Overview
Nepal is a multi-ethnic, multi-lingual, multi-religious and multi-cultural state. It has a diverse geography consisting of mountains, hills and plain land areas. It shares a border with India and China in the South Asian subcontinent. Mount Everest, the highest mountain of the world, lies in Nepal.
Nepal remains the least developed and one of the poorest countries in Asia. Nearly 18% of people still live in absolute multidimensional poverty. Among the challenges Nepal faces is a widening gap between the rich and poor, and a lack of basic infrastructure including for electricity, water and transport. There is also widespread unemployment, low agricultural productivity, high levels of migration and endemic corruption.
A decade-long civil war, which ended in 2006, has pushed the nation even further back. Meanwhile, Nepal is particularly vulnerable to climate change and natural disasters such as earthquakes, floods and landslides.
In 2015, two massive earthquakes struck the region, killing nearly 9,000 people and making Nepal even more vulnerable to future disasters.
The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in a sustained vulnerability, inequality and risks to poverty for Nepalese society as a whole.