Welcome to Nepal’s new SUN Government Focal Point

In February 2016, Madhu Kumar Marasini, Joint Secretary of the National Planning Commission Secretariat, became the SUN Government Focal Point in Nepal. As a Joint Secretary, Mr Marasini currently heads the Social Development Division at the National Planning Commission Secretariat (NPCS) and is leading the Multi-sector Nutrition Plan in coordination with the various divisions of NPCS and sectoral ministries.

Prior to working with the NPCS, he worked with the Nepal Ministry of Finance, where he  headed the International Economic Cooperation Division for 4 years. In addition to over  20 years of experience in the government service, he has experience working with the World Bank and the Conference on Nepal’s Reconstruction after the 2015 earthquake. His academic history includes Master’s Degrees in International and Development Economics and Public Administration and executive education from the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, USA.

“Healthy and well-nourished people can contribute in the overall socio-economic development of the country. Therefore nutrition and food security is one of the high priority agendas  in the Government’s national development plan. The Government of Nepal has developed a National Multi-sector Nutrition Plan (MSNP) for improving maternal and child nutrition and reducing chronic malnutrition in a systematic approach. This plan offers a package of activities and interventions with prioritized strategic objectives which, over a period of five years, should contribute to a one third reduction of the current prevalent rates of chronic malnutrition. This will enable the country to significantly reduce malnutrition problem within the next ten years and ensure that it will  no longer become an impediment to improving Nepal’s human and socio-economic development. In order to achieve this goal Nepal has adopted a multi-sector approach and is working on strengthening partnerships both at the national as well as the global level.” – Madhu Kumar Marasini, Nepal SUN Government Focal Point.