Chapter 2
Reducing poverty and improving lives Introduction Every year over 450,000 Nepalis enter the workforce with little or no hope of finding employment in the domestic labour market. According to one government estimate, over 1,000 people leave Nepal every day to seek jobs abroad, but a large number of them get cheated or exploited in the process. While Nepal’s economy is growing at a decent rate, there are never enough jobs created to meet the demand for domestic employment. Agriculture, which contributes 34 per cent to Nepal’s GDP, is the primary source of income for approximately 70 per cent of the population. Employment in the agricultural sector is, however, seasonal and the unemployment rate is very high. Lack of employment opportunities, coupled with a high rate of population growth has resulted in the underutilisation of between 40-50% of the adult workforce. This has accentuated the incidence of poverty, particularly in rural areas of Nepal.
MEDEP supported micro-entrepreneur Dhal Bahadur Dahal in his vegetable farm
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U ND P- N E PAL AN N UAL R E P OR T 2012
UNDP works closely with the Government of Nepal to meet the economic needs of rural people, especially the needs of those who live below the poverty line. Besides providing policy support at the central level, the Microenterprise Development Programme (MEDEP), Enhancing Access to Financial Services (EAFS) and Livelihood Recovery for Peace (LRP) projects are helping to improve livelihoods, improve economic growth and enable progress toward achieving the MDGs.