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Nepal
Index
The government launched the Structural Adjustment
Program and
the Basic Needs Program in 1985. These programs stressed
selfreliance , financial discipline, and austerity as goals
through the
year 2000. The Structural Adjustment Program sought to
confront
some of the longer-term constraints to economic growth.
Its
measures included increasing domestic resource
mobilization,
reducing the growth of expenditures and domestic bank
borrowings,
and strengthening the commercial banking and public
enterprise
sectors.
The Structural Adjustment Program initiative focused on
sustainable growth through balance in different sectors of
the
economy. Rural development in particular was targeted in
order to
raise the standard of living and increase agricultural
production.
Funds for education and health services, electricity and
power,
irrigation, and transportation and communications were
provided.
Government subsidies were supposed to be removed, new and
improved
standards of government efficiency were issued, and
privatization
of government enterprises was increased. Further, domestic
resources were more fully used, and domestic bank
borrowings and
the growth of expenditures were decreased. The initial
response to
the Structural Adjustment Program was good, as gross
domestic product
(GDP--see Glossary),
exports, and agriculture
showed
growth.
The objective of the Basic Needs Program was also to
improve
the standard of living by increasing food production, as
well as to
provide clothing, health services, and education. Six
goals were to
be achieved by the year 2000. Daily food consumption was
to be
raised to 2,250 calories per capita. Each person was to
have the
equivalent of eleven meters of clothing and a pair of
shoes per
year. Housing requirements were estimated at thirty square
meters
per urban household and at forty to sixty square meters
per rural
household. Essential utilities and sanitation were to be
furnished
by the government. Universal primary education for all
children
between five and ten years of age also was to be provided.
The
government was responsible for supplying teachers,
classrooms, and
educational materials, although villagers pitched in with
labor and
supplies to build schoolhouses
(see Education
, ch. 2). The
population growth rate was targeted at 1.9 percent by 2000
(down
from 2.6 percent in the 1980s), and life expectancy was to
increase
to 65 years of age by 2000 (up from almost 51 years in the
late
1980s). The infant mortality rate was to be reduced to 45
deaths
per 1,000 by the year 2000;
World Bank (see Glossary)
figures placed infant mortality at 171 per 1,000 in 1965 and at
126 per 1,000 in 1988. Universal primary health services also were
to be ensured, primarily by the government, improved social
services provided to handicapped people, law and order maintained,
and an environment conducive to development established
(see Population
, ch. 2).
Data as of September 1991
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