Around 25 million inhabitants coming from 75 ethnic groups, an official national language and yet around 50 minority languages and dialects; the annual GDP per capita lies at around 300 US dollar; 17 percent of the people are undernourished; more than half of the adults cannot read or write. Nepal is one of the poorest countries in the world. According to the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), healthcare provision is especially bad in rural areas. Many years of civil war has left its traces. A provisional government has run the country since April 2007. Thus it is possible once more to provide fortified development assistance. After Japan and Great Britain, Germany is Nepal’s third largest bilateral donor, providing assistance in the areas of healthcare, family planning, communal self-administration, civil society and renewable energy. According to statistics from the BMZ; the intergovernmental negotiation held at the end of November 2006 pledged a total of 36.6 million Euros.
The GTZ was given the task of improving healthcare provision in rural areas and securing access to healthcare provision, especially for the poor population. In addition, quality standards are to be developed and implemented. Through the integration of the local population in the organization of the healthcare facilities, it will be possible to cater for the needs of the people and take into account socio-cultural factors.
ETLog Health will assume a subtask within the scope of this project. Concretely, waste management experts will investigate local waste-management practices as well as ascertaining measures to improve the waste-disposal technology in the healthcare service. The focus rests on the incineration units currently employed. Within this process, various healthcare facilities will be visited and an inventory carried out. A plan of measures will be developed under observation of international standards and local laws. The aim is to improve hospital management in the areas of maintenance and waste disposal.