Young students in Nepal. Education is one of the funding priorities in the European Union's 2014-2020 multiannual indicative program for the Asian country. Photo by: NayanTara Gurung Kakshapati / Global Partnership for Education / CC BY-NC-ND
Nepal had been on a steady path toward moving up to middle-income status. It had made significant strides in alleviating poverty and improving rural development and its health and education sectors. But it needed to scale up its development efforts and address other socio-economic bottlenecks.
In its 13th development plan, covering the period 2013-2016, the government of Nepal laid out its strategy toward attaining middle-income status by 2020. The main goal of this blueprint is to reduce the percentage of the population below the poverty line from 23.8 percent in 2012-13 to 18 percent by the end of 2016.