Dec 15, 2020

Human Development Report 2020

Thirty years ago, UNDP created a new way to conceive and measure progress. Instead of using growth in GDP as the sole measure of development, we ranked the world’s countries by their human development: by whether people in each country have the freedom and opportunity to live the lives they value. The 2020 Human Development Report (HDR) doubles down on the belief that people’s agency and empowerment can bring about the action we need if we are to live in balance with the planet in a fairer world. It shows that we are at an unprecedented moment in history, in which human activity has become a dominant force shaping the planet. These impacts interact with existing inequalities, threatening significant development reversals. Nothing short of a great transformation – in how we live, work and cooperate – is needed to change the path we are on. The Report explores how to jumpstart that transformation. The climate crisis. Biodiversity collapse. Ocean acidification. The list is long and growing longer. So much so that many scientists believe that for the first time, instead of the planet shaping humans, humans are knowingly shaping the planet. This is the Anthropocene – the Age of Humans - a new geologic epoch. Though humanity has achieved incredible progress, we have taken the Earth for granted, destabilizing the very systems upon which we rely for survival. Covid-19, which almost certainly sprang to humans from animals, offers a glimpse of our future, in which the strain on our planet mirrors the strain facing societies. It took Covid-19 very little time to expose and exploit overlapping inequalities, as well as weaknesses in social, economic, and political systems, and threaten reversals in human development. While the devastating effects of Covid-19 have taken the world’s attention, other layered crises, from climate change to rising inequalities, continue to take their toll. The challenges of planetary and societal imbalance are intertwined: they interact in a vicious circle, each making the other worse. How should we react to this new age? Do we choose to strike out on bold new paths striving to continue human development while easing planetary pressures? Or do we choose to try—and ultimately fail—to go back to business as usual and be swept into a dangerous unknown? This Human Development Report is firmly behind the first choice, and its arguments go beyond summarizing well-known lists of what can be done to achieve it.

Dec 13, 2020

Nepal Human Development Report 2020

Nepal has been publishing the Nepal Human Development Report since 1998, with the focus shifting considering the needs of the country. The last Nepal Human Development Report in 2014 focused mainly on the human capability approach to development. Since then, profound changes have occurred in the political, economic, social and governance spheres. With the promulgation of the new Constitution in 2015 and its successive enforcement, the country has moved to a federated political system with three levels of government. With this major change, Nepali society, which was under the strain of a deep-rooted feudal history and culture, has been changing. The Constitution guaranteed the fundamental rights of the people. The adoption of three levels of democratic government now has rippled through different spheres of development and human life. Therefore, the Nepal Human Development Report 2020: Beyond LDC Graduation: Productive Transformation and Prosperity has focused on how Nepal could meaningfully advance towards sustainable human development at a faster pace.

Dec 1, 2020

Practitioner Guideline for the Operation of Judicial Committee

Enhancing Access to Justice through Institutional Reform Project (A2J Project) has developed a Practitioner Guideline for the operation of Judicial Committee (JC) in the COVID pandemic context. The guideline highlights on the challenges faced by victims in accessing justice during the pandemic and details out the rights and responsibilities of the Judicial Committee and its roles in delivering justice at local level particularly focusing on women, children, senior citizens, Dalit and other marginalized communities. This basically provides the guideline for the operation of the JC during and post lockdown period. The guideline covers issues such as; needful preparedness for the continuation of the judicial services and communication thereof, service delivery, safety and security of victims and incident management personnel, facilities relating to health and safety, discourse of communication against gender based violence, coordination and collaboration among the stakeholders, developing checklist for the monitoring committee formed for relief distribution and quarantine management in view of addressing the corona pandemic etc.