Ph.D. Candidate: Mr. Mahesh Kumar Shrestha
Though planned developmental housing efforts in Kathmandu valley was initiated since 1971, no programs or policies for housing the urban poor have been effective. Shelter for all has been taken as an important component in the National Shelter Policy 1996. Shelter has been taken as a point of entry into the process of national development, which is a good departure from earlier policies reflecting low priority given to the housing sector in investment plans and programs. The Tenth Plan Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper 2002-2007 stated that the main objective of developmental efforts in Nepal is poverty alleviation. Its sole objective is to achieve a reduction in the poverty level in Nepal from 38 per cent to 30 percent by the end of the Tenth Plan, and to further reduce it to 10 percent in fifteen years time. It is stated that the National Planning Commission will undertake a Poverty Mapping exercise to identify the poor and that work is underway to develop comprehensive institutional arrangements for measuring and evaluating the impact and outcomes of poverty reduction efforts. But there is no mention about any plans, policies of housing the urban poor, which is pivotal in the poverty reduction program.