequate resources, building implementation capacity, and driving economic transformation while ensuring environmental sustainability and making sure that the progress is inclusive and shared with all regions and communities.

Moving forward, Nepal must focus on innovative financing strategies, strengthening subnational implementation, leveraging partnerships, and harnessing data and technology to accelerate progress. With concerted efforts across all sectors of society, Nepal can make substantial strides towards achieving its SDG targets by 2030.

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  2. National Planning Commission. (2017). Needs Assessment, Costing and Financing Strategy for Sustainable Development Goals. Government of Nepal.
  3. National Planning Commission. (2023). Revised Sustainable Development Goals Indicators for Nepal. Government of Nepal.
  4. National Planning Commission. (2024). Voluntary National Review 2024: Nepal’s Progress on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Government of Nepal.
  5. World Bank. (2023). Nepal Development Update: Navigating Economic Headwinds. World Bank Group.
  6. Asian Development Bank. (2022). Supporting Nepal’s Development Journey: A Study on Subnational Capacity for SDG Implementation. ADB.
  7. Ministry of Forests and Environment. (2021). Vulnerability and Risk Assessment and Identifying Adaptation Options in Nepal. Government of Nepal.
  8. International Monetary Fund. (2023). Nepal: 2023 Article IV Consultation-Press Release; Staff Report; and Statement by the Executive Director for Nepal. IMF.
  9. National Planning Commission. (2019). 15th Plan (FY 2019/20-2023/24). Government of Nepal.
  10. Central Bureau of Statistics. (2022). Nepal Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey 2021. Government of Nepal.
  11. Transparency International. (2023). Corruption Perceptions Index 2022. Transparency International.
  12. Ministry of Finance. (2023). Budget Speech of Fiscal Year 2023/24. Government of Nepal.
  13. National Association of Rural Municipalities in Nepal. (2022). Status of SDG Localization in Nepal’s Rural Municipalities. NARMIN.
  14. Central Bureau of Statistics. (2023). National Strategy for the Development of Statistics 2023-2030. Government of Nepal.
  15. National Planning Commission. (2020). 15th Plan Approach Paper. Government of Nepal.
  16. Ministry of Forests and Environment. (2020). National Climate Change Policy 2020. Government of Nepal.
  17. National Planning Commission. (2022). SDG Needs Assessment and Financing Strategy: Mid-Term Review. Government of Nepal.
  18. Ministry of Communication and Information Technology. (2019). Digital Nepal Framework. Government of Nepal.
  19. SDG National Network Nepal. (2023). Civil Society Spotlight Report on SDG Implementation in Nepal. SDG National Network Nepal.
  20. Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative. (2023). Nepal Multidimensional Poverty Index 2023. OPHI.
  21. National Planning Commission. (2022). SDG Progress Assessment Report 2016–2021. Government of Nepal.