Kathmandu, March 25 -- The year 2020, with itseconomic downturnbrought on by the Covid-19 pandemic affected million of lives. But how many people lost their jobs, how many families fell into poverty or how many were affected by lack of food?

There is no reliable data to accurately measure the impact of the pandemic. The question then arises: if we do not know the scale of the problem how are we going to address it?

In fact, if one were to look for statistics on the total number of farmers in Nepal, or how many Nepalis live abroad, or how many live below the poverty line, there are wildly differing figures. Relevant government agencies themselves do not have the statistics.

Whatever data is available is either outdated or unreliable, an...