There are two categories of Nepalis living and working abroad, Non Resident Nepalis (NRNs) and migrant workers. Historically, Nepalis who looked for employment opportunities took advantage of the porous and deregulated borders and migrated to India and later, as more countries opened up for employment, to Gulf countries and South East Asian countries and now also in many parts of the Western World . The diaspora population is increasing rapidly which can be primarily attributed to the increasing trend among Nepali youth to go oversees for employment and education purposes.
Ranked among the top five countries in terms of the contribution of remittance to Gross Domestic Product (GDP), remittance flows currently account for 23% of Nepal’s GDP1. If channeled appropriately, remittance flows can be the engine for economic growth and development in Nepal. Currently, the bulk of the remittance flows are doing little to support economic growth and job creation in Nepal, primarily because the private sector and government have done little to explore ways to reinvest the cash flows into long-term growth engines. Further, cumbersome documentation process has prompted many Nepalis to send remittances through informal channels such as Hundi/Hawala, informal business transaction mechanisms and goes unaccounted for by traditional banking systems. Nepal Economic Forum strongly believes that the public and the private sector need to provide mechanisms to both house the capital flows from remittance, as well as to provide investment vehicles in Nepal.
Therefore, this study presents an understanding and analysis of the current scenario and practices, opportunities and challenges in the Nepalese financial system, and to identify appropriate investment avenues, to channelize the growing remittance flows into the formal and productive sectors of the economy.

Political parties make manifestos pre-elections, expressing their commitment towards various policy concerns in order to gather the support of the electorate or voters. A successful representation and performance of the political parties in the government can be measured in terms of the policy issues addressed in the country‟s plans and its annual budget, against the backdrop of the political manifestos. However, in Nepal, parties are often accused of failing to fulfil their pledges and there is a lack of a proper mechanism for evaluating the parties‟ pledge fulfilment.

This paper, therefore, has analysed the manifestos of political parties in Nepal from the past two major elections (2008 and 2013) and their reflection in the periodic plans and budget. By categorizing the pledges according to specificity and policy areas the paper aims to present an analysis of the extent to which the pledges have been fulfilled when the parties have been in the government. This analysis will help us to understand the priorities of political parties and how they might shift once they are in power.

Gender reform is one of the recurring agenda in the present policy context of Nepal where Nepal aims to consolidate its preparedness to end discrimination between men and women in Nepalese societies, among others. This holds urgent importance in Nepal, where women despite constituting for about 50% of its total population, still face rampant and recurring discrimination. Previous attempts of gender reforms have while spurred noteworthy policy and structural changes, and yet everyday practice and power relations between men and women remain largely unchanged and discriminatory (to women). Drawing upon experience of gender reforms in three cases- community forestry, land rights and abortion rights, this paper analyzes the discursive framework that informs the gender reform policies and practices with subsequent effects to abating gender discrimination in Nepal.

The findings indicate that early calls for gender reforms has largely been capital centric and driven by some external-donor agenda of reform. While an early call of reform is essential to challenge the status quo-irrespective of the sources and actors, there are practical process-relatedgaps to contextualize those gender reforms as an urgent and everyday need arising out of everyday contestations in a changing Nepalese society. As a result, gender reforms have been labeled as an external and western driven agenda and were not internalized by men and women in the society. Suchlack of internalization for gender reforms neither evoked responsible behavior on part of men, women and society nor was responsive institutions put in place for adequate enforcement and monitoring. As a result, while enacted policies granted greater rights to women, there was little space wherein the granted rights could be implemented, consolidated and enjoyably claimed by the very women who are entrusted with those legal rights.

The paper points out the need to blend gender reforms into everyday practice of Nepalese society and proposes recommendations.

The principle objective of this paper is to comprehensively understand the budget formulation and implementation procedure in Nepal. By looking at the procedural aspects of budget formulation and implementation, the paper attempts to analyse the factors that have hindered the effective execution of national budgets.
The national budget is a good indication of the state’s commitment towards different social and economic areas, and has a direct impact on the economy of the country. Though the preparation of a budget and its implementation is driven by set processes that have been accepted as a norm internationally, there are numerous problems affecting it. The persistent presence of such problems in the budget making and implementing process has forcibly delayed the execution of national level programmes and projects that are devised to attain certain development goals. This implies that problems related to the budget cycle have direct implications on desired economic growth. Some of the major problems that have been identified are ambiguities surrounding project prioritization, lack of inter-agency communication, and management of funds. By resolving these problems, issues such as procedural delays and the lack of accountability could be mitigated.

Nepal is in the phase of age structure transition with a large proportion of young working-age population. This phase is also commonly known as the phase of ‘youth bulge’, ‘demographic dividends/bonuses’ or ‘window of opportunity’. This present phase and the consistent increment in the share of older-age population over the years signifies that the elderly population will continue to increase in the years to come. Amidst a limited formal support system for senior citizens and a weakening informal support system by family, relatives and society, the situation of senior citizens is destined to become a severe problem, if it is not addressed in time through effective policies. Existing policies in Nepal have incorporated the issues of the senior citizens and a general overview suggests that the policies are in tune with age structure transition. Yet, a deeper analysis of the policies reveal that they do not fully recognize the outcome of thetransition. Thus, it is the objective of this policy study to highlight the importance of the transition and analyse the status of the aged population in light of it.The policy questions focuses on understanding the trend of age structure transition of the Nepali population and analysing its implications on the older age group. This policy study proposes enhancement of the informal support system as a policy alternative to address the challenges of the senior citizens in relation to the age structure transition.