The land-locked Kingdom of Nepal has been a favourite of donor organisations for decades and so should provide us with some idea about the long-term difference that development can make. In the first of three articles by Editor Nick Tancock, Developments looks at the problems Nepal continues to face and the progress it has made. Pictures Simon Mizrahi.

'Do not listen to the sweet talk of scoundrels
Do not be lured by the dream of a foreign land
In Bombay you will be sold into prostitution
You will be beaten and raped
And you will contract AIDS.
No one will be there to hear you cry.
No one will be there to wipe your tears.'

These are the words to Be Careful You May Be Sold Into Prostitution, sung by workers from Maiti Nepal when they visit towns and villages to warn young girls of the horrors awaiting them in the brothels of neighbouring India. About 15 Nepali children are trafficked every day, usually after a family friend or relative has lured them abroad with a promise of marriage, or their own parents sell them direct to the sex slavers.

So blasé have the pimps now become that they have been known to helicopter in to villages to pick up their latest consignment of pubescent girls and boys. Nepali women have an exotic reputation in India and in the Middle East some believe that sleeping with a Nepali virgin will cure you of AIDS.

“Down there,” we are told as we stand on Maiti Nepal’s roof and look down onto the sea of shacks bordering the airport runway, “You can tell which families have sold a child. They are the ones with a tin roof.”

The plight of the trafficked children of Nepal provides a stark yet profound example of the depth of poverty in this, one of the ten poorest nations on Earth. Try to imagine the desperation of a father or mother prepared to sell their 12-year-old daughter or son into a life of rape, torture and, almost certainly, an early death from AIDS. In the wealthy North, insulated from the heat and noise of the South, such an act would cause public outrage, prompting swift action from the authorities. But in a country where one-in-30 women will die as a result of child-birth, child-trafficking can not be a top Government priority.

Half of Nepal’s population live in absolute poverty (on less than 60p per day). Although a famine in the far West claimed around 200 lives last spring, starvation is rare. Malnutrition, however, is common. Eighty per cent of children are thought to suffer in some way, and this can make the body more prone to other, often fatal, illnesses. Literacy is still low and the economy, which depends mainly on agriculture, performs badly against its competitors. Some development indicators seem actually to be in reverse – particularly in respect to women and girls – despite almost 40 years of involvement by foreign donors who in 1993 accounted for 60 per cent of Nepal’s GNP. It is hardly surprising, therefore, that people tend to be negative about the prospects of development in Nepal.

But people also tend to be short-sighted. Developers need to take the long-view. It is easy to forget when cursing the traffic in Kathmandu, that in 1950 there were only six cars in the whole of the country (and five of those were owned by the King). There were no serviceable roads. Eight years ago Nepal was still ruled by an absolute monarchy, so it is hardly surprising the new government struggles to develop workable democracy, the people to escape the habits of feudalism (it took us 700 years to develop our constitutional monarchy, so surely we should congratulate Nepal for developing a similar system in seven, sans House of Lords). And although Nepalis are still poor, developers have helped make a difference. In 1970, life expectancy was 43 for men, 42 for women. In 1998, it was 58 and 57. Child mortality at 165 per 1,000 is half its 1960 level while cases of malaria have fallen from two million in the 1950s to 25,000 now.

Before the 1950s, the ancién regime forbid most of its people an education, hence a one per cent literacy rate. Now there is a primary school within walking distance of every village.

So there has been progress in improving the every day life of ordinary Nepalis, and while the Government, people, and developers still have a long way to go, the country has come far since those first six cars. The sixth, by the way, belonged to the British Resident.