Promotion of Youth Engagement in Local Governance Process

Despite having a demographic dividend, Nepal has the weakest youth development indicator in the South Asian countries (Youth Vision-2025). Major challenges faced by the Nepalese youths are unemployment, inaccessibility to skills and technology, and exclusions based on gender, caste, ethnicity and disability. Consequently, there are fewer opportunities for them of becoming "engaged citizens" resulting in an increasing disconnection from public/political participation. Inadequate knowledge about local government institutions/processes and an incomplete understanding of how to begin taking part in the public/political sphere are key barriers.

With the advancement of the federalization process in Nepal, the municipalities have been on the frontline of public service delivery and they are uniquely positioned to design and deliver a holistic response to local development and humanitarian issues. In this scenario, the project is to create a space to build a new set of relationships to give youth a voice and an opportunity in shaping and engaging in the local governance and development process.

The project intervenes with the formation of a youth panel in each working municipality and supports them to get educated and informed about the local governance process, also giving them access and opportunity to constructively engage and participate in the process. This is complemented by giving some youths to work and experience a real job responsibility in a municipality. On the other hand, the municipalities are capacitated and facilitated to engage with the growing youth population in their affairs. Simultaneously, different advocacy works take place to inform federal/provincial/local actors and policymakers on addressing youth issues and opening space for them.

The project is implemented by a consortium of three organizations. Helvetas Nepal, as a lead in the consortium with two local NGOs namely Sahayogi Samaj Nepal, a Madhesh Province-based NGO and Women Empowerment Action Forum, a Karnali Province-based NGO.