Prioritise Job And Social Security

Unemployment is Nepal’s one of the most pressing problems. Other problems such as poverty and inequality hover around unemployment. Indeed, these later problems are largely the byproducts of the unemployment problem. Thinking through this reality, creating employment opportunities is the surest way to solve people’s livelihood problems and boosting national economy. As internationally agreed, employment by itself also includes self-employment, usually coming through entrepreneurship. Employment is created when domestic economic activities are expanded in both traditional and creative sectors. And there are may ways to foster economic activities and Nepal has the potentials to create massive employment opportunities.

 However, this is not happening for the last many years. This is recently revealed by Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 8 (related to jobs) global and national progress review reports. Another critical area where Nepal still remains behind is social protection coverage. Social protection is any social security arrangement aimed at smoothening people’s lives. It is a mechanism to deal with poverty, vulnerability, shocks and risks before and after they occur. Considering these adversities in various stages of human life, a life-cycle approach has been suggested to redress these contingencies and ensure resilient livelihood for everyone. Such livelihood is required if people have to make genuine contribution to their family, society, economy and the nation. 

SDG progress 

It is very true that any life with shocks is an underperforming life. This makes the case for extended social protection with universal coverage with both contributory and non-contributory schemes. And our achievements in this area is also weak, again as revealed by national and global SDGs progress review reports. SDGs are 17 globally agreed development goals and 169 associated targets for bring socio-economic progress in various areas of human life by 2030. The United Nations facilitates towards realising these goals, monitors the progress and provides further acceleration for the underperforming goals and targets. The UN has recently initiated Global Accelerator (GA) on Jobs and Social Protection for the countries having low performance in these areas. 

As Nepal is lagging behind in goal 8 on job creation and goal 1 on social protection, the UN has made a request to Nepal to involve in the GA to receive technical support from the UN system to improve its performance and achieve the specific targets set for 2030 in these areas. It has been stated that fostering a job-rich economic recovery and extending social protection are the goals of the UN's Global Accelerator initiative, to which Nepal has joined as just one of 15 pathfinder countries. By joining this initiative our government has confirmed its commitment to this initiative to facilitate just transitions towards the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals in general and jobs and social protection related targets specifically.

Nepal’s interest to join the initiative highlights the fact that there is a broad alignment of the Global Accelerator objectives with the country's national development frameworks. The first and foremost framework is the constitution itself which is committed towards providing job opportunities for the citizens and social protection coverage to the people. The ongoing 15th plan and the upcoming 16th plan are the other national development frameworks. Both of them are also committed for creating massive domestic jobs and providing universal social protection. Sectoral policies on employment and social protection are perfectly aligned with these frameworks. 

Therefore, UN technical support through the upcoming GA initiative will be channalised for the implementation of these frameworks with added vigour, extended capacity and focused resources. A comprehensive roadmap will be formulated including major priority actions under the GA. Inter-agency steering committee formed at the National Planning Commission will provide overall guidelines for the execution of various activities under this initiative. The roadmap should provide top priority to the creation of employment opportunities and extension of contributory social protection schemes. In fact, that is where support from the new initiative will be crucial and meaningful. 

A lot of policy work is needed here. It is stated that the Global Accelerator will support pathfinder countries such as Nepal to align national policies, close gaps and channel investments for greater impact in the chosen goals and targets. It will help address coverage and financing gaps for universal social protection, create decent work, protect communities from climate change and other risks, and facilitate just transitions in various sectors of the economy. The UN has claimed that with its potential to make a real difference in the lives of millions of people around the world, the Global Accelerator will also enhance multilateral cooperation for joint implementation.

Collaborative efforts

 Against this backdrop, expertise and resources form the new arrangement will certainly create synergy and bring transformations in job creation and strengthening our national social protection system. Nepal’s participation as one of the Pathfinder Countries in the Global Accelerator will maximise UN support to bolster the country's efforts to ensure full, decent and productive employment for every Nepali through various collaborative efforts and co-financing arrangements. This global initiative has great potential to fast-track the realization of specific goals and targets. It should be noted here that the engagement process with the Global Accelerator started in March 2023 with various national consultations that included UN agencies, development partners, government agencies and other partners. 

A report was also prepared identifying the potential benefits and opportunities for Nepal as a pathfinder country in the GA. The steering committee will guide the design and implementation of the national development roadmap and foster collaboration among the actors involved, including workers and the private sector for making Nepal a job-rich country with robust social protection system. There are seven more years to 2030 SDG deadline. Let us hope the UN’s GA initiative become a landmark for ending unemployment problem and ensuring smooth livelihoods through extending social protection coverage within the SDGs deadline.

(Dr. Bhusal is an expert in poverty, employment and social protection.)