Humanity has been threatened by pandemics since several decades with devastating effects on all human activities including the economy, and environment. Currently, the world is reeling from the COVID-19 pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic has been a major threat to the livelihood of billions of people worldwide. Nepal is not an exception to this and has been seriously threatened by the COVID-19 pandemic. The thousands of the peoples who depend on daily wages to join hand to mouth has been under the brunt of the COVID-19 pandemic because of job loss, disruption in the food supply chain. Also, the COVID-19 pandemic has thwarted Nepal's targets to achieve UN Sustainable Development Goals including an unprecedented state of vulnerability to hunger and poverty in the country. Though some informal shreds of evidence have reported the negative impacts of COVID-19 on Sustainable Development Goals, none of the scientific literature has been available regarding such impacts in Nepal yet. This review aims to synthesize extant literature that reports the effects of COVID-19 on the Nepalese economy and implications for achieving UN Sustainable Development Goals.We found that the COVID-19 pandemic has created unprecedented challenges to achieve the country's committed United Nation's Sustainable Development Goals for Nepal. Further, the COVID-19 pandemic has created a unique “income shock” that is supposed to precipitate household food insecurity in developing economy like Nepal. Our review indicated that the percentage of populations below poverty could rise even more than the present national reported value of 18% in the post-pandemic era. We emphasized generating employment and income-earning opportunities to build a resilient food system. Further, we urged to build international consensus to reset and rethink the course of sustainable development goals.

The study focuses on the review of existing programs and policies regarding input subsidy in Nepal especially in seeds and fertilizers. The study aims to review timeline in subsidy programs, budget details and progress based on the gleaning of the secondary information available in the Ministry of Agricultural Development. The assured budget allocation for chemical fertilizers subsidy has led to increment in consumption over the years. Nepal spent 52.29 billion Nepali Rupees in importing chemical fertilizers and 23.19 billion in subsidy in last seven years. Nepal Government has also been promoting organic fertilizers however, the subsidy allocated to this program has not been able to take the pace. Seed subsidy program has been found to be impressive; however, it is confined to wheat and paddy only. The subsidy program is targeted mainly to the small and marginal farmers. The seed subsidy program should be expanded to pulses and oilseed crops as well. The organic fertilizers should be promoted to maintain long-term soil health. Inputs subsidy policy and programs should cover all farmer categories.

Agriculture is the mainstay of majority of Nepalese people which provides employment, foods and shelter. However, the investment in agriculture in not encouraging, received only about 3 percent of total government outlays during 2002 to 2014. In the study, Gross Domestic Product was regressed with Domestic Savings, Government Expenditure on Agriculture and Foreign Direct Investment on Agriculture with the data from FY 2002/03 to 2014/15. Regression reveals the degree of association among these variables is significant at 5 % level of significance (R=0.991, P=0.005<0.05). The analysis showed that the contribution of Government Expenditure on Agriculture to Gross Domestic Product was found significant whereas the Domestic Savings and Foreign Direct Investment on Agriculture were found insignificant. The compound annual growth rate of Government’s expenditure was found slightly lower than that of budget allocated to Ministry of Agricultural Development. In sum, the study concluded that the Government Expenditure on Agriculture is crucial for the national economy.

Labour migration is one of many strategies adopted by developing countries to achieve economic growth, but its success varies across countries. Migrant workers often face issues related to their welfare and protection at their workplace due to information asymmetries and power imbalances in the labour market. This study compares the policies and initiatives of the Philippines and Nepal, aligning them with the Decent Work agenda of the Sustainable Development Goals. The study's findings underscore the importance of considering various factors that impact the welfare and protection of migrant workers to achieve sustainable socio‐economic growth in labour sending countries.