Over 4 billion people still lack social protection: ILO

Despite the unprecedented worldwide expansion of social protection during the Covid-19 crisis, more than four billion people around the world remain entirely unprotected, according to a new International Labour Organisation (ILO) report.

According to the report, the pandemic response was uneven and insufficient, deepening gap between countries with high and low income levels and failing to afford the muchneeded social protection that all human beings deserve. Social protection includes access to health care and income security, particularly in relation to old age, unemployment, sickness, disability, work injury, maternity or loss of a main income earner, as well as for families with children.

"Countries are at a crossroads," ILO director-general Guy Ryder said, adding that it is a pivotal moment to harness the pandemic response to build a new generation of rightsbased social protection systems. "These can cushion people from future crises and give workers and businesses the security to tackle the multiple transitions ahead with confidence and with hope."

"We must recognise that effective and comprehensive social protection is not just essential for social justice and decent work but for creating a sustainable and resilient future too," he added.

"The World Social Protection Report 2020-22: Social protection at the crossroads - in pursuit of a better future' gives a global overview of recent developments in social protection systems, including social protection floors, and covers the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. The report identifies protection gaps and sets out key policy recommendations, including in relation to the targets of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Currently, only 47 per cent of the global population are effectively covered by at least one social protection benefit, while 4.1 billion people (some 53 per cent) obtain no income security at all from their national social protection system.

There are significant regional inequalities in social protection.Europe and Central Asia have the highest rates of coverage, with 84 per cent of people being covered by at least one benefit. The Americas are also above the global average, with 64.3 per cent. Likewise, Asia and the Pacific (44 per cent), the Arab States (40 per cent) and Africa (17.4 per cent) have marked coverage gaps.

Worldwide, the vast majority of children still have no effective social protection coverage - only one in four children (26.4 per cent) receives a social protection benefit. Only 45 per cent of women with newborns worldwide receive a cash maternity benefit, the report reads, adding that only one in three persons with severe disabilities (33.5 per cent) worldwide receives a disability benefit. "Coverage of unemployment benefits is even lower; only 18.6 per cent of unemployed workers worldwide are effectively covered."

And while 77.5 per cent of people above retirement age receive some form of old-age pension, major disparities remain across regions, between rural and urban areas, and between women and men, it adds.

Government spending on social protection also varies significantly. On average, countries spend 12.8 per cent of their gross domestic product (GDP) on social protection (excluding health), however high-income countries spend 16.4 per cent and low-income countries only 1.1 per cent of their GDP on social protection.

The report says that the financing gap -- the additional spending required to ensure at least minimum social protection for all -- has increased by approximately 30 per cent since the start of the Covid-19 crisis.

To guarantee at least basic social protection coverage, low-income countries would need to invest an additional $77.9 billion per year, lower-middle-income countries an additional $362.9 billion per year and upper-middle-income countries a further $750.8 billion per year, the report reads, adding that its equivalent to 15.9 per cent, 5.1  per cent and 3.1 per cent of their GDP, respectively.

"There is an enormous push for countries to move to fiscal consolidation, after the massive public expenditure of their crisis response measures, but it would be seriously damaging to cut back on social protection; investment is required here and now," director of ILO Social Protection Department Shahra Razavi said, adding that social protection is an important tool that can create wide-ranging social and economic benefits for countries at all levels of development. "It can underpin better health and education, greater equality, more sustainable economic systems, better managed migration and the observance of core rights."

Building the systems that can deliver these positive outcomes will require a mix of financing sources and greater international solidarity, particularly with support for poorer countries but the benefits of success will reach beyond national borders to benefit us all," she added.

Specific measures to promote universal social protection were highlighted in the 'Global Call to Action for a human-centred recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic'.

The call to action, which outlines a comprehensive agenda for recovery, was endorsed unanimously in June 2021 by the ILO's member states, representing governments, workers' and employers' organisations.

Government suspends issuing new work permits for foreign employment

 The Department of Foreign Employment (DoFE) has suspended issuing work permits physically to foreign employment seekers with effect from Friday, though online work permit issuance will continue with limited quota.

Issuing a press  note, the Foreign Employment Office said the the department has directed not to issue new work permits for foreign employment physically until further notice as the government has already suspended domestic and international flights. "Since the international flights have been suspended from Thursday, there will be no issuing of work permits physically.

However, the online access for renewal of the work permits will  continue, the department's press note reads.

Last year, the government suspended issuing work permits on March 12 after the government imposed the lockdown across the country. It reopened only after six months.

Government plans to increase senior citizen allowance to Rs 5,000 per month

 The government is planning to increase allowance of senior citizens as it is preparing to hold election.

While addressing his party gathering organised at Chishankhugadhi in Okhaldhunga today, deputy prime minister Ishwor Pokhrel today confirmed to increase the allowance of senior citizens to Rs 5,000 per month.

Though, the Nepal Communist party (NCP) – during the election – had promised to increase the allowance in its election manifesto, the government lacks resources due to shrinking revenue base. However, Pokharel also blamed the breakaway faction – in his own words – of ruling party opposed the plan to implement in the last fiscal year. He however, did not mentions who opposed the government plan.

But the idea of distribution of state resources – to take political benefit by any party – is the misuse of the tax paid by the people. The government is expected to bring such distributive programmes to attract more votes in the election that is has proposed for April and May. The minister also argued that the government decided to seek a fresh mandate of the people as it was cornered and barred from working smoothly. He reiterated that the government is committed to work for the development and prosperity of people.

White Paper on cyber safety for children

 Observing the Safer Internet Day 2021, ChildSafeNet and UNICEF Nepal published a white paper on protecting children and young people online today.

The white paper includes a comprehensive assessment on children and young people's internet use, online risks for them and their vulnerability to online abuse and exploitation, claims a press note issued by the UN agency.

The white paper was developed by ChildSafeNet – an organisation working to make the internet safer for children and young people – in collaboration with UNICEF Nepal. The white paper also includes review of the policies, plans, response mechanisms and gaps related to protection of children and young people online. 

Over the past decade, internet use has seen a rapid increase in Nepal. According to Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA), some 80.07 per cent Nepalis have access to internet, whereas only 2.65 per cent people were connected to internet in 2010. As stated in a report of survey, conducted by ChildSafeNet and UNICEF Nepal, one in four children and young people spend more than ten hours online after the Covid-19 outbreak.

“Despite this exponential rise, awareness levels on internet safety still remains very low,” founder and president of ChildSafeNet Anil Raghuvanshi said, “As a result, children and young people, are at an increased risk to online risks such as online sexual abuse and exploitation, cyberbullying, cyber grooming and phishing.”

Raghuvanshi informed that, in order to prepare the white paper, ChildSafeNet conducted a desktop review of over 120 research reports, policy documents, laws and international instruments related to protection of children and young people online. Likewise, inputs and recommendations were collected from six virtual workshops and 21 key informant interviews with child online protection experts and stakeholders.

“The white paper is expected to help in filling the gaps in knowledge on online safety for children and young people in Nepal and make the gravity of the issue more visible,” chief at the Child Protection, UNICEF Nepal, Inah Fatoumata Kaloga said, speaking at the virtual launch of the white paper.

Human rights lawyer and lecturer at Kathmandu Law School Kapil Aryal reviewed the policies and laws related to protection of children and young people in Nepal and contributed as a content writer of the white paper. According to Aryal, the Electronic Transactions Act 2063 is being used in all cases related to cybercrimes, which does not define cybercrimes against children. “Moreover, the Kathmandu District Court remains the only court designated to hear cases filed under this Act.”

Since The Act Relating to Children 2075 prohibits exploitation children from online sexual abuse and exploitation and defines online offences against, Aryal suggested using this Act for the cases related to online offences against children. “Moreover, the Criminal Code 2074 can also be used, which, penalises cybercrimes, online harassment, threatening, insulting and improper behavior.”

“The white paper is an evidence-based tool,” Kaloga said, adding that It is expected to contribute in policy development, programme planning and advocacy to increase engagement of the government, civil society, private sector, parents, teachers and other stakeholders to make the internet safer.

The white paper provides a set of actionable recommendations to the government, civil society organisations, private sector, parents, teachers, children and young people in order to make the digital technologies safer for children and young people.

Diaspora scholars Insisted Nepal to ensure safe, orderly, and regular labour migration

 Nepali Diaspora researchers, academics and practitioners highlighted that Nepal has to utilise the Covid-19 Pandemic as an opportunity to review its existing migration policies, implementation and prepare a new roadmap for future migration speaking in a virtual dialogue today. 

The virtual policy dialogue – organised by Center for Diplomacy and Development (CDD), Nepal Institute of International Cooperation and Engagement (NIICE), Nepal Policy Institute (NPI) and Nepalese Migrants Unity Network (NeMUN) on ‘Rethinking Migration: Need of the hour’ – concluded that Nepal’s should take stern action to ensure the outmigration is safe, orderly and regular, which is the main essence of the Global Compact for Migration (GCM). GCM is the first-ever UN global agreement on a common approach to international migration in all its dimensions, which Nepal has also signed in 2019 along with other 164 countries.

Giving the welcoming remark at the virtual event, CDD founder president and former ambassador to France Mohan Krishna Shrestha emphasised that protection of migrant workers’ rights can be ensured only when the government rules and regulation are strongly implemented by the recruitment agencies in Nepal and the state makes the foreign employers accountable to protect the rights of the migrant workers.

Addressing the webinar, Foreign Employment Board (FEB) executive director Rajan Prasad Shrestha opined that to protect the Nepali workers national and international efforts should be made. He underscored the role of diaspora organisations such as NPI to advice the migration stakeholders of Nepal on future planning and policies. Shrestha also informed that the government has the policy to attract the returnee migrants in the agricultural field and they will be also mobilised in the other development sectors of the country utilising the skill and experiences they have gained abroad.

Presenting at the webinar, the chairperson of NPI Khagendra Dhakal emphasised that Migration should be a choice of Nepalis but not a forced decision for survival. 

NPI – an international think-tank initiated by the Nepali diaspora two years ago and migration has been one of the core areas of its focus – chair Dhakal pointed that all migration stakeholders should take migration as a positive tool of development for the home and host country both but how home countries can be successful in benefiting from the migration depends on the countries’ national strategies. “However, countries like Nepal have failed to link the labour migration to the development to date in most of the cases, which is what should be the future debate,” Dhakal said, adding that Nepali migrant workers have been abused and exploited in each and every stage of the migration cycle from the recruiting to the returning stage and the main cause of such exploitation is due to lack of awareness about foreign employment processes.

Referring to the recent research conducted by NPI, Dhakal said that some 70 per cent of the returnee migrants are completely unaware of what programmes the government has planned for them in their own country. He also questioned how helpless they could be when they are in a foreign land where they can’t even under the local language.

For the future policy and planning, Dhakal, who is also an Adjunct Professor at King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thailand, advised that Nepal should adopt the ‘whole of government’ approach to tackle migration for which skilling, reskilling, and upskilling, “These programmes should be conducted in collaboration with employer and host countries governments using effective labour diplomacy,” he said, suggesting the government on prioritising SDG4 and GCM Objectives 18 to ensure the safe migration and decent work for all Nepali labor migrant workers. “While conducting skill development programmes, Nepal needs to conduct market research and create intellectual debates to understand the changing trend of skills demand in the international labour market.”

Seconding Dhakal, another migration expert based in North Africa Meena Poudel said that migration is a natural process, but the exploitations are basically caused by the unethical recruitment process adopted by local recruitment agencies and foreign employer companies. “Cartels of labour migration stakeholders is the major cause for Nepali migrant workers exploitation which government has not been and is not willing to dig in in true sense,” he said, advising the government to consider the migration governance as a priority for the future migration policy planning to ensure labor migration is humane and orderly.

Ramzan Babu Ali Miya from Qatar and Sapana Basyal from Malaysia also shared their experiences of working with migrant labourers in their respective countries for the past several years. They shared the fragile conditions of Nepali migrant workers during the Covid-19 pandemic. Both of them are actively engaged with the migrant workers’ rights protection for many years in those countries. They urged the government to protect their nationals’ rights even when they are abroad to run their family’s daily lives back home in Nepal. The migrant workers are contributors to Nepal’s economy and the government should put them in the social protection framework even they are undocumented, they advised.

Summing up the policy dialogue, Jeevan Sharma associated with the University of Edinburgh, said that migration will go on despite of pandemic and other challenges through the type of jobs and destinations may change. Sharma, a migration researcher currently based in the UK, also pointed out that Nepal has realised migration in terms of financial remittance only, but a country can get much more than that from migrant labourers with effective strategies. He highlighted a consent point of all experts that migrant workers return and go back to their village and do agricultural work is an old assumption. Until and unless the basic needs are supplied in the village and the agricultural system has been transformed with the use of technology, the country may fail to attract returnees to the rural villages for agricultural work.

Sharma expressed his surprise that the government makes promises to create more employment in the country to discourage the labour migration in one hand and it is signing agreements with different countries. “This makes it harder for the public to understand what the government’s direction towards migration is actually,” questioned Sharma.

Participants of the dialogue questioned the government on the indicators of the implementation of the plans and programmes. They echoed that without effective implementation and monitoring mechanism programs on paper cannot result in the desired outcome.

The programme was moderated by the NPI executive board member Sharu Joshi, who is also a migrant expert with her intensive experience with government and UN system for the past decade. “Covid-19 has surfaced the problems of migrant workers that the public also have been realising slowly and the dialogue involving diaspora scholars’ actioners and Nepal based migration expert is just timely to chart out the future policies of migration for Nepal, she said, advising the government to create open debates and utilise diaspora intellectual resources for the informed policies of Nepal including migration. “The synergy between the diaspora scholars and Nepal based scholars could contribute significantly to achieve the national goals.”

The programme was attended by officials from the International Labour Organisation (ILO), Nepali Academics from different universities from Nepal, Policy Research Institute, Association of Nepalis in the Americas, government, former ambassadors, migrant organisations representatives, diaspora academics and practitioners from North America, Europe, Middle East, Asia-Pacific Region.

Some 4 million jobs added to Nepal’s economy in the past decade: World Bank

 Nepal’s economy added nearly four million jobs over the past decade, and average job quality increased significantly, according to the World Bank’s recent Nepal Jobs Diagnostic report. But continued job creation, especially of wage jobs, is needed to absorb underutilised workers into better-quality, stable, and well-paid jobs. The economic disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic – while not addressed in this report – highlights the importance of increasing stable and secure employment in the post-pandemic recovery period.

Nepal’s economy has been gradually shifting from largely subsistence agriculture to more modern industry and services, and this structural transition is bringing better work opportunities for the labour force, it reads, adding that despite great strides, not all job seekers are able to access quality jobs, especially women. “In the last decade, large numbers of men have entered jobs in construction, manufacturing, commerce and transportation, or have migrated abroad. Even though many of these are informal jobs or temporary wage jobs, they are nevertheless more productive and provide improved livelihoods compared to traditional low-productivity farm work.”

Women, on the other hand, have not transitioned in significant numbers. The share of wage work in Nepal jumped from 17 per cent to 24 per cent of total employment between 2008 and 2018, as nearly half of the jobs added since 2008 were wage jobs.

“The shift toward wage employment signals a fundamental change in Nepal’s economic development and is similar to patterns seen around the world,” World Bank Lead Economist and main author of the report Dr Elizabeth Ruppert Bulmer said, adding that as economies diversify their production activities and increase scale economies, employment becomes more specialized and more productive, and jobs are increasingly based in firms rather than self-employment, and pay more. “Urbanisation amplifies these effects by concentrating economic activities while increasing the variety of products and services.”

Evidence from a combination of data sources – national labour force surveys from 1998, 2008 and 2018, the 2018 Economic Census, and a 2019 survey of 900 SMEs across 6 districts – points to a number of constraints to achieving better labour market outcomes in Nepal. “One key impediment is Nepal’s dramatic topography, which makes access to wage jobs and to product markets costly,” the report reads, adding that most jobs are informal and concentrate in relatively low productivity sectors, while most firms are micro-sized with one or two employees, and target small local markets rather than exporting or connecting to regional or global value chains. “In addition to credit constraints, many SMEs cite tax regulations, high taxes, scarce skills, and bureaucratic inefficiencies as obstacles to growth and therefore job creation.”

Gendered social norms have limited female labor mobility and work opportunities, reflected by the fact that most women remain in unpaid work. Three-quarters of new jobs taken up by women between 2008 and 2018 were in non-wage self-employment or unpaid family work, much of which was farm work. Occupational segregation and social norms contribute to the large earnings gap between men and women, according to the report.

In order to improve job outcomes in Nepal, the report recommends policies focusing on fostering SME productivity and growth; improving the business environment and labor market policies; increasing the individual, family, and economy-wide benefits of international migration; and preparing and connecting women and youth to better jobs, including entrepreneurship.

“While the report does not address the shocks from Covid-19 experienced by Nepal’s economy and its people, it underscores the imminent priority for Nepal to save livelihoods of the most vulnerable workers, including those in subsistence agriculture and urban and rural informal day laborers or self-employed workers who lost their income sources,” World Bank country director for Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka Faris Hadad-Zervos, said, adding that the government of Nepal has already initiated programmes including the Youth Employment Transformation Initiative Project to address the immediate labour market challenges, and it is hoped that this analysis will further guide policy interventions to improve job outcomes as part of Nepal’s resilient recovery efforts from the crisis.

Temporary basic income to protect the world's poorest people could slow the surge in Covid-19 cases: UNDP

The immediate introduction of a Temporary Basic Income (TBI) for the world’s poorest people could slow the current surge in Covid-19 cases by enabling nearly three billion people to stay at home, according to a United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) report released today.
The report, ‘Temporary Basic Income: Protecting Poor and Vulnerable People in Developing Countries,’ estimates that it would cost from $199 billion per month to provide a time-bound, guaranteed basic income to the 2.7 billion people living below or just above the poverty line in 132 developing countries.
The report concludes that the measure is feasible and urgently needed, with the pandemic now spreading at a rate of more than 1.5 million new cases per week, particularly in developing countries, where seven out of ten workers make a living through informal markets and cannot earn money, if they are at home.
Many of the huge numbers of people not covered by social insurance programmes are informal workers, low-waged, women and young people, refugees and migrants, and people with disabilities; and they are the ones hardest hit by this crisis. UNDP has carried out assessments on the socio-economic effects of Covid-19 in more than 60 countries in the past few months and the evidence shows that workers, who are not covered by social protection cannot stay at home without an income.
A Temporary Basic Income (TBI) would give them the means to buy food and pay for health and education expenses. It is also financially within reach: a six-month Temporary Basic Income, for example, would require just 12 per cent of the total financial response to Covid-19 expected in 2020, or the equivalent of one-third of what developing countries owe in external debt payments in 2020.
“Unprecedented times call for unprecedented social and economic measures,” UNDP Administrator Achim Steiner said, adding that introducing a TBI for the world’s poorest people has emerged as one option. “This might have seemed impossible just a few months ago.”
“Bailouts and recovery plans cannot only focus on big markets and big business, he said. “A Temporary Basic Income might enable governments to give people in lockdown a financial lifeline, inject cash back into local economies to help keep small businesses afloat, and slow the devastating spread of Covid-19.”
A Temporary Basic Income is not a silver bullet solution to the economic hardship this pandemic has brought, however, protecting jobs, expanding support to micro, small and medium enterprises, and using digital solutions to identify and access people who are excluded, are all measures that countries can take.
One way for countries to pay for a Temporary Basic Income would be to repurpose the funds they would use this year to service their debt. Developing and emerging economies will spend $3.1 trillion in debt repayment this year, according to official data. A comprehensive debt standstill for all developing countries, as called for by the UN secretary-general, would allow countries to temporarily repurpose these funds into emergency measures to combat the effects of the Covid-19 crisis.
Several countries have already taken steps to introduce Temporary Basic Incomes, the UNDP report reads, adding that the government of Togo has distributed over $19.5 million in monthly financial aid to over 12 per cent of the population through its cash transfer programme, mostly to women, who work in the informal sector. “Spain recently approved a monthly budget of €250 million to top up the incomes of 850,000 vulnerable families and 2.3 million individuals up to a minimum threshold.”
Covid-19 has exacerbated existing global and national inequalities and has created new disparities that are hitting the most vulnerable people the hardest. With up to 100 million more people being pushed into extreme poverty in 2020, some 1.4 billion children affected by school closures, and record-level unemployment and loss of livelihoods, UNDP predicts that global human development is on course to decline this year for the first time since the concept was introduced.
UNDP is the socio-economic lead for the UN system on Covid-19 recovery and is implementing social and economic recovery strategies in countries across the world.

Government, World Bank launch Youth Employment and Transformation Initiative Project

The ‘Youth Employment Transformation Initiative’ project has been jointly launched by minister of Labour, Employment and Social Security Rameshwor Raya Yadav and World Bank country director for Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka Faris Hadad-Zervos.
Financed by the World Bank to promote domestic employment, the project will enable poor and vulnerable youth gain access to employment, skills development and capacity building opportunities, according to a press note issued today by the multilateral development partner. Aligned with the Prime Minister Employment Programme, the $120 million project will be implemented over the next four years with a focus on improving employment services and labour market outcomes, especially for youth.
“With the onset of Covid-19 and the subsequent contraction of the global job market, Nepal’s labour market is also affected with a huge number of job losses. “In this context, result-driven implementation of the project at all three levels of the government is of critical importance,” minister of Labour, Employment and Social Security Yadav said, adding that the project plays a crucial role to expand the employment opportunities in the domestic labour market and to set up an automated system of Labour Information Bank and upgrade the Employment Management Information System by consolidating basic labour market information such as profile of the unemployed persons including knowledge, skills, experience and the potential sector for employment along with the demand and supply aspects of the labor market.
“In addition to the longer term goals of the project, as part of the World Bank’s Covid-19 response, the project funding is being frontloaded this year to support over 75,000 of the most vulnerable unemployed youth at the local level to earn 100 days of wages each through the creation of temporary employment opportunities in the maintenance and upgrading of public infrastructure,” Hadad-Zervos said, adding that working with the government, development partners and the private sector, the World Bank will seek to contribute to a long thread of engagements that align to make a difference in the lives of the most vulnerable people.
The project agreement was signed in November 2019 by the government (Finance Ministry) and the World Bank. Of the $120 million credit, about 90 per cent is allocated to the local levels to create jobs in the maintenance and upgrading of public infrastructure and public services for 100,000 unemployed youth, 60 per cent of whom will be women as per the project’s priority to inclusion. The project will support 753 Employment Service Centers at the local levels to strengthen the workforce and to provide services in registration, profiling, referral, temporary work placement and on-the-job training.

Plug social protection gaps in developing countries to prevent future crises: ILO

The Covid-19 crisis has exposed devastating gaps in social protection coverage in developing countries, and recovery will only be sustained and future crises prevented, if they can transform their ad hoc crisis response measures into comprehensive social protection systems, according to new analysis from the International Labour Organisation (ILO).
Two briefing papers released by the ILO warn that the current gaps in social protection could compromise recovery plans, expose millions to poverty, and affect global readiness to cope with similar crises in future.
The papers take a detailed look at the role of social protection measures in addressing the Covid9 outbreak in developing countries, including the provision of sickness benefits during the crisis.
The brief on Social protection responses to the Covid-19 pandemic in developing countries, describes social protection as, “an indispensable mechanism for delivering support to individuals during the crisis”. It examines the response measures some countries have introduced, including removing financial barriers to quality health care, enhancing income security, reaching out to workers in the informal economy, protecting incomes and jobs, and improving the delivery of social protection, employment and other interventions.
“While the virus does not discriminate between rich and poor, its effects are highly uneven”, the brief reads, adding that the ability to access affordable, quality, healthcare has become “a matter of life and death”.
The brief also warns policymakers to avoid a singular focus on Covid-19 because this could reduce the availability of health systems to respond to “other conditions that kill people every day”. It cites the example of how, during the Ebola epidemic, a focus on this virus exacerbated mortality from malaria, tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS.
According to data in the brief, 55 per cent of the world’s population – as many as four billion people – are not covered by social insurance or social assistance. Globally, only 20 per cent of unemployed people are covered by unemployment benefits, and in some regions the coverage is much lower.
The other Social Protection Spotlight brief covers Sickness benefits during sick leave and quarantine: Country responses and policy considerations in the context of Covid-19. “While the virus does not discriminate between rich and poor, its effects are highly uneven [...] The ability to access affordable, quality, healthcare has become 'a matter of life and death'.”
It warns that the Covid-19 health crisis has exposed two main adverse effects of gaps in sickness benefit coverage. Firstly, such protection gaps can force people to go to work when they are sick or should self-quarantine, so increasing the risk of infecting others. Secondly, the related loss of income increases the risk of poverty for workers and their families, which could have a lasting impact.
The brief calls for urgent, short-term measures to close sickness benefit coverage and adequacy gaps, pointing out that this would bring a three-fold benefit: support for public health, poverty prevention, and promotion of the human rights to health and social security.
The proposed measures include extending sickness benefit coverage to all, with particular attention given to reaching women and men in non-standard and informal employment, the self-employed, migrants and vulnerable groups. Other recommendations include increasing benefit levels to ensure they provide income security, speeding up benefit delivery, and expanding the scope of benefits to include prevention, diagnosis and treatment measures, as well as time spent in quarantine or on the care of sick dependents.
“The Covid-19 crisis is a wake-up call. It has shown that a lack of social protection affects not just the poor, it exposes the vulnerability of those who have been getting by relatively well, because medical charges and loss of income can easily destroy decades of family work and saving,” said the director of the ILO’s Social Protection Department Shahra Razavi. “The examples from around the world clearly demonstrate once again that countries with robust and comprehensive social protection systems are in a much stronger position to respond to, and recover from, a crisis,” he said, adding that policymakers need to build on the momentum generated by growing public awareness of the importance of social protection and the urgency of investing in it as a society, to ensure preparedness for future crises.

Lawmakers ask to bring supplementary budget before regular budget

Lawmakers today demanded the government to bring supplementary budget – to mitigate the impact of the coronavirus – before the regular budget for the next fiscal year.
Commenting on the ‘Principals and Priorities of the Budget for the next fiscal year’ – presented by the finance minister Dr Yub Raj Khatiwada at the house yesterday – they asked the government to first bring immediate relief measures, through supplementary budget, as the economy has suffered a lot due to one-and-a-half month lockdown clamped to contain the spread of coronavirus.
The parliamentarians, on the occasion, also demanded the government to prioritise four sectors—employment generation, agriculture, health and the education—in the federal budget for the next fiscal year 2020-21.
They also said that as the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic is taking away jobs from thousands of Nepalis within the country and out in different labour destinations, the primary focus of the new budget should be creating jobs. “The government to hold adequate discussions within the House and outside before presenting the budget,” they said, adding that
The finance minister has to present the budget every year on Jesth 15, which falls on May 28 this year.
Dr Khatiwada will present the budget for next fiscal year 2020-21 in the Parliament on May 28, though the budget session has started late due to coronavirus pandemic. The government has escaped the pre-budget discussions, and holding the discussion from today before programmes and Policies to be presented by the president on May 15.
The lawmakers – of almost all the political parties in the House – has a unanimous view that the government should not set ambitious targets and be realistic in its budget focusing on resolving the problems created by the pandemic. The government has as always like in the normal times has targeted to get double digit growth, which it has failed to achieve in the last fiscal year and fiscal year too, and of course seems not possible in the next fiscal year also.
The incumbent government and finance minister – who is going to present the budget for the third year in the row – has repeatedly failed to not only achieve the growth target but also crack whip on inflation, and also create investment friendly environment. “The private sector that has already been under threat from the government and its machinery that have been directly involved in the extortion, has not been able to operate business but the government has ordered to pay the complete salary of last month and thus month too,” said an entrepreneur, who did not wanted to be named due to fear from the finance minister and the incumbent government that does not like to hear criticism. 
The government has failed to pay the salary to government staff, how can private sector – without operating industries – pay salary of the workers for two months without work, he said, adding that they have not been reaping huge profits as assumed by the public. “The government is taking loan from the development partners to pay salary to its staff, and how can the private sector pay salary to its workers without any support.”
On the occasion, Nepali Congress lawmaker Minendra Rijal, also the shadow finance minister, said that thousands of migrant Nepali workers, and also those inside the country, have lost their jobs. “The government must thus focus on creating jobs,” he said, adding that the government also does not have exact data of how many Nepalis are currently employed abroad, though estimates suggest the number could be in millions.
There are over 1.5 million Nepali youths in Malaysia, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait alone, according to the Migration in Nepal report. Likewise, some 3 million to 4 million people are employed in India. “The economic slowdown in these source countries has already hit the job market hard,” he said, adding that some 3,500 Nepali workers have registered to return home from Kuwait. “More unemployed Nepali migrant workers means more drop in remittance inflow, which will lead to decline in the import and affect revenue mobilisation.”
Urging the government to bring a realistic budget, he also said that despite agriculture accounting for one third of the country’s economy, the sector still continues to be neglected.
The lawmakers also demanded to allocate at least 10 per cent of the budget for the agriculture sector from currently 5 per cent that comes to around Rs 1.53 trillion.
The lawmakers also called the government to empower the local governments to help them implement projects more effectively, spend more to upgrade healthcare system, and invest more to develop infrastructure for online studies.

Covid-19 causes devastating losses in working hours and employment: ILO

The Covid-19 crisis is expected to wipe out 6.7 per cent of working hours globally in the second quarter of 2020, equivalent to 195 million full-time workers.
Large reductions are foreseen in the Arab States (8.1 per cent, equivalent to 5 million full-time workers), Europe (7.8 per cent, or 12 million full-time workers) and Asia and the Pacific (7.2 per cent, 125 million full-time workers), according to the Internal Labour Organisation (ILO).
“Huge losses are expected across different income groups but especially in upper-middle income countries – 7 per cent or 100 million full-time workers – it said, adding that this far exceeds the effects of the 2008-9 financial crisis. “The sectors most at risk include accommodation and food services, manufacturing, retail, and business and administrative activities.”
The eventual increase in global unemployment during 2020 will depend substantially on future developments and policy measures. There is a high risk that the end-of-year figure will be significantly higher than the initial ILO projection, of 25 million.
More than four out of five people – 81 per cent – in the global workforce of 3.3 billion are currently affected by full or partial workplace closures. “Workers and businesses are facing catastrophe, in both developed and developing economies,” ILO director-general Guy Ryder said, adding that they have to move fast, decisively, and together. “The right, urgent, measures, could make the difference between survival and collapse.”
The ILO Monitor second edition: Covid-19 and the world of work , which describes Covid-19 as ‘the worst global crisis since World War II’, updates an ILO research note published on March 18. However, the updated version includes sectoral and regional information on the effects of the pandemic.
According to the new study, some 1.25 billion workers are employed in the sectors identified as being at high risk of ‘drastic and devastating’ increases in layoffs and reductions in wages and working hours. “Many are in low-paid, low-skilled jobs, where a sudden loss of income is devastating.”
Looked at regionally, the proportion of workers in these ‘at risk’ sectors varies from 43 per cent in the Americas to 26 per cent in Africa. Some regions, particularly Africa, have higher levels of informality, which combined with a lack of social protection, high population density and weak capacity, pose severe health and economic challenges for governments, the report cautions.
Worldwide, two billion people work in the informal sector – mostly in emerging and developing economies – and are particularly at risk.
Large-scale, integrated, policy measures are needed, focusing on four pillars: supporting enterprises, employment and incomes; stimulating the economy and jobs; protecting workers in the workplace; and, using social dialogue between government, workers and employers to find solutions, the study reads.
“This is the greatest test for international cooperation in more than 75 years,” Ryder said, adding, “If one country fails, then we all fail.”
“We must find solutions that help all segments of our global society, particularly those that are most vulnerable or least able to help themselves,” he said, adding that the choices we make today will directly affect the way this crisis unfolds and so the lives of billions of people. “With the right measures we can limit its impact and the scars it leaves. We must aim to build back better so that our new systems are safer, fairer and more sustainable than those that allowed this crisis to happen.”

Substantial contribution of reconstruction in economy

Reconstruction has increased 4.5 percentage point contribution to GDP, according to a study.
According to a preliminary report ‘Impact of Post-Earthquake Reconstruction on Nepalese Economy’, jointly prepared by the National Reconstruction Authority (NRA) and the Society of Economic Journalists Nepal (Sejon), public and private spending on post-earthquake reconstruction helped increase 4.5 percentage points to the economic growth rate.
It means the casual impact of reconstruction ‘contributed’ 7x0.045 = 0.32 per cent growth in annual GDP, assuming 7 per cent annual GDP growth rate.
The report – supported by the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDIIA) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) – also claimed that the reconstruction activities in the aftermath of the 2015 devastating earthquakes also generated 1.42 million jobs.
Economist and lead author Nirmal Kumar Raut, while presenting the report today, said that around 550,000 people were engaged in reconstruction work in the current fiscal year alone. “The study also reveals that housing reconstruction alone created jobs equal to 255 million man days which is equivalent to 1.42 million people being employed by the end of fiscal 2017-18. “Currently, some 0.55 million people are working in reconstruction of houses with jobs equal to 100 million work days being created indicating that the construction industry has been the largest employer in recent periods.”
Roughly speaking, about 7 per cent of the total employment in 2017-18 was created from the reconstruction of destroyed, damaged infrastructure alone, according to the report. “This is also a lower bound estimate of the total employment in the reconstruction work because this calculation is based only on a basic structure of house proposed among others and also this excludes the employment in the reconstruction of public infrastructure.”
Nepal was struck by two devastating earthquakes of magnitudes 7.8 and 7.3 on April 25 and May 12, respectively, killing some 8,790 people and injuring 22,300. The economic loss was estimated at $7 billion, out of which 76 per cent was in the private sector. The economic growth rate plunged to 2.97 per cent in the fiscal year 2014-15 – following the disaster – decelerated further to a record low of 0.2 per cent in the fiscal year 2015-16.
After the devastating earthquake, lots of reconstruction activities picked up creating employment and helping economic activities to push the economic growth. The Nepali economy grew by 7.74 per cent in the fiscal year 2016-17, the highest growth rate since the fiscal year 1993-94. Likewise, in the fiscal year 2017-18, the economy grew by 6.3 per cent, according to the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS).
The report also claims that reconstruction work alone contributed most to the economic growth rate.
The report used two different approaches – one contribution of the construction industry to the GDP and second econometric model – to analyse.
The first inference was drawn from the contribution of the construction industry to the GDP vis-à-vis other major industries before and after the earthquake, Raut said, adding that the second inference was made by exploiting an econometric model. “An econometric model is one of the tools economists use to forecast developments in the economy.”
The econometric model also measures past relationships among such variables as consumer spending, household income, and employment, among others, and then forecasts how changes in some variables will affect future development, though some of the economists do not buy the result of the report.
“An average 4.5 per cent growth contribution by the reconstruction drive alone is not possible,” a former member of the National Planning Commission (NPC) Govinda Nepal said, adding that there are no substantial bases to claim that reconstruction activities fuelled a growth of 4.5 per cent, even though it has contributed significantly to revitalising the economy.
Nepal also said there is a need to conduct a comprehensive study on how reconstruction activities contributed to the economy before making such a large claim.
The government – in the fiscal year 2015-16 – spent Rs 21 billion on reconstruction, and in the next fiscal year 2016-17 – it spent Rs 27 billion. But in the past four fiscal year years, the government spent a total of Rs 450 billion – with most of the spending taking place in the last two fiscal year – which gives ample ground to conclude that the 4.5 per cent contribution – from fiscal year 2015-16 to fiscal 2017-18 – to the economy by the reconstruction drive is just not possible, Nepal added.
However, the outcome is construed as a lower bound estimate of the effects of reconstruction on economic growth owing to the limitations in the availability of data of other major variables and confounding effects of the 2015 blockade, natural shocks and other concurring adversities such as border blockade, the report explains. “Of the four major sectors--agriculture, manufacturing, whole and retails and construction, the share of only the construction sector in the economy expanded while share of other three sectors decreased.”
Chief executive officer (CEO) of the National Reconstruction Authority (NRA) Sushil Gyewali, on the occasion, said that the employment generated by the reconstruction drive looks realistic though there is a need for more research to find out the actual contribution of reconstruction activities to the economy. “Whatever growth there was did not just come from the government’s investment only,” he said, adding that the government invested only Rs 150 billion in the housing sector and the private sector poured in Rs 600 billion to build homes. “As Nepal’s reconstruction used local materials and resources, most of the money did not go outside the country supporting the grassroots level the most.”
Reconstruction also imparted skills to many Nepalis, mostly benefitting women, and increased financial inclusion with about 770,000 new bank accounts opened, some 30 per cent by women, the report reads, adding that – according to the NRA data – as many as 482,323 beneficiaries, out of the total 816,560, have rebuilt their houses. “As many as 56,382 beneficiaries have received construction completion certificates.”
A total of 769,926 households have received the first tranche of the government grant with 621,449 beneficiaries receiving the second tranche too, the NRA data reveals, adding that a total of 525,233 have received the third installment of government assistance. “The government provides Rs 300,000 for homeowners, whose homes were completely damaged and have no other home.”
The reconstruction of some 5,063 public schools, some 25,128 school rooms, some 665 health institutes, some 380 archaeological sites, some 311 government buildings and some 165 buildings of security agencies has also been over, according to the NRA.

Government passes criterion for employment coordinator

Amid suspicion that the government will appoint its cadres for the post of employment coordinator, the government approved criteria for Appointment of Employment Coordinator-2019.
According to the criteria, an employment coordinator will be hired on contract basis. “The position of the employment coordinator – though is filled with open competition – will be temporary with the term not exceeding one year,” the criteria read, adding that the coordinator can, however, be re-appointed for one more term on contract basis.
The government is appointing employment coordinator to make the Prime Minister Employment programme (PMEP) successful. The Prime Minister Employment Programme is the ambitious programme – relaunched by the incumbent Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli – to create temporary employment for a jobless Nepali citizen. The unemployed people between 18 to 59 years of age will be given 100 days of employment in a fiscal year, under the Prime Ministers Employment Programme (PMEP). A jobless will also get vocational and skill-orientated training along with employment-related information. The programme has been implemented in all the 753 local levels, and an employment coordinator is important person to make the programme successful.
The post of employment coordinator at Employment Service Centres will be set up in all the 753 local levels. “A local level having population of more than 10,000 will have one employment coordinator equivalent to the sixth level of local service, while a municipality or rural municipality with less than 10,000 population will have an employment coordinator, whose post will be equivalent to the fifth level of local service,” the criteria reads, adding that a Nepali citizen with at least bachelor’s degree will be eligible for the post of employment coordinator equivalent to the sixth level of local service. “However, academic qualification of employment coordinator equivalent to the fifth level is proficiency certificate level.”
The criteria also fixed the maximum age limit for both the posts at 45 years.
Like any other government appointment, the candidate convicted of criminal offences involving moral turpitude will not be eligible to apply for the posts. “A three-member committee led by a subject expert will be formed for the appointment of employment coordinator,” the criteria read, adding that
As the local levels have to appoint the employment coordinator through open competititon, they have to publish or broadcast the advertisement through local and national level newspapers and electronic media to fill the post. “The candidates should be shortlisted on merit basis,” the criteria read, adding that a person with the best score in written and practical exams will be appointed. “The chief administrative officer of the local level will conduct performance evaluation of employment coordinator every four months. If the performance of the employment coordinator is found not satisfactory, the Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Security may recommend the local level concerned to dismiss him or her.”
The employment coordinator will update the list of unemployed persons, issue identity cards to unemployed, identify employment opportunities within the local level, carry out employment mapping, liaise with employers for providing employment opportunities to the listed unemployed persons, recommend skill development training for unemployed persons, disseminate necessary information to persons wishing to go abroad for foreign employment and distribute allowance to unemployed persons though the banking channel, according to the criteria.

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.

UAE asks Nepal to lift restrictions on housemaids

Expressing interest to hire a large number of domestic help from Nepal, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) government has formally urged Nepal to completely lift foreign employment restrictions currently in place for housemaids.
UAE has urged the Nepal government to permit domestic workers under different categories to be able to seek jobs in the Gulf country, at the the first meeting of bilateral labour-related joint working committee between the two countries that concluded here today. .
According to Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Security, the UAE government has expressed interest to hire a large number of domestic help from Nepal.
The UAE government is keen to hire governesses, nurses, housekeepers, cooks, among others, according to joint secretary at the ministry Ram Prasad Ghimire, who led the Nepali delegation in the bilateral talks.
The government has banned women from seeking jobs as domestic help in the Gulf countries following the reports that they faced severe abuses there. ”The UAE government’s request to lift restrictions on Nepali women to work as domestic helpers in the Gulf will be discussed thoroughly during the next meeting before any decision is taken,” Ghimire said, adding that both governments have agreed to effectively implement and enforce bilateral Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on labour agreement signed on June 14.
Both the governments will set up a labour database, which will be linked between the UAE’s employment database and demand list, Nepal’s Embassy in UAE, Department of Foreign Employment (DoFE), the foreign employment management information system (FEMIS) software at the labour ministry. It is expected to make the entire migration process of Nepali workers going to the UAE for employment more transparent.
The two-day meeting also finalised issues concerning effective enforcement of the MoU and fixing of the cost in regard with recruitment of workers, employment and their return, among others.

Outsourcers apply for merger

The outsourcers have applied for merger as the government has increased the bank guarantee amount for them.
“Some 226 manpower agencies have applied for merger after the government amended the Foreign Employment Act to encourage them to go for mergers, , according to the Department of Foreign Employment (DoFE). “After the merger process is completed, the 226 firms will become 98 manpower agencies.”
“Some 576 manpower companies have deposited their bank guarantee while some 533 have deposited cash guarantee, according to the amended Act, till today,” the department informed, adding that the government – through the amendment – has increased the guarantee money to operate a recruiting agency to up to Rs 60 million, some 20-fold increase from the previous amount forcing the manpower agencies to either merge or close down. “Those, which can not deposit increased bank guarantee amount will be forced to close down.”
Earlier, the outsourcing firms had been paying Rs 3 million as guarantee money – Rs 700,000 in cash and Rs 2.3 million as bank guarantee to run their business. There are almost 1,200 recruiting firms at present.
The government has fixed September 3 as the final deadline to submit increased bank guarantee for them. “If they fail to submit the increased bank guarantee amount, the department will revoke their recruiting licence,” the department informed, adding that the department has given the manpower agencies ample time to abide by the new provision.
According to the new law, the recruiting agencies sending up to 3,000 workers per year must deposit Rs 5 million and submit Rs 15 million as bank guarantee. Likewise, the outsourcing agencies sending between 3,000 and 5,000 workers must deposit Rs 10 million and submit Rs 30 million in bank guarantee, it reads, adding that those, who supply over 5,000 workers per year must deposit Rs 20 million and provide a bank guarantee of Rs 40 million to start their operation.

Nepali migrant workers may resume Malaysian employment

Nepali migrant workers will soon start going to Malaysia after almost 14 months as the two governments have come closer to an agreement.
A Labour Ministry team is visiting Kuala Lumpur for the final deal on September 11 for a two-day discussion as the Malaysian authorities positively responded to Nepal's demand concerning medical centers, informed the Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Security.
Every prospective worker from Nepal must undergo health checkup prior to their departure from the Malaysian government prescribed medical centres. But the dispute over prescribed medical centres has created confusion that made Nepal government stop sending Nepali migrant workers to Malaysia.
However, a note verbale – sent by the Embassy of Malaysia in Kathmandu to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Tuesday – reads that Malaysia will consider all 122 medical centers proposed by the Nepal government to perform BMS screening process for recruitment to Malaysia ‘in the future as long as they fulfill the criteria and requirements set by the Malaysian government’.
The Malaysian government has recognised only 36 of the total 122 medical centers proposed by Nepal to conduct mandatory medical test now. “… the 36 medical centers will continue to perform the BMS screening process for recruitment to Malaysia on the basis that these medical centers have been equipped with BMS; have been audited annually by the Government of Malaysia through the Embassy of Malaysia and Bestinet Sdn Bhd and have been certified by the Ministry of Health of Nepal and Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Security of Nepal to conduct medication examination on Nepali going abroad for work,” reads the Note Verbale.
“The Government of Malaysia is of the view that the decision will ensure no further delay to the resumption of recruitment process to Malaysia that continue to be suspended by the Government of Nepal even after the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the government of Malaysia and the Government of Nepal on the Recruitment, Employment and Repatriation of Workers on 29 October 2018,” the note further reads.
Malaysia is one of the largest labour destination countries for Nepal, with about 1.1 Nepali migrant workers currently working there. Around 130,000 Nepali migrant workers go to Malaysia each year, according to the data of Department of Labour.
According to an official at the Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Security, the ministry is preparing agendas to present during Nepal and Malaysia the joint working group (JWG) meeting on labour migration on September 10 and 11 in Kuala Lumpur.
The agreement – between Nepal and Malaysia – that ensured recruitment of Nepali migrant workers in Malaysia at zero cost has not come into effect due to lack of a proper mechanism and structure to facilitate recruiting process. According to the agreement, both governments had agreed to call a meeting of the JWG to review the progress and plan on future steps to be taken.
The supply of Nepali workers to Malaysia has been halted since last May after the government cracked down on Immigration Security Clearance and One Stop Centre that had been levying additional charges on Nepali migrants. Though the two governments signed a bilateral labour pact in October, the outflow of Nepali migrant workers to Malaysia is still uncertain due to delay in finalising medical-related issues by both governments.

KUSOM job and internship fair concludes

Kathmandu University School of Management (KUSOM) organised its flagship event, KUSOM Job and Internship Fair (KJIF) today at KUSOM premises. The Fair witnessed the participation of as many as 40 companies including Unilever Nepal, Beed Management, Gorkha Brewery, Golchha Organisation, F1Soft International and eSewa, Movers and Shakers (M&S), Standard Chartered Bank, OYO, Sipradi Trading, Panchakanya, Samsung India, Yeti Airlines, Laxmi Group, and Shikhar Insurance. More than 130 students of Kathmandu University comprising of BBA, MBA, and BBIS students participated and were interviewed as potential employees this year, according to the university.
The annual, highly sought-after event by corporates, KUSOM Job and Internship Fair organised by Placement Cell of Kathmandu University School of Management (KUSOM), acts as a bridge between students of KUSOM and corporate houses. The KUSOM Job and Internship Fair provided students with the platform to connect with the company of their choice as well as provided employers an opportunity to explore the talent pool of KUSOM.
The event provided a win-win solution to both the parties, the university said.
Since its establishment in 2011, the event has been receiving an overwhelming response from the leading national and multinational companies every year. The event has been able to achieve its mission of establishing right connections with the industry which is being reflected in the success rate of placements and feedback given by companies about the event.

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. 

Manpower agencies threaten to launch protest

The outsourcers have threatened to protest as the government has failed to resume issuing work permits to Malaysia-bound Nepali workers.
The recruiting agencies have warned to stage protest, if the government does not start issuing Malaysian work permits within Tuesday. “The government is not serious towards resuming the permit for Nepali workers to Malaysia,” Nepal Association of Foreign Employment Agencies said, adding that the association will start protest programmes from Wednesday.
Urging the government to immediately start issuing work permits to Malaysia, the association said it will start the protest by picketing at Department of Foreign Employment (DoFE) on Wednesday.
The Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Security claimed that a meeting of a joint technical team of both the governments of Nepal and Malaysia will soon sort out issues as the supply of Nepali workers to Malaysia has been halted since last May. After the government cracked down on Immigration Security Clearance and One Stop Centre that had been levying additional charges on Nepali migrants, the supply of Nepali migrant workers have halted.
The two governments also had inked a bilateral labour pact last October to resume the outflow of Nepali migrant workers to Malaysia but the delay in finalising the medical-related issues by both governments has made it difficult for the outsourcers to resume the outflow.