Nepal Sets Course for Jobs and Social Protection with UN Global Accelerator

Photo: ILO Nepal

KATHMANDU, Nepal: At a high-level national workshop held on June 27 in Kathmandu, stakeholders from government, trade unions, employers, development partners, and financial institutions gathered to kick off the development of Nepal’s national roadmap under the Global Accelerator.

According to the press release, the Global Accelerator on Jobs and Social Protection for Just Transitions, launched by the UN Secretary-General, supports countries in aligning employment and social protection policies with climate and development goals. For Nepal, this means tackling persistent challenges such as informality, youth unemployment, gender inequality, and limited access to social protection.

Despite ongoing government efforts, most of Nepal’s workforce remains in low-quality, low-productivity jobs. Nearly 20 million people lack social protection, and women, who shoulder 85% of unpaid care work, remain largely excluded from the formal economy. Meanwhile, climate pressures and demographic shifts are increasing demands on Nepal’s social systems.

Numan Özcan, ILO Country Director for Nepal, said, “Job creation, on its own, is not enough. To ensure a just transition, we need strong, inclusive, and resilient social protection systems. Today, we are launching a roadmap process that will define Nepal’s pathway towards decent work and social protection for all.”

The workshop, organized by the National Planning Commission with support from the ILO, UNDP, UNICEF, UN Women, and the World Bank, launched Nepal’s roadmap process. This roadmap will guide investments and policies under Nepal’s 16th National Development Plan and its LDC graduation strategy, with a focus on the green, digital, and care economies.

Chief guest of the programme, Honourable Vice Chairman Prof Dr Shiva Raj Adhikari, National Planning Commission, highlighted, “As we move forward, our future will depend not only on the number of jobs we create but also on how fair and inclusive those jobs are. In our National Action Plan, we have identified 20 structural challenges. Other key issues concern social protection and employment. The critical question is how to lay the foundation for GDP growth. So this diagnostic workshop aims to define how to align our overall objectives with effective job creation. Our three national goals in this endeavour are centred on three pillars-governance, social justice, and prosperity.”

Dr Prakash Shrestha, Honourable Member of the National Planning Commission, underlined, “The National Planning Commission is happy to take the lead in working on job creation and social protection in an integrated manner, in collaboration with all government agencies and development partners.”

Furthermore, Mr Rajan Poudel, Joint Secretary, National Planning Commission, emphasized, “We need to accelerate our efforts beyond what we have done in the past, particularly in expanding employment opportunities. In Nepal’s context, a large share of our economy remains informal, and many of our labour laws are yet to be fully implemented. As we move toward graduation from LDC status, one of the key benchmarks is per capita income. This makes income-generating activities a critical pillar of our development pathway.”

Backed by funding from the UN Joint SDG Fund and the World Bank Social Protection Resilience Trust Fund, the Global Accelerator provides Nepal with a unique opportunity to design integrated, gender-responsive, and climate-smart solutions for decent work and universal social protection.

Source: ILO News