Resource Mapping and Indexing of Federal Provinces of Nepal: An Analysis

Abstract

Nepal has entered into a federal political structure with 7 provincial governments and 753 local municipalities (rural and urban). There is a paucity of evidence on the status of resources available in the seven provincial governments without which, estimation of resource gap and potentials of these provincial governments for appropriate policy interventions remains elusive. In this paper, we have prepared a resource map of the provincial governments and developed a resource index so that we can rank the provinces using the index. The resource index includes the dimensions of human resource (population), natural resource (arable land, forest coverage and water resources) and financial resources (tax revenue generated per person and GDP per capita). Our findings suggest that there is a high disparity of resource availability in seven different provinces. Provinces 6 and 7 located in the mid and far western regions are found developmentally challenged with low revenue collection and high poverty rate and migration. Provinces 2 and 5 have high levels of resources, wastage and inefficiency. Province 4 is found to be outstanding in terms of efficient resource use and knowledge, and if supported with more resources possesses high chance of becoming the role model province in Nepal.