United Nations Resident Coordinator in Nepal Hanaa Singer-Hamdy has worked for close to 30 years across development and humanitarian contexts in senior management and strategic leadership roles. Before coming to Nepal, she served as the UN Resident Coordinator in Sri Lanka from 2018 to 2022. Previously, she also worked as UNICEF Chief in Nepal. She talks about the UN’s evolving role in Nepal’s development and peace endeavours in this extensive interview with the Post’s Anil Giri.

You returned to Nepal as the United Nations Resident Coordinator nine years after your previous assignment as the UNICEF Chief. What changes have you found in all these intervening years?

It is a pleasure coming back to beloved Nepal, a country that I came to know quite profoundly during my first tenure having travelled over 54 of its districts through the mountains, hills, and the Tarai. I have witnessed firsthand its beautiful landscape and diversity of people, culture, religion, perseverance for prosperity and social justice, openness, and resilience. Therefore, coming back to the country and the people I always loved was an honour and a wish come true.

A lot has changed in Nepal in the past decade. Despite the devastating 2015 earthquake, the Covid-19 pandemic, and the impact of the global economic slowdown, Nepal underwent significant social and political changes. Coming out of the peace-building process, Nepal adopted the new constitution in 2015, transitioning to federalism and bringing a shared sense of hope and optimism to its people. Nepal has also achieved remarkable progress in development in recent decades. From a significant reduction in the number of people living in poverty to a decline in maternal and child mortality rates, alongside notable improvements in nutrition and reductions in stunting. Life expectancy, school enrollment rates and access to drinking water and sanitation have also increased. The expansion of roads, communications and air transport infrastructure reflects the country's commitment to increased interconnectedness. These collective advancements have elevated Nepal’s Human Development Index (HDI) to 0.602 from 2021 to 2022 and are preparing Nepal for the LDC graduation.

Despite the development gains, the difficult part remains to be achieved: Reducing poverty and inequality among people, climate change, and environmental degradation to successfully meet all the SDGs, generating a high growth rate in the economy for the irreversible graduation from Least Developed Country (LDC) status, building community resilience for disasters risk reduction, among others.

You referred to Nepal’s LDC graduation. Nepal is scheduled to graduate from the status of LDCs to a developing nation by 2026. What are the major obstacles that Nepal is facing to achieve its goals?

After successfully meeting two of the three criteria—human asset index (HAI) and economic and environmental vulnerability index (EVI)—in the three consecutive triennial reviews, Nepal is scheduled to graduate from LDC in 2026. Nepal has nearly reached the 2024 per capita Gross National Income (GNI) threshold of $1,306, with its per capita GNI of $1,300.

Nepal has also been steadily improving across various development indicators. By 2022, it surpassed the LDC average in the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development’s (UNCTAD) Productive Capacity Index (PCI), with a score of 40 compared to the LDC average of 31. Nepal has significantly narrowed the gap with the Other Developing Countries (ODC) average, achieving a Human Capital Index of 41 against the ODC average of 44. This impending graduation not only signifies Nepal's progress but also signals to investors the market readiness. The country can further benefit by tapping into its human capital and success stories.

Amid these successes, Nepal grapples with a myriad of challenges typical of developing countries. There are significant gaps in critical infrastructures such as energy, transport, and digital technology as well as institutional weaknesses. The country performs weakly in manufacturing with its declining share in the GDP, indicative of an unachieved structural transformation of the economy. These gaps impede Nepal from fully capitalising on its international trade opportunities and abundant natural resources, which could position it as an attractive destination for investments in clean and green initiatives. Realising these aspirations will require continued efforts to create an enabling environment, adopt frontier technologies that can harness resources sustainably, and empower women, girls, and marginalised populations.

Nepal also made the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) its aspiration. Do you think that Nepal can meet the SDGs target, mobilise the resources, and monitor them?

Nepal’s progress on the SDGs so far is a success story. We are halfway through the SDGs timeline and Nepal has surpassed the global average with a remarkable 42 percent of its indicators on track compared to just 15 percent globally.

The credit goes to the proactiveness of the Government of Nepal for its early adoption of the SDGs into the 15th plans, budget, and local governments’ medium-term expenditure frameworks. The National Planning Commission (NPC) has taken strident steps to monitor the progress and assess financing needs for the SDGs through voluntary national reviews and implement its vision to accelerate SDGs. Through a strong partnership with NPC, the UN System has been collaborating with multi-stakeholders in a consultative and inclusive manner to prepare the third Voluntary National Review report. The UN has also been collaborating with the government to identify transformative transitions and catalyse progress towards SDGs, aligning with the Secretary General's six transition approach.

Despite the success, challenges persist. Around 20 percent of the national SDG indicators lack data. There is a financing gap of around 11 percent of GDP against the $23 billion annual need to meet the SDG from now until 2030. Achieving the SDGs by 2030 addressing these and other development gaps requires strong partnerships and cooperation among government, private sector, media, academia, development and trade partners, and civil society.

You highlighted resource gaps as one of the challenges in achieving SDGs? How did you find the Nepal Investment Summit and how did the United Nations office in Kathmandu support it? How does the UN plan to support the country to reduce financing gaps?

First, my heartfelt congratulations to the Government of Nepal for successfully organising the Investment Summit. Organising such a mega event ahead of the 2026 LDC Graduation has reinforced the message that Nepal’s market is open and ready for private investment. The amendment of the nine Acts and commitment to further reforms will facilitate flows of national and international private investments. Political parties’ unified stance on economic development has sent a positive message to the international community.

As Nepal’s longstanding development and humanitarian partner, the United Nations in Nepal played an important role in providing policy advice and technical assistance in organising the summit. I joined the UNCTAD Secretary-General Rebeca Grynspan to highlight investment opportunities in Nepal and indicate that multilateral development banks, international financing institutions, and development partners should work together to unlock sustainable investment.

The UN Country Team in Nepal has identified finance for development as one of its priority areas for the implementation of the United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (UNSDCF) through which the UN System channels all its support to the country. As a part of these priority areas, the UN will support the country to reduce its trade deficit, increase trade competitiveness, catalyse sustainable investments, and increase resource allocation efficiency. This, I hope, will contribute to reducing the financing gaps and supporting the country in materialising its aspiration for sustainable development.

Will the United Nations encourage development partners to inject more investment in Nepal and if so, how?

Yes, the UN encourages Development Partners (DPs) to invest more in Nepal. We advise focusing the investments in catalytic and impactful sectors that help accelerate SDG achievement. Investment from DPs can be in the form of a grant, loan, equity, or guarantee. These financial instruments have their own characteristics and, therefore, procedures for deployment. They can be mixed, which we call ‘blended finance’.

Nepal can explore new blended finance approaches that can crowd into the private sector, multiply developmental impact and create opportunities for the public sector to share risks and rewards fairly. This way, public and private finance together help augment private investments, especially in high-risk and low-return areas.

Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs), Development Financial Institutions (DFIs), Private Development Banks (PDBs), and development cooperation agencies can work even closer with private partners to leverage resources and increase these investments. Similarly, there are UN agencies that can provide technical assistance to facilitate such financial instruments.

The United Nations has its development cooperation framework and engages with the member countries through this special instrument. Could you give some details about how it is engaging with Nepal and what are the positive outcomes?

The emphasis of the UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (UNSDCF) is really on the four strategic priorities—sustainable economic transformation, inclusive human development, environmental sustainability, and effective governance with federalism and inclusion— ultimately helping Nepal achieve sustainable and inclusive economic transformation that advances the rights and well-being of all citizens and protects the environment.

As the UNSDCF aligns closely with Nepal's national development plans and international commitments, it is highly responsive to Nepal’s evolving needs which now includes successful and irreversible LDC graduation in 2026, attainment of the SDGs by 2030 and post-COVID-19 recovery.

Born out of the UN Secretary General’s UN Development System Reform, the UNSDCF ensure coherent delivery of activities by all agencies to address Nepal’s national priorities and gaps to leave no one behind with a strengthened focus on inclusion and tackling inequalities via tangible action for people on the ground, especially those furthest behind. The Cooperation Framework also embodies the spirit of partnerships with host governments and with all stakeholders—civil society, academia, parliaments, the private sector, and bilateral partners to leverage strengths and drive transformative change. A recent example is the UN-Government of Nepal partnership on the Joint Recovery Action Plan for the western Nepal earthquake where one of our bilateral partners FCDO has partially funded the plan to meet the needs and build the resilience of the earthquake-affected population in western Nepal.

The UN secretary general also visited Nepal last year and raised the issue of the adverse effects of climate change during the COP-28 as well as the plights of Nepali citizens living across the mountainous regions. How is the UN taking this issue further?

The UN Secretary-General’s visit to Nepal last year exposed the country’s vulnerability to climate change before the nation, region and the globe.

His personal account of the real impact of climate change in the region followed by his plea to the global community to “stop the madness” had a significant mileage for Nepal, particularly for the 2023 UN climate change conference in November to promote the sustainable mountain agenda in the COP negotiation process.

For the UN team in Nepal, environmental sustainability, climate and disaster resilience is one of the strategic priorities. This means we are supporting the government and communities to strengthen the participation of women, socially excluded, and disadvantaged groups in the decision-making process on climate adaptation, mitigation, and disaster risk reduction. This means we are working with all three tiers of government for effective preparedness and response. As more women and marginalised groups are impacted by climate change, we are ensuring the most impacted are also the ones benefiting the most from ecosystem services, alternative and sustainable livelihood opportunities, access to affordable and renewable energy, and employment generation.

Another important issue that the UN secretary general raised during his visit was Nepal’s protracted peace process. What is your assessment of how it will be resolved?

During his visit, the Secretary-General praised the Nepalese-led peace processes that could serve as an example to the world and urged to conclude the only remaining element—transitional justice—through an inclusive, comprehensive, and victim-centric process.

Last year, the transitional justice-related amendment bill gained maximum momentum, when the parliament, government, political actors, civil society as well as conflict victims discussed the contents of the bill aiming to finalise it in a manner that complied with Nepal’s international obligation and the Supreme Court ruling of 2015. Despite some delays, there have been efforts to improve the bill in compliance with national and international obligations. The understanding of the key stakeholders in the process has deepened, and we can see conflict victims of all kinds advocating for themselves.

We sincerely hope and encourage the government and the parliament to “leave no stone unturned” to ensure that all victims have access to truth, reparation, and justice that they have been seeking for decades that would eventually heal the wounds of the past, foster reconciliation and ensure non-reoccurrence of violations.

Consolidating peace has various dimensions. Longstanding barriers and problems such as violence against women, child marriage and caste-based discrimination, to name a few, hinder the exercise of human rights, and everyone is key to sustainability of peace. Likewise, abiding by the national and international obligations that aim to foster the rule of law and promote human rights is another important element of peace.

How do you evaluate Nepal’s role in various UN and other platforms like as a chair of LDC nations, and a member of the Human Rights Council?

Nepal has been playing a crucial role in the global forums and processes. It showed exemplary leadership at COP28 last year by championing the Mountain agenda and playing a pivotal role in establishing the Loss and Damage Fund. This included a roundtable featuring high-level delegates in COP28, hosted by the Honourable Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal.

Likewise, as a chair of the Global Coordination Bureau of LDCs, in March 2023, Nepal led the organisation of a joint side event along with Bangladesh and Lao PDR calling for action from international partners on successfully managing this transition. Nepal has also been defending the interests of LDCs and articulating their priorities in various forums and platforms in the implementation of the Doha Programme of Actions for LDCs.

Nepal’s membership in the Human Rights Council and other multilateral bodies is valuable. At this time of geopolitical polarisation, Nepal can play a bridging role between the big powers and blocs.

As one of the three Asia-Pacific Countries in the LGBTI core Group, Nepal has displayed its commitment to the protection and promotion of human rights at the UN General Assembly Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural Committee). Nepal co-sponsored the resolution on child early and forced marriage for the first time in 2022.

In my recent visit to Madhesh Province, child early marriage and forced marriage were highlighted as the major issues that harmed girls and women as well as the society’s overall development. This leadership at the global level demonstrates the commitment of the country to to end all forms of violence and harmful practices and accelerate equality for every woman and girl, in all their diversity.

How is the UN going to cope with issues like the dearth of multilateralism and the growing polarisation between major powers across the globe?

The world is facing a troubling lack of cooperation among major powers, but the UN stands as the only largest intergovernmental organisation, uniquely positioned to foster dialogue and diplomacy. By promoting international norms and standards outlined in its Charter and other agreements such as SDGs peace and security, climate action, etc., the UN can encourage member states to prioritise peaceful solutions over conflict and other crises. However, addressing these challenges requires collective action from member states.

This year, the UN is preparing for the Summit of the Future by bringing world leaders together to forge a new international consensus on how we deliver a better present and safeguard the future by enhancing cooperation on the current confluence of crises: wars, epidemics, climate change, technological disruptions, and addressing gaps in global governance to meet 21st-century challenges.

The summit taking place on September 21–22 in New York aims to enhance cooperation on critical challenges and address gaps in global governance, reaffirm existing commitments, including the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the United Nations Charter, and move towards a reinvigorated multilateral system that is better positioned to positively impact people’s lives.