Nepal is falling behind in targets to meet the UN's millennium development goals (MDGs) to halve poverty by 2015. With only 10 years to go, the Maoist rebellion and political instability are holding back development, particularly in rural areas. "It will be a difficult task to achieve the targets due to the conflict and poor governance," says development expert Mohan Man Sainju. Nepal needs to cut poverty by half, reduce the proportion of people suffering from hunger, attain 100 percent enrolment, reduce child and maternal mortality rates and halve the incidence of malaria and other preventable diseases.

The government says it reduced poverty by 31 percent over the past five years but experts say this reduction is a consequence of growth in remittances from Nepali migrant workers abroad. "This (poverty reduction) is a matter for debate. Remittances are not a sustainable and authentic indicator of how far poverty has been reduced," said Prerna Bomzan from Rural Reconstruction Nepal (RRN).

Nepal's maternal and child mortality rates are the highest in the region. In September Nepal has to submit a progress report to the UN in Geneva on meeting MDG targets. Activist groups, fearing the government may attempt a whitewash is preparing an alternative report.

"It depends on the intensity of the conflict. Once there is peace, we could achieve about 75 percent of the MDGs," says NPC Vice- Chairman Shankar Sharma. Indeed, the only silver lining seems to be in education, where despite conflict enrolment rates are up. In a bid to ensure that the MDGs are achievable in Nepal, the UN has initiated the Millennium Campaign which plans to use NGOs and civic groups to help raise mass awareness of, and participation in, the development process. (IRIN)