Message FROM CHAIRMAN
Message From Chairman
Lekhanath Sapkota is the President and CEO of the leading NGO, Sustainable Peace and Development Movement Nepal – SPDM (Nepal). As the principal of SPDM (Nepal) and the Director of his own dairy production & training organization, Lekhanath Dairy International. Mr. Sapkota’s interests range from improving workplace safety to managing environmental responsibilities. His NGO addresses the theme of “eradicating poverty and promoting prosperity in a changing world,” an imperative that is also a prerequisite for sustainable peace.
Mr. Sapkota holds the belief that each country is responsible for achieving sustainable development goals (SDGs) in consultation with its people. SPDM (Nepal) advocates for governments to promote programming that develops knowledge to practice sustainable agriculture, and support stakeholders across the food system – primarily small and family farm producers, food chain workers, and small and medium enterprises, particularly producer-led enterprises and cooperatives.
From individuals to local authorities to national ministries to UN agencies, Mr. Sapkota and his NGO take ownership of these goals in their particular contexts, and recommend the following regarding the SDGs:
Goal 1: Addressing the causes and manifestations of structural poverty by utilizing holistic, context-specific solutions interlinked with all other goals.
Goal 2: To end hunger and all forms of malnutrition, by changing agricultural production from high-input, industrial exploitation towards systems that support smallholders’ livelihoods and preserve cultures and biodiversity.
Goal 3: Efforts to achieve health-related targets should prioritize the full spectrum of services from promotion, prevention, treatment, rehabilitation, and palliation. Governments, through a multi-sectoral and multi-stakeholder approach, must endeavor to remove social, cultural, and economic barriers to ensure full access to affordable, quality physical and mental health services for all.
Goal 4: Obstacles to the actualization of gender equality and the fundamental rights of women and girls should be overcome through implementing laws and policies that prohibit discrimination, redistribute unpaid care work, promote equality in access to resources, education, and decision-making, in alignment with internationally agreed conventions and standards.
Goal 5: All governments, including regional and local authorities, should promote inclusive, ecologically-sound industrialization and the provision of basic infrastructure that incorporates the protection of nature and participatory decision-making.
Goal 6: SDG 6 must be a keystone in protecting the oceans as a substantial part of the biosphere, a unique ecosystem, an integral part of human civilization and a major food provider, and a common good with equal and fair access rights.
Goal 16: Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all, and build effective, accountable, and inclusive institutions at all levels.
Goal 17: Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development.
In keeping with the commitment to “Leave No One Behind,” the full position paper of the SPDM (Nepal) details the ways in which the SDGs are interconnected, locally applicable yet requiring universal commitment, and essential for the eradication of poverty and promotion of prosperity for all.
As a graduate of Tribhuvan University, a non-profit autonomous, pioneering public institution, and the oldest university in Nepal, Mr. Sapkota has had the privilege of collaborating with the Government of Nepal, the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development, and the Ministry of Women, Children and Senior Citizens among many others, in implementing the goals of SPDM (Nepal).