KATHMANDU, JULY 20

The ‘Youth Employment Transformation Initiative’ (YETI) project was jointly launched today by Minister of Labour, Employment and Social Security Rameshwor Raya Yadav and World Bank Country Director for Nepal, Maldives and Sri Lanka Faris Hadad-Zervos.

Financed by the World Bank to promote domestic employment, the project will enable poor and vulnerable youth gain access to employment, skills development and capacity building opportunities.

Aligned with the Prime Minister Employment Programme, the $120 million project will be implemented over the next four years with a focus on improving employment services and labour market outcomes, especially for youth.

“With the onset of COVID-19 and the subsequent contraction of the global job market, Nepal’s labour market is also affected with a huge number of job losses. In this context, result-driven implementation of the project at all three levels of the government is of critical importance,” Minister Yadav has been quoted as saying in a media release.

“This project plays a crucial role to expand the employment opportunities in the domestic labour market and to set up an automated system of Labour Information Bank and upgrade the Employment Management Information System by consolidating basic labour market information such as profile of the unemployed persons including knowledge, skills, experience and the potential sector for employment along with the demand and supply aspects of the labour market,” he added.

“In addition to the longer term goals of the project, as part of the World Bank’s COVID-19 response, the project funding is being frontloaded this year to support over 75,000 of the most vulnerable unemployed youth at the local level to earn 100 days of wages each through the creation of temporary employment opportunities in the maintenance and upgrading of public infrastructure,” stated Hadad-Zervos. “Working with the government, development partners and the private sector, the World Bank will seek to contribute to a long thread of engagements that align to make a difference in the lives of the most vulnerable people.”

The project agreement was signed in November 2019 by the Nepal government (Ministry of Finance) and the World Bank.

Of the $120 million credit, about 90 per cent is allocated to the local levels to create jobs in the maintenance and upgrading of public infrastructure and public services for 100,000 unemployed youth, 60 per cent of whom will be women as per the project’s priority to inclusion.

The project will support 753 Employment Service Centres at the local levels to strengthen the workforce and to provide services in registration, profiling, referral, temporary work placement and on-the-job training.

A version of this article appears in e-paper on July 21, 2020, of The Himalayan Times.