Methodological mess in development research

Development research in Nepal must prioritise methodological rigour and treat it as an equity issue.

This methodological weakness of Nepal’s development research has been documented for decades. In the 1980s, researchers found that estimates of Nepali firewood use varied so wildly between studies that the numbers were simply too unreliable to say whether Himalayan forests were disappearing at all. Yet, these same numbers were treated as facts, informing a World Bank prediction that no accessible forest would remain in Nepal by 2000.