Nepal

PERMANENT MISSION OF NEPAL TO THE UNITED NATIONS
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Statement by Mr. Suman Prasad Sharma, Secretary, Ministry of Finance, Government of Nepal at the Inter-governmental Negotiations on the Post-2015 Development Agenda, New York, 21 April 2015


Mr. Co-facilitators,

I thank you for giving me the floor.

I fully align with statements delivered on behalf of the Group of G 77 and China, LDCs, and LLDCs respectively.

Nepal supports the collective global wisdom towards defining the transformative Post-2015 Development Agenda including the SDGs and targets, which aim to move the world towards creating a more equitable society and a better livable place for all of us here on this planet. We firmly believe that strong linkages must be developed to provide the much needed synergy and complementarities between the "Financing for Sustainable Development" and the "Post- 2015 Development Agenda".

Country ownerships are important towards the realization of SDGs, which will be best exhibited by increased mobilization of internal resources by these countries, made available through efficient allocation and utilization of their own resources. Having said this, we should not forget that, for LDCs, reforms in tax regimes, particularly additional taxation on carbon emission and removal of subsidies in fuel prices, as being frequently suggested here, will be pressed by the international community to generate the much needed additional resources. This has a risk that the cost of development in LDCs will go up, which in turn will compromise on the ability of these governments to allocate the much needed resources for achievement of SDGs.

Trade facilitation, therefore, starts to become very important to relieve this stress of LDCs. Easier and competitive linkages to markets, capacity building of small countries to improve the access of their people to international markets and their abilities to rise up the value chain coupled with more efficient utilization of ODA will likely offset this problem and must be pursued by developed economies.

The Post-2015 Development agenda with it's 17 goals and 169 targets presents a robust framework for development that encompasses a wide range of human development challenges comprising social, economic and environmental aspects of development. But, we should also not forget the risk that country efforts, particularly those in LDCs, are likely to be thinly spread over this large number of indicators, which will compromise on the ability of these countries to pursue a holistic and comprehensive picture of their outputs and outcomes. It is therefore necessary, to come up with a robust monitoring framework, which will pay particular attention to this risk and will help synthesize the information spread over these large number of indicators to comprehensible forms, so that analytical monitoring and synthesis of the information derived from monitoring of the actions will help to support the respective countries to keep the holistic picture in focus. LDCs will need capacity enhancement support towards this process?


Mr. Co-facilitators,

Coming to the issue of Climate Change and it's effects, LDCs like Nepal, contribute negligibly to the process of climate change -an average Nepali uses less that 100 KW energy/capita/year. Despite our very limited contribution, rise in global temperature, leading to melting of snow in the Himalayas presents a direct threat of flash floods and landslides, which are likely to wash away many farm lands and take away jobs from million of Nepalese in the most marginalized areas of the country. The effects will not be limited at the local levels but they will have broader impact in countries like India, Bangladesh and even Maldives, which will suffer from floods and rise of water level in the seas and oceans. It therefore, becomes paradoxical to ask such countries to generate their own funds or mobilize ODA for mitigating against effects of climate change. It is not only unjust, that victims of climate change are being asked to pay from their own resources to mitigate against the negative effects of Climate Change. Allocation of scarce resources in these countries for Climate Change actions, may also mean lesser fund availability to support the new agenda, which will mean that LDCs will lose out further in the race of development.

It is therefore imperative that Climate Change financing must be totally separated from and de linked with ODA assistance.

Thank you.