The COVID-19 pandemic disproportionately affected youth and women in Nepal. Youth and children were forced to pause or leave their studies, narrowing their future livelihood prospects. The number of economic opportunities in the country, also dramatically decreased. Women experienced many forms of discrimination throughout the pandemic, whether in the form of unpaid care work, domestic violence, or being forced into child marriage. Nepal has started to build back what they lost in the pandemic, but the needs of youth, women and other marginalized communities have not been accurately addressed in its post-COVID policy and economic recovery, even though they have been hit the hardest. 

The Youth-Led GESI Initiatives for COVID Recovery Strategies and Actions in Nepal will equip the next generation of policy makers, activists and entrepreneurs with the capacity to create collective action in their local communities so that their voices and experiences are not disregarded again. The project centres the much needed perspectives of youth, GESI and climate-informed policies for Nepal’s future.

Led by Oxfam with the help of local organisations Yuwalaya and Women’s Assocation of Marginalized Women, in Karnali and Sudurpaschim province, community members will learn about advocacy, financial management, entrepreneurship, and building policy frameworks on GESI and sustainable development so that they are equipped with tools for effective activism and governance. The project will also provide capacity development trainings to healthcare providers for sexual and reproductive health, psycho-social counselling and gender-based violence.  Through these trainings, youth and women in different communities will gain the skills and confidence to collectively raise their voices, develop policies, organize dialogues as well as run sustainable businesses so that they can live a life with dignity after the isolation and discrimination they faced during COVID-19.