Minister of Foreign Affairs Dr. Narayan Khadka said that the peril of growing inequality, the specter of climate change, and the scourge of global pandemics like COVID-19 are the major challenges hitting the democracies across the world.
Addressing the 14th Bali Democracy Forum by video link on Thursday, he stated that these three interlocked challenges cannot be addressed without nations acting in concert. Speaking at the Forum with the theme “Democracy for Humanity: Advancing Economic and Social Justice during the Pandemic”, he called for enhanced international co-operation in effectively tackling the global challenges of growing socio-economic inequality, climate change and COVID-19-like epidemics.
“We must fight climate change and pandemics together and join hands together in the fight against global inequality,” he said.
According to him, investing in people’s education and health, unleashing the creative and entrepreneurial energies of the youth, and keeping the workforce ready to adapt to technological changes are key elements in reducing inequality across and within countries.
Dr. Khadka stressed on international cooperation and multilateralism to reduce the inequalities.
Reducing inequalities requires placing international cooperation and multilateralism at the front and center of inter-state relations, and prioritising work over wealth, planet over profits and people over power, Dr. Khadka said.
He said that investing in people’s education and health, unleashing the creative and entrepreneurial energies of the youth, and keeping the workforce ready to adapt to technological changes were key elements in reducing inequality across and within countries.
According to Dr. Khadka, democracy is about delivering good governance, economic justice, and human rights and freedoms. A successful democracy is the result of deep economic and social transformations, strong national unity, and inclusive institutions.
However, fragile social welfare systems, environmental degradation, corruption, and diseases and epidemics have weakened even robust democracies and hindered their ability to deliver, he said.
Likewise, he maintained that democracies should be capable of taking on the long-term challenges of modernising societies, resolving social and economic conflicts, and above all, enhancing equality and social justice
Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 10 December 2021.
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