Excellencies, distinguished officials of Nepal, dear UNDP colleagues, and friends of UNDP as well as the development fraternity here and abroad.  

Let me start with a full disclosure, I am a proud alumnus of United Nations Development Programme. I spent ten glorious years with UNDP, at different parts of the world. I am also very happy to see Ms Lalita Thapa is here. She was my first boss at UNDP.


In 1997 I was a young graduate who had just come back to Nepal and got to work on a very prestigious assignment at that time, the very first Nepal Human Development Report and we pulled it off. Dr Devendra Raj Pandey was the main author of the report and a model that UNDP practiced at that time for that project, has been useful to me during the course of my career. 

As UNDP funded the report, they called it an editorial independent production. So, UNDP took all the credit, and for all the criticism, it could say the report is editorially independent, so blame the authors. That was a very good model to pursue in my future years. 

I say I did have a very fulfilling two and a half years. Then I got to travel across Nepal. It was the affection of my own country that brought me back almost 20 years later, to serve permanently in public life here. I then went to pursue graduate studies, and soon after that I joined UNDP again, at the regional level. I was stationed in Vietnam, but I was covered much of the continent, and this is where I got to see UNDP’s appetite for new ventures, new risks, trading into new areas, not being confined to comfort zones. 

The technicality of the international trade policy was initiated in 2001 after the debacle the WTO conference in Seattle collapsed, UNDP felt this is not a technical subject that should be left to the preserve of the ministry of finance or ministry of trade. This affects livelihoods, this affects all the citizens, trade policies, and impact lives.

And UNDP should be in this area, so I got to fashion a new programme helping WTO to do negotiations but also doing the economic analysis of all the impacts of all the trade agreements. And many of you remember, in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks in the United States, the Doha-development round took off, and there was an unprecedented unanimity across the global community in rallying behind creating trade and development as a major theme for securing development assistance during that decade. Unfortunately that has petered out, this is no longer the case. A lot of development assistance and even national priorities have now fragmented, it has almost balkanised.

And the cohesive hole, that global ethos, has very much vanished and we have to reclaim that. Going forward, I then worked for the World Bank during my PhD, and then I came back to UNDP for a very short assignment to co-author the 2020 Global Human Development report. It was on the rise of the south. So again, UNDP was ahead of the times before the prominent countries like China, India, Brazil, Indonesia, South Africa, and other large developing countries made a breakthrough in the global arena of policy making way before G20 was formed, or around the same time in the aftermath of the global financial crisis.

We were able to document this rise of the developing countries, and also project and predict how this will reshape the world order and right now we see that clearly, with China and India, in particular leading much of that landscape in concert with the established powers. 

During the COVID year, I was fortunate enough to have been invited by Ms Kanni Wignaraja to work with her directly as the chief economic advisor for the entire region. Again, very fulfilling years and very satisfying efforts and interventions at a very difficult time globally and not just for Nepal. 

And then, the reversal of human development gains, the technological breakthroughs we could leverage --for the delivery of vaccines, for example. I’m giving you an example of many areas, often, unconventionally tied to development efforts on part of the United Nations. Because you will think of the charter, it’s a very rigid organisation, rigid bureaucracy and you would expect, that the UN would not be agile, flexible, risk-taking, etcetera. 

But it's just the contrary, in all the experiences that I myself had had, so I can speak with authority on how valuable the partnership with UNDP has been and not just Nepal but across the developing world. 

Here in Nepal, we saw the lovely video from the airstrips that UNDP helped build, design, do all these pre-feasibility studies, etc. I remember, actually, many of the major infrastructure projects would ultimately be funded by the MDB’s, but there was a time when UNDP did the pre-feasibility studies and technical assistance during the 60’s and the 70’s and the 80’s. 

In the 90s’ it shifted gears and I remember when we worked at UNDP almost 30 years ago, in the aftermath of the democratic restoration of this country, all these models of participatory development, community mobilisation, they were all very new and I think Nepal proved that this is a very successful model. And this ended up being emulated in different parts of the world, from Kyrgyzstan to Afghanistan, and guess who managed all this UNDP projects in other countries: It was the Nepali alumni who had learned the tricks of the trades right here in Nepal. 

It was very satisfying for me as I pursued my own international career to meet Nepali friends and professionals who were taking the Nepali example.  I still remember the acronyms from that time--PDDP, REDP, Parks and People, PPP, all these famous programs from the 90s. Now, again, very sad to know a lot of these efforts were derailed as we stepped into this phase of active conflict and then the post transition. 

But thanks to UNDP again, you stepped into a new role of democratic consolidation, peace process, constitution writing, and all that. So, this ability to evolve with the needs of the host country and the partners, I think, is also a testament of the trust, the value and very much credential celebrated partnership that UNDP continues to enjoy in countries like ours and the rest of the developing world.  

And, looking to the future, I think, this very trait will come handy--my own sense is that the nature of the development challenges has changed, is changing fast.  

Digitalisation, demography, millions of people on the move, with the diaspora emerging as a potent force of development, which was not the case 25 years ago.  And I often use the 3Ds, digitalisation, demography and diaspora. This is what catapulted the Rastriya Swatantra Party to power, this is what I had predicted two years ago, and this continues to be a dominant theme, as we navigate some of the persistent development challenges.  

Poverty reduction used to be a very dominant theme in the 90s, and in the 2000s, and that is something to celebrate in Nepal's case--with state help, with the help of international partners but largely through remittances. In 1995, according to a World Bank study, two dollars and 18 cents was being used to be an international poverty line, then we had 55 percent of the people below that line, and now it is less than 1%, its almost eliminated.  

We do this well in the development community.  When the problem is fixed, we change the bar. So now the poverty line is middle class it is three dollars and 80 cents, and sometimes even a higher benchmark. 

So there still are people’s livelihoods to be taken care of, exploration of decent jobs, viable sources of economic growth, equity, education, health, and other social opportunities, powered by a broad base inclusive growth process--all that continues to be relevant. And we look to UNDP to reimagine its priorities and adjust to the new development landscape.  

So, in terms of the nature of the problems, I feel that the global public goods and the regional public goods is an area where UNDP can add a lot of value. In terms of funding. UNDP was always the largest multilateral-grant making organisation, there was a very fancy of saying that “we don’t have much money”, but it continues to be very valuable as we have seen in Nepal--seeding those critical investments, and let somebody else come, and scale that up. 

I think that itself is immensely valuable as we all have known from our own experiences, money is not the most important thing in development. It is the modes of collaboration, it is the power of convocation that UNDP enjoys, that the UN as a whole enjoys, and this cross-border issues that only institutions like UN and the UNDP enjoy, the broad acceptance and legitimacy on the part of all member states of the UN.

That is unique. No other international agency can command that kind of a power of convocation. Therefore, to solve regional and global challenges, public goods, and under delivery of those global public goods, UNDP continues to be well-positioned, and I'm glad to see your engagement in climate issues, democratic consolidation, youth empowerment, and digitalisation, which is again a cross-border theme, but very much rooted in the national needs.

So, I would end with my endorsement of the approach that UNDP is taking, trying to adjust to the new challenges and new needs. So, the three Cs, the power of convocation, build on that I think nobody can come close to that unique legitimacy that you enjoy. Focus even more strongly on the cross-border regional and global public goods, and sharpen your modes of collaboration, which you already continue to do. I was happy to note that a lot of mayors are in town, have joined this event, which is again a special mode of collaboration that only an entity like the UN can pull off. And I would urge you to, you know, really expedite your march in this direction. 

So, it has been 60 glorious years of partnership that has been trusted, that has been valued, and that has been celebrated, here in Nepal. And when you celebrate your 100th year of partnership, I hope I'll still be alive. I'll just be 92 at the time, and I'll be able to join you then. 

So, congratulations! This is a wonderful milestone that UNDP has reached, and the people and the government of Nepal are with you, as you are with us, and together this journey continues in a fresh new direction, a very fulfilling direction. So again, a very, very warm congratulations on this achievement. Thank you so much.

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