Promoting Social Protection floors in Nepal- Better Coverage for More People

Background

We Social Movements, Belgium and Children Women in Social Service and Human Rights (CWISH)/ Social Protection Civil Society Network (SPCSN) have undertaken to collaborate within the framework of the EU Action Programme ‘Synergies in Social Protection and Public Finance Management’ on behalf of the Global Coalition for Social Protection Floors. The goal is to strengthen national social protection systems through technical support, research, and capacity development by focusing on public financial management systems, budgeting, and financing of social protection.

To support the government to expand and include most vulnerable population, this project will suggest in the development of national policy, revise current policy documents and guidelines such as National social protection framework with its’ operational guidelines, build institutional capacity at federal, provincial and local level to designing and implementing inclusive social protection policies and programmes, strengthening governance system (identification, registration, payment, monitoring and reporting) to expand the coverage and reduce exclusion errors and making shock-responsive social protection. Similarly, the project also aims to generate evidence and produce knowledge on SSA and its performance. Universal child grant is one of the priorities of the Department of National ID and Civil Registration (DoNIDCR) to expand from 14 to 20 districts. Additionally, it is greasing it’s pace and it is planning to expand by this year however, the current pandemic is lagging the timeframe. It is also the priority to strategically increase coverage under this project. The project seeks to improve the registration process, timely payment and real-time monitoring of the child grant and the disability grant – that are identified with less coverage compared to old-age pension and single women allowance. Similarly, there are multiple hurdles realized in accommodating the children’s birth registration in local units i.e. orphan children, baby born in early marriage, necessary to include father’s name in the documents. It is also a priority of the project to reform the policy.

Programme Goal/Impact:

The overall goal of the project is to support increased access to social protection to reduce poverty and social exclusion and to promote human capital development with emphasis on poor, vulnerable and marginalized groups in line with SDGs/targets- 1.3, 3.8, 8 and 10.

Objectives

The overall objective of the project is;

• to support the government in improving social protection policies; financing strategies; grievance handling mechanism; and implementation and monitoring systems in order to increase coverage to the excluded, including People with Disabilities (PWDs), informal sector workers and people with disaster risks.

Location(s) of the action:

National, and Bagmati province, Helambu Rural Municipality, Sindhupalchowk and Province 2, Kalaiya Municipality, Bara

Total duration and budget of the action:

33 months

The total agreed budget of the project is NPR 13,306,150(In words: Thirteen Million Three Hundred Six Thousand One Hundred and Fifty)

Target group(s):

Responsible government ministries; government’s implementing agencies, workers’ and employers’ organizations, civil society organizations (CSOs)

Activities:

The following major activities would be carried out during the project implementation;

1. Annual Stakeholders workshop/ National Stakeholders meeting
2. Research on status of social protection (Pilot Study in two selected Rural/municipalities)
3. Formation of civil society groups
4. Training on social protection to civil society organization
5. Local stakeholders meeting
6. Mobilization of social protection facilitator
7. Production and Broadcasting of Radio Jingle/PSA
8. Social Protection Week (Campaign during social protection week)
9. Publication and distribution of infographics
10. Local advocacy meeting
11. Provincial level interaction with concerned stakeholders
12. Public relations and networking
13. Monitoring and evaluation

Anticipated Results

1. Increased capacity of GoN and key stakeholders to develop resilient, inclusive national social protection policies, sustainable financing strategies and legal frameworks at Federal and Provincial levels.
2. Government enabled to establish and operationalize a high-level social protection coordination, monitoring and evaluation mechanism at Federal level.
3. Increased capacity of Federal and Provincial Governments to plan, budget, implement and monitor extension of contribution –based social protection systems and programmes, overcoming the challenges such as informality, while ensuring financial sustainability of the contributory system.
4. Increased capacity of Federal and Local Governments to address the financing gap and implement, monitor, and report on social assistance programmes.
5. Enhanced accountability mechanism at local government level in Bagmati Province and Province 2 including registrations, claim handling, Grievances Redress Mechanism (GRM), monitoring, evaluation, and reporting in line with international social security standards and principles.
6. Nepali Civil Society Organizations and Trade Unions are meaningfully and structurally involved in the development, implementation, and monitoring of policy processes regarding social protection and public finance management due to improved coordination and enhanced capacities.