The United Nations General Assembly has declared the year 2022 as the International Year of Sustainable Mountain Development (IYM 2022). The Resolution was endorsed by 94 UN member countries including Nepal. The United Nations has urged the global stakeholders to raise the imminent mountain-related issues and celebrate the year 2022 for sustainable mountain development. Governments, the private sector, civil society, and the media are requested to take part in the year 2022.
Being aligned with this declaration, Nepal is leading to celebrate the International Year of Sustainable Mountain Development 2022. The Ministry of Forests and Environment, Government of Nepal has been organizing a series of events, the partnership with the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), United Nations Development Program (UNDP), International Center for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), Dan Church Aid (DCA) and Karnali Integrated Rural Development and Research Centre (KIRDARC) Nepal. All the collaborative partners are contributing financially and technically to the effective and efficient celebration of the year 2022. Led by MoFE on behalf of the Government of Nepal, various activities have been planned in this year to mark the IYM 2022 in collaboration with numerous supporting partner institutions.
This ‘Dialogue with the Members of Parliament’ is a policy dialogue program organized as announced in the Regional Policy Dialogue on Sustainable Mountain Solutions in Chandragiri on March 23-24 2022 during the inaugural session of IYM2022. The dialogue event was organized by Ministry of Forest and Environment, Government of Nepal on 22 July 2022 at the Everest Hotel, New Baneshwor, Kathmandu. The chief guest in the dialogue was Hon. Agni Prasad Sapkota, Speaker of House of Representatives of Nepal. The program was chaired by Hon. Mr. Pradeep Yadav, Minister, Ministry of Forest and Environment and Special Guest was Hon. Pushpa Bhushal, Deputy Speaker of Speaker of House of Representatives of Nepal. This is a consultative meeting particularly with all the Chair of the Parliamentary Committees and Chief whips/whips of all political parties representing in the House of Representatives to sensitize them of the IYSMD 2022 declared by the UNGA. Though this interaction programme, their suggestions will be collected to be incorporate in the Mustang Policy Dialogue. The technical committee of the IYSMD is still working on developing the specific programme and it is considered the right time to solicit ideas from the parliamentarians. In addition, this meeting will also seize the opportunity to highlight some of the key challenges, policy gaps, opportunities for mountains. In the program, Dr. Prem Nayrayan Kandel, Secretary, Ministry of Forest and Environment welcomed the participant and shared the program objectives. And, the chief gust inaugurated the program by watering on Cupressus macrocarpa (dhupi) plant. Similarly, the experts presented their presentations in mountain agenda, biodiversity, sustainable development, etc. In the program, policy makers, media persons, CSOs, government representatives and development partners actively took part in the program. The dialogue sensitized the policy makers to protect and promote the mountain and to address the current climate change threat and challenges that we are facing.
Objectives
- To present the year-long plan/roadmap of the IYM2022 programs to the participating MPs by disseminating the issues and agenda of sustainable mountain development in Nepal.
- To interact with policy makers on current mountain and climate change issues aligning with sustainable development goals and marking international sustainable development year 2022 for policy influence in Nepal and across the region.
- To synthesize the feedback and direction from the participating MPs on mountain agenda that need to be integrated at local, provincial and national level policies and programs as well as to be raised in international arena.
Closing Remarks: Collaborative Efforts Key to Materialize the Result
Hon. Pradip Yadav, Minister of Forest and Environment: International sustainable mountain year marking the year is crucial message to the world sharing the impacts and need of urgent actions in the mountain region like in Nepal. Mountain and lowland both are greatly impacted by the climate change; hence, connection is essential. Climate change inducted disasters like droughts; flood; forest fire, etc. are affected to the communities. Now, collective joint actions are expected among the governments, stakeholders, communities. Our joint efforts at international efforts/platforms are initiated but Hindukush region focused alliances to pull attention of the world is now urgent need. Nepal will raise issues at UN events and other relevant platforms. All the raised issues, concerns, suggestions will be taken positively and taken necessary actions. For this, collective actions are required; hence, the ministry will collaborate and coordinate with concerned stakeholders, ministries, agencies, etc. in coming days.