Nepal

Nepal faces international obligations under the Sustainable Development Goals to reduce stunting to 15 per cent, wasting to four per cent, and underweight rates to 10 per cent by 2030 – targets that appear increasingly challenging, particularly in remote and underserved regions like Sudurpaschim.

Local communities, for their part, have begun to address some of these issues: they are forming their own trader groups to facilitate legal trade and negotiate better prices.

Health minister Sudha Gautam, a senior gynaecologist herself, is positioned to drive change. Experts urge her to prioritise regulation, monitoring, and awareness campaigns.

Nepal’s battle against child labour remains a complex struggle of law, tradition, and socioeconomic fragility, even as pockets of progress emerge.

A groundbreaking new report by the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) reveals that the region requires approximately USD 12.065 trillion from 2020 to 2050 to adequately fund climate adaptation and mitigation efforts.

One of the starkest examples is Imja Lake in Nepal’s Everest region. Until the 1960s, it was only a relatively small pool of meltwater high in the mountains.

A key piece of Nepal’s long-anticipated trade infrastructure has stalled dramatically after Beijing informed Kathmandu that it is halting construction of the Rasuwa dry port, a China-funded inland container depot near the Nepal-China border.

Integrating waste minimisation, climber accountability and community engagement is seen as critical to safeguarding fragile ecosystems while preserving access for future generations.