SAM KANG LI

In recent decades, foreign aid has been taken for granted in Nepal. Much ink has of course been spilt on how this fosters dependency on the part of the Nepali state and beneficiaries of aid, as well as a system that encourages inefficiency and corruption. This is in part due to the sheer volume of cash that flows into an otherwise unproductive economy. But only the most cynical would contest the fact that development assistance has done much to improve the condition of Nepalis across the country.

One of the more fraught debates has been the one surrounding food security, and in particular the role of the World Food Programme in addressing it. With funding drying up significantly for the latter's operations in Nepal in the next couple of years, and numbers targeted set to decline from a high of 2.4 million to 1.8 million, food security is primed to hit the headlines once more.
There will be those who will predict a catastrophe in the far west, and others who will say it is just as well. The World Food Programme itself continues to advocate for food assistance while adjusting its programs to the exigencies of funding. But whether you believe food security is an issue in Nepal or not, the debate raises the equally important question of whether development assistance has been as effective as it should be.

This has little to do with whether development agencies have met their targets in disbursing aid where promised, and much more to do with the actual impacts on the people targeted. The fact that we debate the World Food Programme's effectiveness is encouraging, but too often media coverage peters out in a flurry of accusations that distract from the main issue of food security. The countless organisations implementing development programs produce reams of publications, but one gets the feeling that this is for the benefit of those who fund them rather than the Nepali public.

More needs to be done by development agencies and government to establish what is working and what is not � through impact evaluation studies that distinguish between causal and corollary impacts and answer the important question of what might have happened had the development intervention not taken place at all � and disseminate the results to the public. That way Nepalis can decide for themselves and move beyond generic, knee-jerk accusations. So when something as significant happens as the World Food Programme providing food assistance to half a million less Nepalis from one year to the next, we actually know what to make of it, and how to respond.

Foreign aid in Nepal is far more than a gravy train that runs in the background of our economic and social lives, or something that only poor people are dependent on. If ever one needed to be reminded, it funds about a third of our national budget � that is, the state's total expenditure � and about three fourths of the state's development expenditure. Foreign aid affects every single one of us. So it is incumbent upon us to demand to know how much foreign aid is coming in, where it is going, and what impact is has on the lives of those it is meant to improve.

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