Nepal’s 2026 Election Must Reimagine Health: Beyond Hospitals, Toward Equity

Nepal’s political parties are preparing their manifestos for the upcoming House of Representatives elections. This time, the country deserves more than familiar promises of new hospitals, bigger buildings, and high visibility infrastructure. These may win headlines, but they don’t necessarily save lives. What strengthens a health system is not what stands above the ground, but what runs beneath it: financing, governance, workforce, supply chains, digital systems, preventive care, and above all equity.

The data tells a sobering truth. Nepal has made notable progress in reducing maternal mortality to 142 per 100,000 live births in 2023 and under five mortality to 26.5 per 1,000 live births in 2022. But these achievements mask sharp inequities that persist across geography, income, and social identity. Health outcomes remain deeply unequal, and access to affordable care is still the exception, not the rule. [fwd.gov.np]