World Bank supports employment and education programmes

Despite huge criticism the government is borrowing Rs 13.73 billion from the World Bank to finance politically motivated employment programme.
The government and the World Bank today signed two separate agreements today to improve employment services and labour market outcomes for Nepali youth and continue support for the government’s flagship School Sector Development Programme (SSDP). According to a press note issued by the World Bank (WB), finance secretary Dr Rajan Khanal and the World Bank country manager for Nepal Faris H Hadad-Zervos signed the agreements today at the Finance Ministry.
“Human capital development and creation of jobs within the country for young people, especially women, is a top priority of the government,” Khanal said, adding that the support for promoting social security and quality education is an important contributor for achieving effective service delivery under Nepal’s new federal structure and our goal of a Prosperous Nepal and Happy Nepali.
The Youth Employment Transformation Initiative (YETI) is a new project of $ 120 million (approximately Rs 13.73 billion) that aims to strengthen the systems and services for employability including programmes like the Prime Minister Employment Programme (PMEP). The project is expected to benefit 100,000 young people, especially women, and will be implemented by the Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Security over a period of five years.
Though, experts have been criticising the government for borrowing money to be spent on a politically potivated programme – that became controvercial in the last fiscal year too – the YETI will support the 753 Employment Service Centers (ESCs) at the local level to increase access to employment opportunities by providing employment promotion and employment support services for registered job seekers. “It will also support a holistic National Employment Management Information System (NEMIS) for effective and efficient management and monitoring of the services provided by the project and PMEP, management of data on job seekers and job-related opportunities, and evidence-based employment policy formulation,” reads the press note.
Last year also, the government was criticised for misusing the public purse – in the name of Prime Minister Employment Programme (PMEP) – for temporary jobs that neither created wealth nor helped capital formation. But the government is implementing the PMEM this year with the borrowed money from World Bank.
Amid worries that the money could end up on handouts as has been widely reported last year about instances of doling out funds for works like gardening and cleaning, Hadad-Zervos said that there are enough safeguard measures to make sure that the project meet its purposes. “The system and processes designed not only at the center, but also at the local level, ensure that proper people will be identified that need this type of job opportunities, transparency in payment and sustainability of jobs,” he said, claiming that the funding will ultimately help development projects at the local level.
The World Bank also claimed that the project is expected to create temporary employment opportunities in the maintenance of public assets and provision of services to engage up to 35,000 vulnerable individuals and yield about 3.5 million work-days annually. “The temporary employment opportunities will be complemented by on-the-job and life skills trainings of up to 50 days per individual to improve the employability of young people in the long run and ensure sustainability, following the updated PMEP guideline,” the press note reads, adding that the project is also expected to also support capacity building initiatives to facilitate effective service delivery and coordination in the new federal structure while creating synergies with the private sector and existing projects to promote employment and employment-related services.
Likewise, Additional Financing (AF)of $23.958 million (approximately Rs 2.74 billion) was made available through the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) Grant to support Nepal’s School Sector Development Programme (SSDP). The SSDP annually benefits over 7 million students and over 180,000 teachers and early childhood education development (ECED) facilitators in more than 30,000 community schools and ECED centers across the country.
The additional financing will maintain support for the government’s SSDP to improve quality, equity and efficiency within the school education sector. It will also safeguard and maximize SSDP’s development impact during the ongoing federal transition. The additional financing will explicitly focus on education service delivery, especially for the most disadvantaged and setting strong foundations for the decentralised education systems. “It will help mitigate risks to education quality and access given heterogeneity in capacity and quality of governance at the local level,” the press note reads.
The GPE AF follows the results-based financing used in the parent IDA School Sector Development Programme to build on the existing momentum and results-focus by directly incentivising the government’s ownership and implementation of critical reforms and policies. It also offers more flexibility to tailor interventions to local contexts, which aligns well with the federal transition.
“Once children and young people are given the opportunity to access quality education, skills and meaningful employment, the potential for Nepal’s development can be truly unlocked,” World Bank country manager for Nepal Faris H Hadad-Zervos said, adding that the World Bank is committed to invest in people to contribute to Nepal’s growth trajectory as a trusted partner of Nepal.

PM Employment Programme benefits some 175,909 unemployed

Though, the economists and opposition have been blaming the government for wasting the taxpayers hard-earned money on unproductive way, the government today claimed that it has provided employment to some 175,909 people through 6,864 projects across the country – based on the data received from 599 local units – run by various local units under the ambitious Prime Minister Employment Programme (PMEP) in the last fiscal year 2018-19.
According to the Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Security (MoLESS), the programme beneficiaries carried out some 2,262,269 days of work through 6,864 community works (projects) that amounted to Rs 2.37 billion in the last fiscal year. A total of 31,958 beneficiaries in Province 5 carried out tasks that amounted to 492,630 working days. Similarly, some 34,432 beneficiaries in Sudur Paschim Province carried out tasks of 433,306 days; some 27,448 people in Province 2 carried out tasks of 312,675 days; some 31,022 persons in Province 1 completed works of 311,093 days; some 25,871 in Karnali Province carried out works of 283,755 days; some 17,619 persons in Province 3 carried out works of 226,036 days; and some 17,559 people in Gandaki Province carried out work of 202,774 days.
According to the ministry, these projects provided employment for 13 days per person and received Rs 13,460 in an average. Organising a press meet at the ministry today, minister for Labour, Employment and Social Security, Gokarna Bista, said that the government has been able to create short-term employment opportunities through these programmes in the first year of the implementation of the programme. “We have been able to create employment for such a high number of people in the first year of the implementation of the programme after completing over 86 legal processes,” Bista said, claiming that the issue of employment was never a priority earlier. “But, we have been able to create employment opportunities in a massive scale.”
Though the short term employment means those who were employed have already been unemployed by now, the government has claimed that its vow to create half a million employment in the current fiscal year could also be met with the federal government allocating Rs 2.36 billion in conditional grants to the local units to run such programmes to create such short term unemployment. “Each local unit had received up to Rs 10 million to run such projects for employment programmes,” the minister claimed.
The ministry, however, claimed that the actual employment figures could be higher as they are still collecting data from all local units across the country.
The incumbent Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli had launched the Prime Minister Employment Programme with a much fanfare on February 13 last year, but the programme became a controversial from the very beginning due to its non-transperent way of allocationg the budget. The government had allocated Rs 3.10 billion for the programme in the last fiscal year 2018-19. “The budget has been wasted in the haphazard manner, and the party cadres have been paid for no-output show-up programmes,” the economists blamed, adding that the government hass borrowed the budget from the development partner especially from the World Bank (WB) to diostribute to its party cadres but the Nepali citizens have to pay for the interest of the money spent by Nepal Communist Party (NCP) party cadres. Despite criticism of misuse of the development partner’s fund, the government has allocated Rs 5.1 billion for the PMEP for this fiscal year 2019-20.
However, minister Bista – in the press meet – defended the programme in the press meet claiming the programme to be successful. “These employment programmes include road construction and maintenance, irrigation canals, preservation of ponds and heritage sites, and construction of walking trails,” he claimed, adding that the government mobilised unemployed citizens, who are registered with the Employment Service Center (ESC) set up in each local unit under local development programmes. Bista also informed that the government has now appointed employment coordinators in most of the local bodies to make the programme move ahead in a full-fledged manner from the current fiscal year.
Over 1.71 million people have registered in these centers across the country so far, according to data compiled by the ministry, which is still in the process of verifying the eligibility of the applicants.
Under the programme – introduced also to implement the Act to Guarantee the Right to Employment 2075 – all citizens registered with the ESCs should get employment opportunity for at least 100 days in a year, if none of their family members are employed for a year. If the government fails to provide employment opportunities to those registered with the ESCs, it must pay them 50 per cent of the minimum wage as unemployed allowance, the Act reads. “Since the government had set a monthly minimum wage of Rs 13,450 for workers on July 9, last year, such families will receive Rs 22,417 annually.”
The Constitution of Nepal has also guaranteed the right to employment to the citizens.