Strength in numbers: achievements by the Nepali partners in 2023

Labour rights: In total over 80.000 people, of which 32% women and 16% under 35 years, were reached by services from the Nepali partners to promote labour standards.

NTUC reached 73.645 (30% women and 11% younger than 35 years) and GEFONT ensured 6.436 workers (50% women and 67% younger than 35 years) became more aware of their rights though campaigns and public outreach. Empowering young workers, GEFONT also organised 14 one day trainings for 1516 new members (657 female and 1351 under 35 years) in all 7 Nepali provinces.

Social Security: nearly 57.906 workers (46% women and 64% under 35 years) were reached by the services of the trade unions to ensure coverage of workers in the contributory Social Security Fund.

Vocational training: 72 people received vocational skill training on tailoring and embroidery, and self-employment from NTUC.

INSP!R Network
Advocacy: Over 99 policy makers were met , CSOs and trade union members showed their public support for 11 policy documents and position papers, as well as one research on the Integrated Social Protection framework. 

INSP!R Nepal and its CSOs and trade unions members contributed to two key regulations being passed:

1. New Social Security working procedures were passed to cover self-employed, informal and migrant workers.

2. Integrated Social Protection Framework: developed by the National Planning Commission, which tackles Shock Responsive Social Protection aspects, determines provincial and local level roles in social protection and ensures more harmony among the schemes and ministries involved. During the drafting, WSM partners were actively involved and beginning 2024, the Framework was endorsed by the Nepali Cabinet of Minsters.

Learning: In 2023, 471 CSOs and trade union leaders were trained to promote social protection, including through steering committee meetings.

What INSP!Ring happened in Nepal in 2022?

Two major regulations were passed or published by the Nepali government regarding social protection for which CSOs and  trade unions had been advocated since several years:

1. the working procedures and guidelines for the Social Security Fund, that allow to enroll informal, self-employed as well as labour migrants. Pilot project under the SSF targets 4 sectors: transport, construction, home based, agricultural. These would be funded by contributions for the informal workers by contributing 11% of the salary from workers and 9,37% from the government. From April 2023, the guidelines also will include migrant workers. Trade union advocacy was very instrumental in achieving this result. They had consistently called for the inclusion of all workers under the Social Security Fund (SSF) since it launched in 2017.  On Nepal Social Security Day (27 November 2022), Nepali trade unions announced their goal of enrolling 2 million people over the next four years. 

2. the Integrated Social Protection Framework was formalized by the Nepal Planning Commission but is yet to be endorsed by the Cabinet. 

Some results of INSP!R NEPAL...

National level: The work of INSP!R Nepal and the other efforts by UNICEF and ILO Nepal contributed to a total of 386.695 workers registered end of 2022 with the Social Security Fund (SSF) and 17.581 employers. Compared to the 2019 baseline of the project with only 147.643 employees, this is a 160% increase and with 12.157 employers, an increase by 45%. Over 185 million € in contributions had been collected. 

Learning: In 2022, 76 CSOs and trade union leaders were trained to promote social protection, including through steering committee meetings. Over 81 policy makers were met and over 4.182 CSOs and trade union members showed their public support for 15 policy documents and position papers, as well as one research for better social protection and public finance management. Through traditional and social media over 725.000 citizens were made more aware of social protection schemes with a right-based approach. 

In October, a cross-country learning exchange was organized between Cambodia, where Oxfam facilitates a similar network of SP4ALL, and ten members from INSP!R Nepal on how to build inclusive national networks advocating for social protection floors and Public Finance Management.

Children left behind by the parents... and the system? Nepal, 2022

There is little as heart-breaking as an abandoned new-born baby. Maybe it was a teenage pregnancy, or a baby born out of wedlock, the reasons behind it might remain a mystery, but it happens, also in Nepal. In the hills of Helambu, to the north east of Kathmandu, where the snowy mountains can already be felt breathing down, these babies are kept for six months in a safe shelter run by a partner of WSM, MANK, giving the change to parents to come forward. Besides a multitude of other problems however, civil servants often don’t know how to deal with the administration of such children. What do we put as name for the child, even temporarily, or exact date of birth, or as guardians? While it is thankfully rare, it also means that these children, who need to be entered into a system, are often not processed correctly in the system, causing so many problems down the line that could have been avoided.

This was only one among many issues raised by civil servants in charge of making birth or death certificates in and around Helambu in February 2023. This workshop run by the municipality with Social protection Civil Society Network (SPCSN) and Mahila Atma Nirbharta Kendra (MANK) is just one of the activities part of the EU-supported project to improve Social Protection Floors and Public Finance Management in Nepal, where WSM facilitates the involvement of civil society, ensuring more people get better coverage.

Two people from the Department of National ID, and Civil Registration (DONIDCR) from Kathmandu explained how to do online data entry and deal for instance with migrating parents, or how to correctly encode people with disabilities. While this should be part of what the Nepali government does, without some support from civil society, this would not happen and more people would be excluded from a pension they are entitled to, or a scheme that should help them cope with shocks, just because of administrative hurdles or formalities.

Reason for choosing this testimony: the issue of non take up. A big part of promoting social protection is not just lobbying for schemes or more budget for social protection, but also to ensure that people who should be receiving the existing schemes are actually getting them. In many cases, ignorance of schemes but also bureaucratic hurdles and discrimination prevent people from receiving often crucial support they are entitled to. Hence, social protection facilitators that know the schemes in place and the procedures to obtain them can assist these often very precarious populations.

First and last name : Man Bahadur Mijar
Nationality: Nepali
Location: Sindhupalchowk
Family situation: family with one daughter 

Initial problem: Due to a child marriage, when their daughter was born, these parents could not receive the child nutrition allowance that should have been provided to them as Dalits.

Accompaniment of partner SPCSN: The social protection facilitator discovered this during house visit and managed to successfully register the birth of the girl child by bringing it to the ward and obtaining the mother's birth registration.

Change achieved: The child is now receiving a monthly child nutrition allowance of NPR 532 through the social assistance program. Many such cases were referred to the ward by the facilitator.

Some results by intervention strategy...

Labour rights: In total over 160.000 people, of which 31% women and 27% under 35 years, were involved in services by the Nepali partners to promote labour standards.

GEFONT ensured over 50.000 workers (35% women and 60% younger than 35 years) became more aware of their rights though campaigns and public outreach. Empowering young workers, GEFONT also organised 14 one day trainings to 300 new members in all 7 Nepali provinces, reaching 469 workers (157 female and 397 under 35 years).

Social Security: nearly 5.800 workers (42% women and 93% under 35 years) were reached by the services of the trade unions to ensure coverage of workers in the contributory Social Security Fund.

Vocational training: 60 people received vocational skill training on tailoring and embroidery, and self-employment from NTUC.

Article: The Landscape of Social Protection Programmes in Nepal

Nabin Maharjan and Saroj Acharya from WSM partner the Social Protection Civil Society Network with Sandhya Thapa wrote an article regarding social protection schemes in Nepal.

Stimulating social protection programmes have a greater impact on the lives of people. More than 80 social protection programmes are being implemented by the Government of Nepal. The development partners, bilateral and multilateral agencies have been assisting the government for a long time however, the gap is realised in the programme integration and lack of inter-ministerial cooperation to set the results. 12 federal ministries are regulating social protection programmes through provincial and local governments. Some programmes have similar nature and might have certain duplication in beneficiaries, thus leaving the eligible ones excluded from the support. Based on the information gathered from year-wise reports of federal ministries, government line ministries, and various development partners, set the priority areas to enhance sufficient programme strategies for better social protection coverage. This article highlights the federal social protection schemes and programmes that are scattered, the status of beneficiaries, social accountability, and identifies the challenges faced by beneficiaries and the justification of the requirement on an integrated social protection framework.

Read the full article here and download the full Journal here.

Nepal Social Protection Week: an opportunity to put the spotlight on social protection

Nepal celebrated its National Social Protection Week and the Social Security Day on the 27th of November, which was an excellent occasion to emphasize our recommendations and activities. This is part of the EU supported project of Public Finance Management for Social Protection Floors, implemented with the ILO and UNICEF, where WSM facilitates the involvement of civil society under the umbrella of INSP!R Nepal.

Meeting with the UN Rapporteur Olivier De Schutter

A delegation of INSP!R Nepal met with the visiting UN Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty, M Olivier De Schuttter on the 30th of November.  For more details on his official visit, click here.

Since M De Schutter is a strong supporter of social protection, this being one of the four priorities during this visit, we felt this would be an excellent opportunity to transmit our recommendations from civil society and trade unions, so these can be included in his official report to the Nepali government.

Based on the social charter we drafted and published last year, we updated our recommendations through ITUC-NAC and SPCSN, which are compiled here in two documents:

1. Recommendations on non-contributory SP here
2. Recommendations on contributory SP here

Over 100 stakeholders provided comments and feedback. The delegation was primarily composed out of SPCSN and the trade unions. M De Schutter listened carefully to our views and analysis related to the social protection in Nepal. Discussion topics included:

• Progress by the Nepali government in addressing key gaps in the social protection system, including access constraints, child poverty, informal workers, and data and evaluation gaps;
• Main obstacles to implement universal social protection in the context of the federalization of the country, including legal challenges brought to social insurance and devolution of social protection to lower levels of government;
• Fiscal space needed to make social protection universal;
• Main recommendations to government.

Many of our input can be found in the preliminary report of the UN Rapporteur released on the 9th of December here (social protection from page 13 onward). An extract: "The Government should ensure its skills and training programs reach the poorest families. While public works programs such as the Prime Minister’s Employment Program have considerable potential, in practice the program has yet to deliver on its promise of providing 100 days of work per person per year.

In the country, 80 percent of workers are informal, which exposes them to higher rates of abuse, largely because the Government lacks the ability to enforce minimum wage legislation in the informal sector. Although informal workers should also contribute to and benefit from the Social Security Fund, there is currently no plan to include them in the program.”

 

Local level Help desk

The Social Protection Civil Society Network (SPCSN) in coordination with our local partner Protection Nepal organized a help desk on social protection for two days in southern Nepal Kalaiya district. The objective of this helpdesk during the social protection week was to facilitate service delivery at the local level for the protection, upliftment and ensuring the rights of senior citizens, single women, people with disabilities, children, marginalized, poor and disadvantaged groups under social protection. An estimated 135 local community members were provided assistance regarding the legal provisions for social protection services.

Deputy Secretary of Kalaiya Sub-Metropolitan City Office, M Pralhad Varnawal, Officer Mustak Ansari, F Rekha Chaudhary, Section Officer, Women, Children and Senior Citizen, M Seshnath Paswan, Civil Registration and Social Protection Section, M Sunil Yadav, Account section, and M BrijMohan Kushuwaha, Chairperson, Protection Nepal and other beneficiaries took part in the inaugural ceremony.

Increasing awareness: articles published on social protection
As part of the National Social Protection week in Nepal, SPCSN ensured the publication in the national newspaper The Rising Nepal on 3 December 2021 of an article dealing with Social Protection in Nepal: Current Status & Major Concerns, written by Sandhya Thapa. The full article can be accessed here.

Other articles can be found here.

Nepal televises a series of debates on social protection issues

WSM partner in Nepal, the Social Protection Civil Society Network SPCSN, made a series of episodes which touch upon various aspects of social protection in Nepal. Produced through Kantipur and some also with the support of UNICEF and Save the Children, each episode lasts about 50 minutes, is in Nepali but often subtitled and can be watched through this playlist here: 

Illustrating the importance of social protection in Nepal: Meet Gopal

Gopal, 74 years old. “I have been receiving the old age allowance for the past four years. My wife also gets this grant, for which Sarita helped. My wife is a couple of years older than me, so she has been receiving the grant for longer. I didn’t know about my age, or what papers I needed. We needed to go look for my papers and find my birth date, so I would know when I could start getting this grant. Then, Sarita helped me to fill out the forms at the ward office. It was easy, not hard because she was there and she knew everything, and everyone.

At first, I used to go to the ward office to get the money, but then I opened a bank account, to get the money deposited there. The bank is very near, I take my bicycle to go there whenever the ward office member tells me the grant has been deposited. He lives just around the corner, so it is easy. He also made sure I got the money cash during the lockdown, when the banks were closed. There have never been any delays, I get it every four months.

I have another bank account which I use to get the money for the sugarcane I grow. But most of the money that I make from that, I give to my sons. I have five sons and all of them are married and went away, except the youngest who stays with me. He is a teacher and not yet married. My other four sons are all over, in Kathmandu, India and Saudi Arabia. I don’t expect financial support from them, I think once a boy is married and he has his own family, we should try not to be a burden to them. I try to give them all the money I make from sugarcane, and just live from the old age allowance for us, but it is very little. Even though my sons have jobs, they still can use some extra money because rent and education is so expensive, prices have really gone up.

I usually withdraw the entire amount when I get it, because we need it for food and my medication. My wife suffers from rheumatism, aching bones, and I have gastritis. I go through a bottle of pills almost every ten days, which costs me 200NPR.

While I was working, I paid taxes, of course. I think it is right that the government should support old people, because many times, their children can’t take care of them. We worked a lot and still continue to labour, but that is not always possible."

Testimony gathered during field visit with SPCSN in Province 2, with CFWA and Save the Children.

Youth for Social Transformation: Nepal sees Successful Intensive Discussion for International Youth Day 2020

In Nepal, on International Youth Day, an intensive discussion program on Youth for Social Transformation was held via Zoom. The Minister of Youth and Sports, Honorable Jagat Bishwokarma, was the chief guest for the program with Mr. Madhab Dhungel, Vice-president (National Youth Council Nepal) as special Guest. Mr. Tilottam Paudel, President of Jagriti Child and Youth Concern Nepal and the Coordinator for National Coalition for Girls Rights (NCGR) facilitated the program between 70 participants, including dignitaries from 30 Civil Society Organizations, three iNGOs, five government representatives, 12 civil society networks, representatives from National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) and Youths. The program was organized by Jagriti Child and Youth Concern Nepal (Jcycn), SDGs Studio and DHR Nepal in collaboration with the National Youth Council and NCGR. It was supported by KANALLAN Switzerland with Devchuli Television as Media Partner. 

The session started with a welcome speech by Ms. Irada Parajuli, executive Committee Member of NCGR. She was followed by Ms. Aastha Anirjit Bastakoti, a girl activist and a peer educator in Jcycn’s Girls Empowerment Program, who shared her experiences with tackling the social problems in her community, and municipality through organization and collaboration. She shared the support she gained, the challenges she faced and gave an inspiring speech to motivate fellow youth to raise their voices and work for social transformation by starting from ourselves, and to put words into practice. 

 Honorable Jagat Bishwakarma, Ministry of Youth and Sports shared the contextual need for programs like these and extended his gratitude and wishes to all Nepalese youth, in and out of Nepal. Focused on the theme of International Youth Day 2020 “Youth Engagement for Global Transformation”, he highlighted the need to create spaces for youth to be engaged and the need to forward a campaign where we can move ahead, together with youth to transform our society, while fighting practices harmful to us, especially child marriage, violence against children and girls, and discrimination, for a better future.

Mr. Sushil B.K.; writer, Gender Equality and Social Inclusion Expert and activist, gave a presentation regarding the role youth can take play in eliminating harmful social and cultural practices like Gender Based Violence, Caste best Discrimination, Chhaupadi, Dowry System, and Child Marriage, with the comparative portrayal of the society’s reality and what we need to achieve. Milan Dharel, Executive Director of National Child Rights Council highlighted the need of a critical perspective in youth to move ahead, the need to build trust, and more importantly, be our own role models so that our words are reflected in our actions. This was followed by a speech from Mr. Pushkar Khati, Member Secretary from the Social Welfare Council Nepal, who focused on the need for accountability in youth, self-reflection, and the need to spread that spirit among all the youth in the nation.

In the open floor session,  participants discussed about various ways socio-cultural transformation through youth is possible, including government and stakeholder joint action programs, regularity of collaboration, personal accountability, inclusion of youth with disability, and gender minority, and an organized movement. Dignitaries and participants discussed the government policies targeted at youth, how it has progressed throughout the years but also the gaps in implementation, and especially equitable implementation disaster, the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on the economy and youth. Dipendra Sharma from Care Nepal shared his field based experience and the issues that are prevalent in the society, which are especially discriminatory towards girls. The province 5’s head of province of NHRC Ms. Samjhana Sharma also talked about the role the human rights commission has played, and what kind of practices to progress are seen. Activists Bhakta Bishwakarma, Rabin Nepali, Karun Nepali from Raleigh International, and Journalist K.B Rana also shared their views in the discussion forum. 

After the open floor session, Mr. Madhav Dhungel, Vice President of National Youth Council Nepal discussed various programs brought forth by the National Youth Council (NYC) for the engagement of youths, entrepreneurship, capacity building and employment of youth and the role it plays in development of the nation. He also went into how NYC has been mobilizing youth in collaboration with other stakeholders with a goal to generate a progressive society, and working as  a bridge between youth and opportunities. He elaborated on how this can result in a transformative society with active, and engaged youth that are more aware.

 Ms. Manmaya Bhattarai Pangeni, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Women Children and Senior Citizens elaborated that 2020 is the year of Generation Equality and how the meaningful participation of youth is important and we need to be creating spaces for them. It is equally important to groom children from an early age and provide them with moral education so that we generate strong youth who are socially responsible. She gave examples of good international practices that have developed a culture of progressive youth. The program ended with a vote of thanks from Mr. Pradeep Lamichhane, Chairperson of SDGs Studio. 

In celebration of the International Youth Day 2020 with the slogan, “Youth Engagement for Global Action”, the main ceremony was celebrated with various virtual programs, on 12th August with Prime Minister KP Oli as the chief guest, and in the virtual presence of international guests from Bangladesh, Sri-Lanka, China and India. The program was led by National Youth Council, in joint collaboration with various other Civil Society Organizations like Jcycn, UNOY, NCGR, SPCSN, AYON, Nepal Scouts, and 100 others. Welcome for the program was done by the Ms. Bipana Sharma, on behalf of AYON, Jcycn, NCFLG Forum and the entire youth. Prime Minister KP Oli focused on youth being the pillar of the nation and how investing in youth is investing in the future. He mentioned that the government of Nepal has allocated 7.6 billion Nepalese Rupees from different ministries and departments in youth sector, and that the priority of the government is to empower youth with knowledge, skills and tools. International Speakers and guests like Honorable State minister H.E. Md. Zahid Ahsan Russel, Ministry of Youth and Sports, Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, Country representative Ms Valerie Julliand, Resident Co-ordinator of United Nations in Nepal, Secretary, Ministry of Youth and Sports, Mr. Md. Akhter Hossain, Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, Chairman, National Youth Services, Sri Lanka Theshara Jayasinghe Training Director, National Youth Service Council, Mr. Rasitha Delapola, Sri-lanka, and Deputy Director, International Youth Exchange Centre, Mr. Zhang Hua, China also shared their words highlighting the need to mobilize and engage youth for a better tomorrow. 

International Youth Day 2020, like every year, was successfully celebrated with programs all over the nation.

Nepal - COVID-19: Workers getting protection

Both NTUC and GEFONT started out with organizing assistance and hygiene awareness programmes for their members. Since the lock down in Nepal,  more recently they have also provided food relief to their members in need, mostly informal or day workers.

More importantly, both trade unions also advocated for the Government of Nepal to support workers affected by the pandemic. The Government followed their demands and announced a relief package on the 29th of March, including measures such as:

1. Government shall pay 31 percent of basic salary needed to pay to the Social security Fund by employer and employee and employer shall pay remaining amount only to the employees;
2. Employer should not cut salary of employee during the pandemic ensued lockdown;
3. Local government should manage and provide food during the lock-down to all daily waged and informal economy workers;
4. Private school fees for this month may not be paid by workers. 

The government also declared that the treatment for people infected by COVID-19 shall be done free of cost. However, some believe this package to be unclear and implementation to be unsure. M Ajay Kumar, Steering Committee member for Nepal also highlighted the issue of transport workers in an open letter to the Prime Minister.

Video made by GEFONT (in Nepali) to raise awareness among workers regarding the virus

WSM new partner in Nepal, the Social Protection Civil Society Network (SPCSN) has started broadcasting public announcements on the radio (Community Information Network) all over Nepal to increase public awareness for prevention measures. They have also signed a joint appeal regarding specific measures to be taken for children and other vulnerable categories.

ILO overview of COVID-19 measures implemented by governments, employers’ and workers’ organizations, and the ILO for Nepal: link