Small steps, big gains: Nepal’s puzzling pace of poverty reduction

Nepal’s remarkable poverty reduction over the past three decades defies conventional explanations. Despite slow economic growth, entrenched corruption, weak governance, and stalled land reforms, the share of Nepalis in poverty has fallen substantially.

The usual suspects—growth, capital spending, or remittances—cannot fully explain this shift. Instead, Nepal’s success lies in the cumulative impact many small-scale interventions: rural roads that linked villages to markets, electrification that enabled small businesses, schools that expanded opportunity, irrigation that boosted farm incomes, and community projects that nurtured entrepreneurship.

These initiatives did not pull people into urban factories but strengthened livelihoods where they lived, multiplying gains across thousands of households. Click below to read more.