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Nepal, nestled in the heart of the Himalayas, boasts a rich tapestry of culture, tradition and natural beauty. Yet, beneath its picturesque landscapes lies a healthcare sector grappling with challenges while teeming with untapped potential. As the nation strides toward socio-economic prosperity, the transformation of its healthcare landscape can prove to be substantive through interventions like augmenting investment along with promoting public and private sector collaboration in bolstering medical tourism, oriental health care practices, pharmaceutical industry and medical education.

At the core of Nepal’s healthcare discourse lies the issue of healthcare expenditure, measured as a percentage of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP). While developed nations like the United States allocate a substantial portion of their GDP — 17.3 percent, to be precise — toward healthcare, Nepal’s investment in this vital sector remains comparatively modest. However, as the wheels of economic development gain momentum, there exists a ripe opportunity to bolster healthcare spending, thereby catalyzing improved health outcomes and driving socioeconomic advancement.

The dichotomy between public and private healthcare sectors paints a nuanced picture of Nepal’s healthcare landscape. The Health Management Information System (HMIS) 2020-21 data shed light on the significant role of private hospitals, with a higher proportion of patients seeking care in these facilities compared to their public counterparts. Yet, rather than viewing this as a stark division, fostering collaboration between the public and private sectors emerges as a potent strategy to fortify Nepal’s healthcare ecosystem. By incentivizing private sector investment in healthcare infrastructure, quality assurance measures, and capacity-building, Nepal can forge a path toward enhanced service delivery and sectoral development.

In the realm of medical tourism, Nepal remains as a hidden gem, offering a blend of high-quality medical treatments at affordable rates against the backdrop of breathtaking landscapes from the touristic perspective and the intensity of the global flow of medical tourists. The global medical tourism industry, valued at $9.7bn in 2022, presents a lucrative opportunity for Nepal to showcase its prowess in healthcare provision. Cosmetic procedures, dental care, infertility treatments — Nepal’s offerings resonate with individuals seeking quality healthcare services without breaking the bank. Organizations like the Nepal Medical Tourism Organization (NEMTO) play a pivotal role in elevating Nepal as a premier medical tourism destination, thereby bolstering the economy and the healthcare sector in tandem.

While modern medicine holds sway, the integration of alternative medicine — Ayurveda, Yog, traditional healing practices — presents a symbiotic relationship between health improvement and tourism development. Embracing these age-old practices not only expands healthcare options for citizens but also taps into the burgeoning trend of holistic wellness travel. As global travelers seek sanctuary in Nepal’s tranquil abodes, the convergence of traditional wisdom and modern healthcare catapults the nation onto the world stage as a beacon of well-being and rejuvenation.

In terms of pharmaceuticals, Nepal stands at the cusp of innovation and self-reliance. With pharmaceuticals constituting a significant portion of healthcare expenditure, investing in local production holds the promise of reducing dependence on imports and stimulating economic growth. Strategic investments, regulatory reforms and international partnerships pave the way for Nepal to emerge as a pharmaceutical powerhouse, aligning its healthcare sector with global standards and amplifying its impact on regional markets.

Amidst the promises of progress lie challenges that demand attention and resolve. The unfilled MBBS seats for international students underscore the need for strategic interventions to attract talent and maximize the sector's potential. Strategic advertising campaigns highlighting Nepal’s quality medical education, affordable fees and promising career prospects can serve as a beacon, drawing aspiring medical professionals to Nepal's shores and addressing economic concerns in one fell swoop.

In conclusion, Nepal’s healthcare sector stands at a crossroads of transformation and innovation. By embracing challenges as opportunities, Nepal has the potential to emerge as a beacon of healthcare excellence in the region and beyond. Through sensible interventions in the aforementioned sectors Nepal can chart a course toward a healthier, more prosperous future — a future where healthcare transcends boundaries and transforms lives.

Deepa Gurung, popularly known as ‘GDiipa_inspo’ on Instagram, is more than just a renowned makeup artist. She is a dynamic beauty entrepreneur. She’s the founder of Pari Cosmetics, a Nepali cosmetic brand. She’s also the co-founder of TTDeye colored contact lenses. She runs makeup classes in Nepal, Hong Kong, and many cities across the UK.

Gurung, originally from Pokhara, Nepal, moved to Hong Kong at a young age and spent around two decades there. After living in the UK for five years, she has now returned to Nepal to launch her brand in her homeland. Her business operates primarily online and she’s currently busy establishing its headquarters in Nepal, managing the customer service team, and ensuring overall smooth operations.

She always dreamt of having her own business. When she was young, she did different odd jobs to save up for it. She started working as a freelance makeup artist and even got to work with wealthy clients in Hong Kong. Being around luxury got her interested in the business side of things. She realized that if you showcase your products well and focus on quality, your business can do well. So, armed with skills and knowledge, she started Pari Cosmetics in 2017, manufacturing makeup brushes as her first product. And in 2019, she officially launched her beauty products.

A few months ago, she officially kicked off Pari Cosmetics and TTDeye in Nepal, throwing a big party where she invited many influencers and Nepali celebrities. Despite being a new face in the Nepali media scene, she says, she was overwhelmed by the incredible love and support she received from everyone who attended. Bringing her beauty brand to Nepal is a major achievement for her, she says. 

She fully commits to overcoming challenges, not letting moments of doubt or obstacles hold her back. In both business and personal life, she fearlessly takes strategic risks and thinks ahead. Although she had a settled life in Hong Kong with a successful brand and product, she felt something was amiss. She says she was struggling with past relationships and her people-pleasing tendency was putting her at a disadvantage. In the summer of 2019, to start afresh, she left her investments and everything behind and boarded a flight to the UK to be with her mother and sisters, which certainly made a big difference in her life.

“In business, I love the idea of us working together like a family. Our focus is on progress, not getting entangled in unhealthy competition. I consistently urge everyone, regardless of their position, to be kind and respectful,” says Gurung. 

She believes a happy workplace brings positive outcomes. Instead of restricting employees to monotonous tasks, she mentors and provides space for talent development, avoiding monotony in tasks while also valuing creative input from each team member.

Gurung, 32, is adamant about not compromising on the quality of production or visual presentation. She ensures top-notch quality by using excellent studio lighting, professional cameras, and a well-set-up environment to showcase their products in the best way possible.

Pari Cosmetics aims to become a household brand. “We aim to cater to the Nepali diaspora worldwide,” says Gurung. Emphasizing a clean and vegan approach, the founder ensures their products are cruelty-free and sustainable. “It’s more on the natural side and our packaging doesn’t use hard plastic,” she says. 

Not only is she nurturing her own brand, but she’s also raising her toddler while juggling attending events, conducting makeup classes, and traveling across the country. She discusses how parenting responsibilities are shared with her partner, Sagar Gurung, the founder of Gunda London. She acknowledges him as a support system for personal growth and values their friendship and partnership. 

She was a judge in the Miss World America beauty pageant. Despite being well-known in the beauty industry, she is humble and readily compliments others. She’s friendly and doesn’t hesitate to reach out to people. “Your network is your net worth,” she says. She believes in the continuous journey of learning, emphasizing that nobody’s perfect. By experimenting, improving skills, and keeping an open mind, she believes, you can achieve success.

She aims to launch a full makeup line and skincare products under Pari Cosmetics within two years. Her vision is to expand her franchise across cities in Nepal to make quality products accessible to everyone. The prices are slightly on the higher side and Gurung hopes to make them affordable in the future. The main obstacle, she says, is the high import taxes. It has affected her business plan. But she remains determined to provide quality products that everyone can afford.

“Many of the products Nepalis purchase are from India and other countries. We shouldn’t rely so heavily on imports,” she says, adding Nepal should focus on growing its economy by manufacturing most of the things it imports. For this, Nepal must invest in its youth and give them the incentive to explore and learn innovative, international practices and bring those skills back home.

Nepal has a new Minister for Youth and Sports.

Perhaps this is the opportunity for the nation to come up with robust solutions to develop two areas of policy-making that have been traditionally neglected and relegated to a second-class status within the domains of decision-making. Biraj Bhakta Shrestha is the new minister and he has some daunting tasks ahead of him.

To be fair to his predecessor, Dig Bahadur Limbu, it would be interesting to assess what has been done during the previous government. Yet is it not yet a practice to review and give scores to what has been achieved. Perhaps it is also difficult to do so because rarely do governments of the day have a clear vision of goals and tasks to be achieved portfolio-wise.

Coming to the new minister, from what newspapers are saying, there is an air of optimism about Shrestha and what he could do.

Let’s not forget that he belongs to a party, the Rastriya Swatantra Party, that has considerable leverage over Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal.

The first big mission for him is to make his ministry relevant, a heavy weight within the echelons of power in Singha Durbar.

For now, it is almost a mission impossible considering the disregard that, so far, youth-related policies have been objects of.

How about starting a series of consultations with youth organizations and sports stakeholders?

This is certainly a no-brainer and I do hope that Shrestha and his team are already coming up with a bold exercise of listening to and engaging with them.

Imagine a series of meetings, quite informal in nature, in Kathmandu but outside the walls of Singha Durbar and around the nation where “open mike” sessions can unfold in an environment where participants can feel the freedom to speak their minds.

They would also feel empowered because perhaps, this time around, there is now a higher chance that their voices and concerns would also count.

Indeed, there are a lot of things that need discussing.

To start with, are the current national policies effective?

Well, we already know the answer to this question.

The key point would be finding practical, doable ways to turn them around.

Probably, commonsense would indicate that there is no time to radically change the existing plans.

Instead, there might be space to twist them and modify them a bit, in order to make such plans more effective.

Giving ownership to the stakeholders is one step to strengthen the Ministry of Youth and Sports but then, it is going to be paramount to get the buy-in of the prime minister.

This means not only more resources for it but also a special attention to the policy proposals that are going to be mapped out and then implemented.

Coming up with an ambitious but at the same time realistic action plan with achievable milestones is going to be the second most important thing for Shrestha.

Reviewing and assessing the institutional effectiveness of the bodies under the ministry should be on top of this list.

For example, how fit for the purpose are institutions like the National Youth Council or National Sport Council? What about the National Olympic Committee?

What about the motivation, strengths and constraints of the employees of these bodies? How can the staff working there provide more value for their work?

Having their concerns fully on board would give Shrestha an edge to turn around these institutions.

Within both portfolios under the purview of the ministry, youths-related and sports-related, there are certainly linkages and commonalities that have not been meaningfully exploited.

Ideally, the National Youth Council or National Sport Council should not work in silos as it is common practice now.

Instead, there should be in place an institutional cooperative framework to carry out, though through different means, the overarching goals of the ministry.

Talking about implementation, it is also essential to come up with a partnership framework with NGOs and not for profit organizations, especially in the youth sector.

There are so many promising organizations active in areas like youth leadership and climate action but funding is always a thorny issue.

The more the ministry works with them, the easier for the nation to realize ambitious goals of development.

It’s also of paramount importance to work out a strategy to empower the provinces’ work in the empowerment of youths, including through sports.

This is a tough area also because, within the Rastriya Swatantra Party, there is a certain dose of skepticism toward provinces.

At the same time, each of these two dimensions has specific subsets of areas. For example, promoting volunteerism should be a major agenda of the ministry.

Perhaps this is the right time to dust off the draft National Volunteering Policy that has been waiting for a formal endorsement by the Federal Cabinet for more than three years.

We know very well that volunteerism has been underappreciated and its value has been underestimated.

It should not be the case because civic engagement, the engine behind any volunteering activity, is an essential part of the national fabric.

The problem is that it has never been fully leveraged nor understood.

In the sports field, there is so much to be done, especially at tapping the potential of youngsters, starting from childhood.

Nepal should not only focus on boosting and developing its elite athletes even though, for obvious reasons, it is essential to recognize and acknowledge them.

Positively enough, at least for the major sports, something has been happening in this regard.

Yet it is essential, while making difficult choices and prioritizing for funding, to recognize that promoting sports at young ages is very important.

Doing so would require a cross-sectoral effort because, for example, schools and colleges do play an important role in this regard.

Think about the role of private colleges in promoting basketball.

Yet future champions should also emerge from public schools and here some collaborations with the Ministry of Education, also under Minister Shrestha’s party, could make a difference.

Then there is the vastly-neglected area of adaptive sports.

Athletes with disabilities deserve the same respect and treatment received by their able-bodied peers.

Many of them are frustrated and their potential is severely impacted by lack of action to support them.

Wheelchair table-tennis, wheelchair basketball, blind cricket and deaf football, for example, just to mention a few disciplines, have a huge scope for growth if investments are made.

Then, setting some targets will matter. How many youths of the nations would be undertaking volunteering activities?

How many of such acts would be one-off versus more long-term ones? How many interschools sports competitions should be organized?

How many medals should Nepal aim for at the next South Asia or Asian Games? What about the targets for Los Angeles 2028?

The new Minister for Youth and Sports has tons of work ahead but only a different style of work and grounded ambition can help him.

I wish Minister Shrestha best of luck.

The author is the co-founder of ENGAGE and The Good Leadership. Views are personal

In recent weeks, the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP), the fourth largest political entity in the House of Representatives (HoR), has emerged as a focal point in national politics.

Firstly, the primary opposition, the Nepali Congress (NC), has been demanding resignation of RSP leader Rabi Lamichhane from the post of deputy prime minister and minister for home affairs over his alleged involvement in a fund misappropriation from a Pokhara-based financial cooperative. 

Several NC leaders have demanded that Lamichhane step down to facilitate an independent and impartial investigation.

While some Congress leaders, notably General Secretary Gagan Kumar Thapa, have vocally criticized Lamichhane, internal dissent persists, with some advocating for patience before demanding resignation so soon after the formation of a new coalition. Some factions within the party believe that ousting the RSP from the coalition could jeopardize the current alliance. They are of the view that the party should wait for at least 100 days before demanding Lamichhane’s resignation.

Furthermore, there are also voices within the NC that suggest adopting a more conciliatory approach toward the RSP, acknowledging the potential for future collaboration, especially if all communist parties unite in subsequent elections. Despite the assertive stance of figures like Thapa, senior leader Shekhar Koirala, and certain youth leaders, Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba maintains a neutral stance.

Shankar Tiwari, an NC youth leader and a political analyst, emphasizes the party’s commitment to upholding the rule of law, stressing the importance of ensuring that ongoing investigations into Lamichhane remain uninfluenced by political power dynamics. He argues that Lamichhane's appointment as home minister presents a conflict of interest, particularly as he is under police investigation, setting aside any political motivations.

Nevertheless, critics view the Congress’ stance as an attempt to prevent Home Minister Lamichhane from opening old corruption cases, which could potentially implicate its own leaders. The RSP too accuses the main opposition party of stifling its voice by disrupting parliamentary proceedings. 

Lamichhane told a gathering on Saturday that he was willing to engage in a debate with NC General Secretary Thapa in his own constituency, Kathmandu-4. He said the allegations leveled against him by the NC were baseless.

Thapa had claimed in the HoR that Lamichhane was involved in the misuse of funds from the Pokhara-based Suryadarshan Cooperatives, citing a report commissioned by the Pokhara Metropolitan City. 

“A study panel commissioned by the Pokhara Metropolitan City states in its report that one of the individuals opening a fake account in the cooperative is Rabi Lamichhane. Rs 10m has been released in Lamichhane's name, although he is not a member of the cooperative,” Thapa told parliament.

Lamichhane denies any wrongdoing and maintains that he hasn’t been named as a defendant in the case pertaining to the fund misuse of the financial cooperative in question. He has questioned NC’s political integrity, pointing that one of its sitting ministers had felt no moral compulsion to step down even when he was being investigated by the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority.  

Lamichhane was referring to former health minister and NC leader Mohan Bahadur Basnet, who is under investigation for his alleged involvement in a corruption case concerning the  procurement of Telecommunication Traffic Monitoring and Fraud Control System (TERAMOCS) of Nepal Telecommunication Authority (NTA). 

Friction has also arisen between the RSP and its coalition partners regarding a potential alliance in the forthcoming by-election scheduled for April 27 in Ilam-2 and Bajhang (A). Political observers say the CPN (Maoist Center) and CPN-UML will find it hard to deal with RSP in the coming days. 

While Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal of the Maoist party and KP Sharma Oli of the UML have stood by Lamichhane, potential sources of friction linger. Although the RSP played a pivotal role in forming the current alliance, doubts persist regarding the coalition's cohesion.

Recently, RSP Vice-chairperson Swarnim Wagle disclosed Prime Minister Dahal’s offer for the RSP to join the government some three months ago. “Many told us that we could have waited until 2027. But we felt if we can make positive changes from the government, why not accept the offer,” Wagle said about his party’s decision to join the ruling coalition. “We have chosen ministries related to good governance and youths. If we fail to deliver, we will step down.” 

Wagle’s rationale for accepting the offer also betrays RSP’s plan to pull out of the coalition if the party ministers are not allowed to work independently.    

Within the coalition, managing Lamichhane presents a significant challenge for Prime Minister Dahal and the UML. Earlier, Lamichhane had to leave the Home Ministry within a month after he was dragged into a controversy for holding dual passport and citizenship. But he is unlikely to give up that easily this time, even though the NC has been disrupting parliamentary sessions, demanding that the government investigate Lamichhane.

Despite controversies, Lamichhane’s popularity remains intact, as evidenced by his resounding victory in by-elections. RSP’s electoral successes in Chitwan and Tanahun have bolstered their confidence, and it plans to contest the upcoming by-elections and not support other coalition parties.  

The RSP’s reluctance to engage in electoral alliances signals a potential rift within the government, though it is unlikely to directly impact coalition dynamics. To influence the election and party’s popularity, Lamichhane could also leverage his position as home minister by investigating major corruption scandals involving the leaders of major political parties. If that happens, it could exacerbate tensions within the coalition.

To demonstrate effective governance, Lamichhane is already pursuing investigation into the gold smuggling case involving former parliament speaker and Maoist leader Krishna Prasad Mahara. RSP's long-term aspirations to emerge as a significant political force by the 2027 general elections may prompt them to withdraw from the government if hindered by Prime Minister Dahal and his main coalition ally, UML.

Senior RSP leaders assert their commitment to fulfilling promises or resigning, garnering tentative support from Prime Minister Dahal, who believes RSP ministers are more likely to deliver tangible results, shaping public opinion favorably. However, populist decisions by RSP ministers is likely to cause friction within the coalition. So, managing the RSP presents a formidable challenge for both ruling and opposition parties alike.