Inclusive Cities Resilient Communities

Third United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development (Habitat III):
National Report of NEPAL
instruments in unleashing local and
regional potentials to strengthen regional
and national economy through the
functioning of well-articulated urban
system at Federal and Provincial levels.
Cities can provide safe and secure
environment so that everyone can live,
work, and participate in urban life without
fear of violence and intimidation.
This New Agenda is expected to transform
Nepal by paving the way to sustainable
development and aims to integrate SDG 11
with the overall development perspective.
The Approach Paper of the 14 th
Plan
envisions to achieve socio-economic
transformation through planned
urbanization. Nepal is committed to
sustainable urbanization. This agenda in
compliance with the Approach Paper will
focus on removing urban deprivation for
realizing urban prosperity following an
inclusive approach. The implementation of
the Agenda will lead to the achievement of
SDG 11. Since Nepal will be engaged in
the implementation of SDG for 2030, this
agenda will be an effective tool for
implementing SDGs.
Nepal’s response to urbanization started
with the planning and development of
Kathmandu Valley during the late 1960’s. A
comprehensive regional plan was prepared
and published in 1969. The Fourth Plan
(1970-1975) envisaged the development of
regional centers and other nodal points of
road networks as urban centers. The
Seventh Plan (1985-1990) put urbanization
and housing policy in the national
development agenda for the first time. Basic
Housing Plan 1986 recognized housing as
the basic need of the people. The Eighth
Plan (1992-1997) highlighted the need for
making urban and rural areas
complementary to each other. The
significance of human settlements
development has been changing rapidly.
Its changing significance in Nepal is
evident from the study of policy shift over
the period. Initially it was considered to be
an unproductive sector and later priority
was laid on rural development in isolation.
The failure of such policies led to a growing
convergence of urbanization with the
process of overall development. Now,
urbanization is recognized as the best way
to sustainable development. Priority of any
Nepal Governments in recent times has
invariably been urban development.
Prior to HABITAT II, Nepal had a relatively
favorable political climate and there were
substantial efforts on human settlements
development. HABITAT II process helped
formulate relevant policies and LSGA was
also enacted in 1999. Nepal worked hard
on the preparatory process of Habitat II and
prepared a 20 year Action Plan. Nepal also
organized the Conference of the South
Asian Mayors as a regional event of Habitat
II. Nepal’s success in terms of local
national partnership as well as local
empowerment has been remarkable. Other
achievements in Nepal since 1996 include:
the new Constitution; innovations in
planning approaches; increasing
importance on risk sensitive land use
planning; the response to climate change;
and the preparation of relevant legislation
and policy documents including National
Urban Policy, 2007 and National Urban
Development Strategy. Nepal has been
able to demonstrate its overall resilience
due to its cultural heritage and cohesive
social system. One achievement on record
is Nepal’s ability to sustain this, which as a
matter of fact, largely helped her to respond
to the 2015 Earthquakes.
The common feature of successful
experiences such as integrated action
planning, land pooling, and housing and
real estate financing, is that they helped to
mobilize resources from the beneficiaries
and communities and from the free market.
These are based on the principle of
generating resources and capturing the
unearned income. Housing finance draws
resources from the market. Land
readjustment projects are self-financing.
Successful cases are also linked with their
ability to increase the access of the poor to
the opportunities created. Investment
made in housing sector in Nepal has been
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