They may be illiterate and poor in capital, but rural Nepalis possess common sense and a heritage of traditional technology. Their abilities must be used innovatively to turn the agrarian economy around.
If it is true that development efforts of the past four decades have bypassed Nepal's poor and disadvantaged — the marginal fanner, poor households headed by women, and artisans — then the issue is how to redress the imbalance. What strategy can we adopt for people-oriented, participatory development?
The single most important lesson that emerges from past experience in Nepal and elsewhere is that the people themselves will have to get involved in their own development. This is hardly a dramatic discovery, but the lesson has yet to penetrate or form the bedrock of development programmes of the government and donors. They have yet to find ways to involve the people in projects aimed at self-sustaining indigenous development.
For development to be genuinely self-sustaining, impulses and initiatives must come from within the community. Those impulses and initiatives are there, normally dormant, in every community, howsoever "underdeveloped". What is required is to identify them and nurture them with appropriate institutional and material support. This is where public sector bodies, voluntary institutions and international agencies can play their most significant role, provided they can find the right mechanisms.