Bridging Nepal’s SDG Deficit: Progress Assessment, Bottlenecks, and Strategic Pathways to Agenda 2030

Abstract

This study is review based structural approach to review Nepal's progress in the SDG implementation of Agenda 2030. The study was focused on evaluate baseline and midterm progress with respect to ultimate target 2030 at the sub-national level. The study used descriptive approach that incorporates quantitative information from national reviews on fiscal and administrative contexts. The results indicate a clear dichotomy in the development path of Nepal. Nepal has made significant improvements in the simple indicators of physical access and ecological conservation such as access to electricity, drinking water and forest cover but is making poor progress in the more complex indicators of economic and institutional development such as industrial value added to GDP and youth employment. This study highlights the systemic challenges that limit progress such as capital expenditure that takes place in the last month of the fiscal year (known as “AsareBikas” or “Asar development”), the lack of technical staff on the ground, weak inter-governmental coordination, and continued use of national average statistics that mask local poverty cycles. The public sustainable development financing gap is huge, about NPR 426 billion in Nepal, which is approximately 13.4 percent of the annual national investment need of NPR 3.023 trillion. In order to deal with this implementation gap by 2030, the study suggests a four-pillar strategic roadmap: Updating the Public Procurement Act and enacting Civil Service Act, creating a shared regional technical human resource pool, digitizing sub-national data system and mobilizing innovative green financing instruments. The findings provide policy guidance that can be used to drive measurable, equitable outcomes to realize Nepal's SDG commitments while upholding the principle of Leave no one Behind(LNOB).