ILO Nepal

As per ILO’s regional report, women in Nepal carried out 85 per cent of daily unpaid care work, spending a total of 29 million hours a day cumulatively, compared to 5 million hours spent by men. The amount of time Nepali women spend on unpaid care work is six times higher than that of men. The National Planning Commission (NPC) of Nepal, with technical support from the International Labour Organization (ILO) and UN Women, commissioned a report titled Public Investments in Nepal’s Care Economy, An Estimation of Care Deficit, Investment Costs and Economic Returns in the Education and Health Sectors (2024). The study highlights that an investment of US$ 2 billion to address care coverage gaps in Nepal’s education and health sectors could generate approximately 1,386,000 jobs (both direct and indirect), with at least 60% of these jobs expected to be filled by women. Such an investment would not only strengthen aggregate demand across the economy but also enhance long-term societal well-being, gender equality, and inclusive economic growth. Recognizing both the challenges and the transformative potential of the care economy, the Government of Nepal is working towards the development of care policies that and safeguard the rights of care workers. Led by the NPC, a care working group has been established, comprising representatives from multiple stakeholders. Building on existing evidence, the ILO, continues to promote the care economy as a critical component of its transformative agenda for gender equality and the protection of labour rights. Specifically, the ILO supports to: - Increase the capacity of constituents to design, promote, and implement transformative care policies and programmatic investments. - Assess and improve the working conditions and representation of care workers - Support the government and social partners in defining policies and investments to create jobs in the care sector and improve social dialogue and representatiion.

NPL828 - Increased capacity of constituents to eliminate child labour and forced labour and to extend labour protection to groups of workers who are at risks of exclusion from protection Nepal’s Decent Work Country Programme for 2023–2027, endorsed by the tripartite constituents, prioritizes the promotion and application of international labour standards. It focuses on fundamental principles and rights at work, including the elimination of child and forced labour, ensuring non-discrimination and equal pay, promoting occupational safety and health, and supporting collective bargaining and social dialogue. According to Labour Force Survey (2018), out of 7.86 million employed workers in Nepal, over 4.4 million are engaged in the informal sector. These workers often lack access to social security, labour rights, and minimum wage guarantees and frequently excluded from labour protections. To address the above challenges, the Government of Nepal has undertaken several key initiatives: •Implementing the National Plan of Action for the Elimination of Child Labour, through the promotion of child labour-free municipalities. •Supporting former forced labourers in improving their livelihoods. •Advancing a National Action Plan to formalize the informal labour market, in line with ILO Recommendation No. 204. •Developing the National Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Programme. •Strengthening the protection of Nepali migrant workers through improved bilateral agreements and enhanced services in destination countries. •Enhancing wage systems, including the review and implementation of minimum wage policies The ILO is supporting the Government of Nepal and its constituents’ efforts through technical assistance in eliminating child and forced labour adopting integrated approach, formulating OSH policies, and addressing regulatory and compliance gaps. The ILO also supports the extension of labour protections to all workers, especially migrant workers, domestic workers, a

Nepal has ratified 11 International Labour Conventions, including, seven fundamental, one governance and three technical conventions.The most recent ILO standard ratified by Nepal was in December 2007. For more details, refer to NORMLEX. Nepal is preparing to graduate from the Least Developed Country (LDC) category in 2026. In recent years, extensive discussions have taken place regarding the ratification of additional ILO standards. In 2023, the Ministry of Labour, Employment, and Social Security (MoLESS), formed a Tripartite Plus Stakeholders International Labour Standard (ILS) Committee. This committee developed and approved a work plan in 2024 to prioritize the ratification of nine ILO standards by 2027, including: C081 (labour inspection), C087 (Freedom of Association), P029 (Forced Labour Protocol) , C190 (Violence and Harassment), C189 (Domestic Workers), C155 (Occupational Safety and Health), C187 (Promotional Framework for Occupational and Health), C177 (Home Work), and C181 (Private Employment Agencies). To support ILO constituents' efforts towards ratification and application of ILS , the ILO’’s support includes: • Expert inputs for legal gap analysis of Conventions • Technical support for gap analysis and development of a plan for ratification of • Expert inputs for developing advocacy briefs on Conventions to be ratified both in Nepali and English, • Advisory support for the government and social partners on capacity building activities. As a member of the ILO, Nepal is responsible for submitting regular reports to the ILO. In this biennium, Nepal is required to report on: C098 (Collective Bargaining) and C144 (Tripartite Consultation) in 2024 and C29 (Forced Labour), C105 (Abolition of Forced Labour), C182 (Worst Forms of Child Labour) and C138 (Minimum Age ) in 2025. These reports will consider the comments and recommendations of the Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations (CEACR).

Employers in Nepal are faced with the double challenge of limited availability of skilled workers, and cumbersome and uncertain regulations and legal requirements for operation. This is compounded by a large informal sector, which does not comply with legal requirements, and therefore create an environment of unfair competition, and the looming LDC Graduation of Nepal in 2026, which could increase the challenges of international competitiveness and shrinking policy space for trade and private sector support policies. To overcome these challenges, Employers' and Business Membership Organizations (EBMOs) in Nepal need targeted positive action aiming at promoting decent work and enhancing productivity of their members, as well as supporting them on formalization process, while expanding their membership to employers linked to the informal economy. EMBOs have identified the need to expand their services to members, including on OSH, social protection, compliance to labour standards, LDC graduation and greening practices. The ILO in Nepal is supporting EMBOs during the biennium 2024-25, particularly with the Federation of Nepalese Chamber of Commerce & Industries (FNCCI) and Federation of Woman Entrepreneurs' Associations of Nepal (FWEAN), to strengthen their capacity to attract new members, and provide services related to productivity, compliance to labour standards, formalization, and preparation for the LDC graduation.

In line with the Constitution of Nepal 2015, the Labour Act 2017 and Decent Work Country Programme 2023-27, the ILO develops a comprehensive programme to support workers' organizations in strengthening institutional, technical and representational capacities to enable themdefend their rights and to influence policy at all levels of government. Given the new federal structure of Nepal, and the enactment of the two key legislations on labour rights and social security in 2017, it has become imperative for trade unions to expand their membership coverage at provincial and local levels in diverse sectors in line with the new governance system. The strategy focuses on enhancing technical capacity to engage with workers in the informal sector where majorty of workers especially women workers are engaged. It also focuses on developing technical capacity of workers' organizations at the provincial level for effective social dialogue. This initiative benefits the workers' organizations in reducing industrial conflicts and unfair labour practices, and promote decent jobs for all.

The Government of Nepal (GoN) is keen to promote decent jobs within the country and number of initiatives have been taken by government to improve and strengthen governance frameworks to ensure decent employment generation, formalization of informal sectors and creating conducive industrial environment. GoN has prepared Smooth Transition Strategy to graduate from LDC in 2026 and planning to mitigate the potential shocks primarily in economy and employment. Nepal also became a pathfinder country for the implementation of Global Accelerator on Jobs and Social Protection for Just Transitions. GoN made amendments into the provisions of different legislative frameworks which were considered as bottlenecks for the investment in Nepal. The 16th Plan has identified productive employment, decent jobs and sustainable social security as one of the focused sectors for structural transformation. The National Planning Commission (NPC) has developed Integrated National Employment Information Management System Framework which recommended ways to develop a robust integrated labour and employment information management system. Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Security (MoLESS) has initiated the process to review and reformulate the National Employment Policy, Labour Act and Rules to make them relevant and effective in addressing emerging challenges and opportunities of the labour market. Considering those national contexts and priorities, this CPO will be focusing as of below: - Support constituents to effectively engage in reformulating policies, legislations and strategies that promotes employment-centric and inclusive growth in line with ILO’s normative frameworks - Provide technical assistance to NPC for the development of roadmap to accelerate jobs creation and extension of social protection ensuring just transition - Provide technical assistance including building capacity of MoLESS in strengthening public employment services focusing on employment service center