This week's election in Nepal is an historic opportunity for the country to put behind more than ten years of bombs, bullets and bandhs and refocus the country's efforts on addressing the needs of its children. It has been a lost decade for children during which time not only has the country fallen behind others in the region but children and young people have often been the targets of violence, exploitation and severe neglect.

The short period between the election and the naming of a new government provides a chance for the candidates to pause and give thought to how they are going to lift millions of Nepal's children out of dire poverty and put the nation on the development path being pursued by neighbours like China and India. Any incoming government must ensure children are at the centre of efforts to tackle poverty, foster peace and create opportunities for a brighter future.

Nepal's children have suffered in extreme ways from the insecure political and security environment in which they have grown up. Many have never known national peace, rather they have seen their families living in fear, facing disruption from general strikes (bandhs), their schools targeted by violence and their friends and families suffering from economic disruption and political division.

This environment has made it impossible to give rural children the education they deserve, limited their access to decent health care, fostered an atmosphere in which killings and disappearances have traumatised loved ones, and promoted a damaging divide between city dwellers and poorer villagers.

The statistics speak for themselves. When one compares Nepal to China and India it is easy to see how much catching up there is to do for Nepal's children, women and its poorest citizens.

On economic terms alone Nepali people are far behind in terms of earnings. Latest figures show that whereas the average Chinese person earns US$1,740 a year, and the average Indian US$720, in Nepal it is only US$270. Today, one quarter of Nepali people live on less than a dollar a day. These low-income figures are in part reflected in the shocking rates of stunting for children aged under five. Some 50 percent of this age group are stunted in Nepal. In China it is now down to 14 percent. With dedication it will be possible by 2015 to cut hunger to 30 percent of children and meet one of the key UN Millennium Development Goals. The truth though is that no children should be going hungry.

Subsistence agriculture and resultant low incomes, a lack of understanding about good diet, disrupted access to markets or jobs, exacerbated by conflict, have together resulted in this terrible legacy for children. A stunted child is very often damaged for life because the lack of micronutrients permanently impacts children physically, and in particular impairs their mental development. A stunted child is typically deprived of the opportunity to reach his or her full potential meaning they will be lifelong underachievers. This is not just a severe loss to the children themselves but also to the county's economic development potential. Conflict prevents children from growing into educated, intelligent and productive adults.

The situation is as bad for women who are far more likely to die in childbirth in Nepal than in India or China. In Nepal a woman stands a one in 24 chance of maternal death as a result of pregnancy, a figure twice as bad as that in India and many times worse than in China. These figures are so bad because women not only have inadequate access to health care and midwifery services but because they are already weakened by poor diet and hardship.

With all the talk about the elections and amid the national enthusiasm to vote it is easy to forget about children. But they should be central to the political debate, especially when children themselves are making a sacrifice to allow the vote to go ahead. Across the country thousands of schools have been converted into some of the more than 20,000 polling centres, and are closed for two weeks. Some 60,000 of their teachers have also been deployed to educate the 17.6 million voters about the election process. Despite the sacrifice being made by children there are thousands of children who themselves fail to complete even primary education and who may be labouring instead of learning. Many never even go to school and of those that do only three quarters get to grade five.

With this in mind political groups should be giving more thought to how they will get the poorest children into school and resist the urge to instead exploit youth to stir up political dissent or pressure voters. World Vision and other international and national organisations persuaded the Election Commission to adopt a code of conduct which explicitly states that children should not be mobilised for rallies or electioneering. This election's manifesto should be about children - not about exploiting children for political ends, which is why child rights organisations have been involved in monitoring the poll and working as election observers to ensure this does not happen. Unfortunately, there is evidence that in parts of the country this code is not being upheld.

Central to children's well being is peace. Without it the door to development cannot be fully opened. Where there is conflict based on ethnic and political lines children, especially in the countryside, miss out. There is much catching up to do in the rural areas where underdevelopment, poverty and conflict have annually driven thousands of farmers on the migration path to low income and exploitive jobs in India. Worse, many thousands of women and children have ended up in brothels, or in abusive domestic labour jobs in Mumbai and other Indian boomtowns. Where there is growing economic disparity, as there is between Nepal and its neighbours, or between isolated mountain villages and Nepal's towns, the opportunities for exploitation and disparity grow. Only a peaceful election with a clear commitment to Nepal's children will lay the groundwork for government and engaged communities to ensure all Nepali children have a better future and more equitable access to all that development brings.