Time for some self-help

The rollback of American aid can be the push Nepali actors needed to be more self-reliant.

There are stories galore of misuse of foreign aid in Nepal, with big chunks of it spent on overheads and pay and perks of aid officials than in intented areas. There is some truth to this allegation. Another criticism is that at least some of the aid from the West has exacerbated Nepal’s internal divisions, over religion and ethnicity for instance. Whatever the validity of this blame, many people strongly believe it. The topic of foreign aid is again being hotly debated since Donald Trump assumed office as American president for the second time on January 20. He has since suspended a slew of American foreign aid projects and all but dismantled the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). On Sunday, the US government cancelled $39 million in aid set aside for Nepal’s federalism and biodiversity conservation projects: $20 million for fiscal federalism and $19 million for biodiversity conservation, according to the US Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Such news of aid suspensions and cancellations have been met with much glee by a section of the society, mostly those who love to bash all those supposedly into ‘dollar farming’.