Rethinking Economics Nepal

The Rethinking Economics Nepal Regional Network was founded by a concerned set of young people based in Kathmandu. We are students, researchers, educators, and activists, who have gathered to create a structure around advocacy for economic models that foreground people and the planet, over endless profits.

For a country like Nepal, that is led towards capitalism catch-up through the burden of international financial loans, and confined by the limited metric of GDP to measure prosperity, we hope to challenge conversations in a way that provides adequate alternatives, and draws attention back to the community structures that can allow us to innovate, experiment, and center voices of young people, who will inherit these patterns.

Young people in Nepal, largely from already marginalized and economically vulnerable communities, are opting for labor migration at alarming rates. We hope to set up a mechanism that can begin to address these challenges, and ascribe legitimacy to ideas of alternative economic models based on traditional knowledge. Like everywhere else in the world, in Nepal, many mainstream economists are confined within the realm of capitalism, advocating for growth projects that cause immense social and environmental harm. Conversations around Free and Informed Prior Consent, or a lack thereof, from development projects have been commonplace in civic society. We hope to create a platform to capture this dissent, and build towards solutions that honor the sovereignty and knowledge of local communities in Nepal.