Barriers of Access to Finance in Nepal (Published)
Access to finance has several meanings, reasons and consequences. Normally, access to finance has two facets, i.e. at household or individual level and business firm level (Beck and Kunt, 2008; World Bank, 2009) to reach in financial institutions to consume financial services. Many policies are formulated and practiced in Nepal to increase access to finance, still the situation is poor. Number of financial intermediaries are increased since the decades, however a larger segment of people are out of financial mainstream. Still, the people do not know about financial services, about service centers and doing business; i.e. financial literacy is poor. From this, a consistent and sustainable access of them to financial services is questionable. Access of people in financial services or access of service providers to people is a ‘double barrel’ question. Similarly, why the poor access among the efforts to increase it since some decades in Nepal is a big question. The paper presents some of the reasons for the poor access of people in financial services. The paper is based on analytical design with some secondary data.
Keywords: Access To Finance, Barriers, Development, Financial Inclusion, Financial literacy
APPLICATION VENUES OF COUNTER-CURRENT DEVELOPMENT MODEL (CCDM) IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES: IMPERATIVE FOR THE KNOWLEDGE DRIVEN ECONOMY (Published)
This paper explains the nitty-gritty in the application of Counter-Current Development Model (CCDM) for the developing economies. It examines several ways of CCDM applications such as visionary and transformational leadership, competitive human capital development, research for sustainable development, productive economy (energy, agricultural, technological and industrial developments were highlighted), development and modernization (food security/modernization and national security, peace and unity); and then feedback. All these were illustrated with diagrams for conceptual and theoretical frameworks. Other CCDM application venues include: provision of conducive environment for competitive economic activities; need for people-centred political system and issues of revolution. It concludes with recommendations on peaceful revolution strategies.
Keywords: Counter-Current, Development, Development Model, Peaceful Resolution, Productive Economy, Transformational Leadership
Women in the Promotion Of Cultural Security and Development in Africa (Published)
This paper examines the role of women in protecting and preserving the cultural heritage of the African continent which is an important ingredient for the nation’s development. It traces the indispensable role of the women to the creation of mankind at the Garden of Eden. However, despite the much desired role and contribution of the women to the development of the African nation, the imposition of colonialism in Africa laid the groundwork for the marginalization of the women folk, which eventually created gender inequality that weakened the contribution of the women. Nevertheless, African women have not given up the struggle. Women continue to play a leading role in preserving the farming tradition which is the main occupation in Africa by means of women organizations such as “Women in Agriculture in Nigeria” and “Women farmers Advancement Network”. Notwithstanding there are still a number of barriers against women effective participation in economic development activities which the study has identified to include; systemic gender biases in form of customs and beliefs; domestic workloads that impose severe time burden on women; limited access to credit, education and medical care. The expose of these barriers reveals the need for greater sensitization of the cultural and social barriers to encourage increased women participation in the economic activities in Africa.
Keywords: Africa, Cultural security, Development, Women