COUNTRY RESEARCH DOSSIER / NEPAL
NEPAL · JULY 2026 · BRAIN DRAIN / OPPORTUNITY / HUMAN CAPITAL / DEVELOPMENT
Why do young people leave when opportunities also exist at home?
FIELD PHOTOGRAPH 01
Nepal · July 2026
The Machapuchare before sun rises
The Question I Arrived With
Before arriving in Nepal, I associated brain drain primarily with a shortage of opportunity. If young people were leaving for education, salaries, and careers abroad, I assumed the explanation was relatively straightforward: Nepal was not providing enough opportunities at home.
I visited businesses and organizations that were actively creating employment. A wool-felt manufacturer used a community-based production model involving large numbers of workers and families. If opportunities existed, why did talented young people still leave?
That contradiction shifted my investigation from asking whether Nepal had jobs to asking a more difficult question: what makes an opportunity strong enough for someone to imagine a future around it?
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Questions I Investigated
01 / BRAIN DRAIN
Why do talented young people leave even when employment exists at home?
My investigation moved beyond whether jobs were available toward differences in salaries, career development, research opportunities, education, and long-term expectations.
02 / DEVELOPMENT VISION
What gives young people confidence that they can build a future in their own country?
My conversations suggested that opportunity is not only about finding a job today, but also about whether institutions, careers, and communities provide a credible path for tomorrow.
03 / EDUCATION & HUMAN CAPITAL
How does access to educational and research opportunities shape migration?
Conversations about studying abroad raised questions about differences in academic resources, research environments, career opportunities, and the decision to return.
04 / INSTITUTIONAL TRUST
What role does trust play in development?
One perspective from the field connected investment and opportunity with trust in institutions, government, and society, pushing me to consider development as institutional as well as economic.
What Complicated My Assumptions
WHAT I EXPECTED
I expected brain drain to be explained primarily by unemployment: people leave because opportunities do not exist.
WHAT I OBSERVED
I encountered businesses and organizations actively creating employment, training workers, supporting communities, and participating in international markets.
WHAT PEOPLE TOLD ME
Employment alone did not resolve the problem. Conversations introduced other considerations: salary, research facilities, career progression, education, institutional trust, and confidence in the future.
WHAT THE EVIDENCE SUGGESTED
I began distinguishing between having an opportunity and having a development path. A job can answer the question of what someone can do today without necessarily answering where that opportunity can take them tomorrow.
MY REFLECTION
“Opportunity is not only about having somewhere to work. It is also about having somewhere to grow.”