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SCP Context

Nepal National Context for SCP and Connection to the Global Agenda

Nepal has expressed its commitment to pursuing and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030. The National Planning Commission (NPC) of the Government of Nepal has prepared the first SDG country report in 2015 and the status and roadmap report in early 2018 engaging a wide range of stakeholders to articulate development priorities, targets, resource needs, and suggest institutional prerequisites to support implementation of the SDGs, including SDG 12. The report highlighted that SDG12 has a great role in generating and sustaining resources to improve the average quality of life. Main priority of the SDG12 in Nepal is the efficient management of natural resources, food, energy, waste and toxic pollutants. For example, Nepal commits to keep 75% of cultivated land from existing 80%, reduce wood consumption from 0.11 to 0.05 m3per person per year, plastic use close to nil, reduce post-harvest loss of food from 15% to 1% by 2030. The government has identified responsible ministries, including the Ministry of Forests and Environment, Agriculture, Education, Irrigation and Finance. The Government of Nepal has already begun to reorient the policies, periodic plans, annual budgets and monitoring and evaluation frameworks to reflect SDGs commitments. Three high-level committees have been formed to help implement SDGs, including a Steering Committee chaired by the Prime Minister. The government has also started to bring the private sector in the implementation of SDGs and has submitted its Volunteer National Review in 2017.

Challenges

Devising and harmonizing policy frameworks to integrate SCP approaches - sustainable management of resources and resource efficiency (decoupling of economic growth from resource use) - considering the overarching objective of the sustainability in key sectoral strategies (such as in forests, agriculture, industry, climate change) and periodic plans.
Weak knowledge and evidence on sustainable consumption and production approaches and their benefits; for example, through circular economy, decoupling economic growth with resource use and resource efficiency to policy and decision makers at various government levels (including provincial and local governments).
Inadequate awareness and sensitization to behavioural change of stakeholders toward less consumption and capacity of stakeholders to manage the integrative nature of SCP.
Existing priorities on the short term economic growth models that deplete disproportionately high amount of natural resources without considering the economic valuation of ecosystems’ services and longer sustainability.
Inappropriate financial instruments to support SCP and weak access to finance and eco-innovative technologies to small and medium scale entrepreneurs working on SCP issues.
Weak assessment of results and outcomes of actions due to existing inadequate measurement mechanisms.

Priorities

Due to the complex and integrative nature of SCP, Nepal needs to adopt multiple and result-oriented strategies for integrating SCP approaches into core sectoral strategies and in the forthcoming 15th development plan. In addition, the country needs to prepare an action plan to operationalize SCP in Nepal considering the targets and milestones presented in the SDG status and roadmap report prepared by the government. Specific themes may include:

Sustainable management of natural resources, including forest resources and agriculture/sustainable food systems. These are important for managing energy and carbon footprint. Energy efficient technologies and approaches are also needed.
With the increasing urbanisation process, developing green cities (energy efficiency, green building codes and waste management, among others) is equally important for the proper management of resources.

Raise mass awareness to promote conscious consumer behaviour, ethical consumption, eco-market sensitivity.
Devise resource management of eco-friendly financial instruments, access to eco-friendly technologies, public procurement mechanisms, consideration of ecosystem services valuation and generating evidence on the effectiveness of these new approaches.
Promote localization of SCP approaches in partnership with local government and private sector (small and medium scale).

Opportunities

Through its SDGs status and road map report, the government has identified targets, timelines and mechanisms for the implementation of SDG12 and other SDGs. The government has also been developing its 15th periodic plan and Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and strategies. Opportunities exist to integrate SCP approaches within the latter.
With the new provincial and local governments, the federal structure is now in place. All seven Provincial Governments are now working on their periodic plans and SDGs can become important components of the period plans.
With the increasing awareness on climate change, disaster risks and environmental degradation, policy and decision makers are more aware of the importance of SCP approaches and patterns. In addition, the strong support of the EU has created a critical mass fostering wider promotion of SCP.

SWITCH-Asia Activities

2018

SCP Facility

Preliminary assessment of SCP related policies, activities, needs/gaps, and opportunities.

Regional Policy Advocacy Component (RPAC)

Facilitated the participation of Nepalese key-stakeholders in the following regional/ sub-regional activities:

Asia Pacific Low Carbon Lifestyles Challenge (19-22 Mar 2018), hosted by Thailand, regional level
Transforming Asia Pacific: Innovative Solutions, Circular Economy and Low Carbon Lifestyles (17-19 Sep 2018), hosted by Thailand, regional level
Asian Circular Economy Leadership Academy (3-8 Dec 2018), hosted by Thailand, regional level

2019

Regional Policy Advocacy Component (RPAC)

Facilitated the participation of Nepalese key-stakeholders in the following regional/ sub-regional activities:

“Sustainability Reporting – Thinking Circular Economy by Businesses” - This event was organised back-to-back with 2019 Asia Pacific Forum on Sustainable Development (27 Mar 2019), hosted by Thailand, regional level
Businesses Accelerating Inclusive Green Economies – "Leaving No One Behind” - Side event on the Responsible Business and Human Rights Forum co-organised by the Royal Thai Government, OECD, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), ESCAP, International Labour Organization (ILO) and with the participation of the UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights (11 Jun 2019), hosted by Thailand, regional level
WEBINAR: SDG 12.1 Reporting for SWITCH-Asia Countries – Connecting the dots between actions and reporting (5 Nov 2019), regional level
Policy Dialogue on SDG12 Reporting (21 Nov 2019), hosted by Vietnam, regional level
2019 SWITCH-Asia Leadership Academy on Circular Economy (2-6 Dec 2019), hosted by China, regional level
"Supporting decision making on SCP through training on Sustainable Procurement” - This event was organised back-to-back with International Conference on Sustainable Energy and Green Technology 2019 (11 Dec 2019, hosted by Thailand, regional level

2020

Facilitated the participation of Nepali key-stakeholders in the following regional/ sub-regional activities:

SWITCH2Green Meeting (Apr 2020)- RPAC initiated the discussion and shared the first report in 2020.
Moving the Needle on Climate Change (10 Jun 2020)– The event was co-organised by the UNESCAP as a part of the 2020 Virtual United Nations Responsible Business and Human Right Forum (RBHRF), regional level
World Environment Day 2020 (5-7 Jun 2020)– A media kit was provided to call for action to promote SCP as a part of the 2020 World Environment Day (WED) celebration, regional level
Intervention in regional forum: Webinar on Sustainable Lifestyles for Plastics & Packaging Waste Management During a Pandemic COVID-19 (6 Aug 2020), regional level
SCP in Tourism: Opportunities and Challenges with COVID-19 (8 Oct 2020), regional level
Innovation and Connectivity through Farm to Fork (13 Nov 2020), regional level
Sustainable Lifestyles for SCP (19 Nov 2020), hosted by Thailand, regional level
Sub-regional Workshop on SPP for SACEP Countries (25 November 2020), the event was organised in partnership with South Asia Co-operative Environment Programme (SACEP) for South Asia region, Sub-regional level
Support to Steering Committee of SWITCH-Asia (3 Dec 2020)– RPAC provided support for the annual Steering Committee Meeting and proposed 2021 workplan, regional level
Regional Policy Dialogue on Circular Cities (4 Dec 2020), regional level
Regional Dialogue Driving Mechanisms for Eco-Design in Asia (9 Dec 2020), regional level
Leadership Academy on Circular Economy 2020 (14-18 Dec 2020), regional level
Webinar: Innovations & Startups (16 Dec 2020), regional level