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Govt drafts new policy
The Ministry of Cooperatives and Poverty Alleviation (MoCPA) has produced a draft National Poverty Alleviation Policy with the aim of streamlining all the poverty alleviation programmes being run by different ministries and agencies.The Ministry of Cooperatives and Poverty Alleviation (MoCPA) has produced a draft National Poverty Alleviation Policy with the aim of streamlining all the poverty alleviation programmes being run by different ministries and agencies.
The draft, which is being discussed at the inter-ministry level, is expected to give a common framework to ministries operating poverty alleviation programmes.
According to the MoCPA, 15 ministries have been running poverty alleviation programmes. In addition, the Poverty Alleviation Fund and various international non-governmental organizations (INGOs) and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have been conducting similar programmes.
However, complaints have been raised that they are not yielding the desired results due to lack of coordination between the different ministries and implementing agencies.
Speaking at an interaction on Wednesday, MoCPA Secretary Shankar Adhikari said that the policy they were devising would help provide a common policy and standard for all the programmes being run by various agencies. “It is expected to remove the possibility of duplication of effort in the same region,” he added.
The proposed policy has devised separate standards for rural and urban poor. It contains a provision to allow the ministry to function as an oversight agency.
Ministry officials said that in the absence of such an agency, the government had failed to launch coherent programmes to integrate the various projects related to agriculture, micro enterprises, infrastructure and human resource development which are essential to address Nepal’s multi-dimensional poverty.
The government had established the MoCPA three years ago with the aim of making it a key player in the effort to alleviate poverty.
The ministry said it had also planned to start a feasibility study to decide what types of poverty alleviation programmes would be conducted in the seven federal states proposed in the new constitution. “We have planned to complete the task by the end of this fiscal year,” said Adhikari.
The ministry recently completed a survey of 25 districts to provide identity cards to the poor people there. Based on the identity cards, the poor will be grouped into poor, very poor and vulnerable segments. Adhikari said all the organisations would have to run their programmes in the respective areas on the basis of these ID cards.
According to the MoCPA, it is at the final stages of the validation process. “We have planned to complete collecting local grievances by mid-March, following which the distribution of identity cards will start,” said Adhikari.
He added that they had planned to start the card distribution process at Ramechhap, Gorkha and Sindhuli districts which were highly affected by the April 25 earthquake.
New Co-op Act sent to Cabinet
The Ministry of Cooperatives and Poverty Alleviation said it had sent the final draft of the Cooperative Act to the Cabinet on Sunday. The proposed law contains provisions for strict punishment for the embezzlement of money by operators of cooperatives. Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Cooperatives and Poverty Alleviation Chitra Bahadur KC said the new act had focused on removing the weak legal framework that had encouraged anomalies in savings and credit cooperatives in particular.