KATHMANDU, MAY 5

The World Bank has reallocated $23 million of the $120 million in the Youth Employment Transformation Initiative (YETI) project to scale up direct support to unemployed poor impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The financing will help about 64,000 unemployed individuals, especially those who lost employment during the COVID-19 pandemic, receive temporary employment through the Prime Minister Employment Programme.

'We have been working closely with the government of Nepal to support its COVID-19 emergency response and prepare for a green, resilient, and inclusive recovery,' Faris Hadad-Zervos, World Bank country director for Nepal, Maldives and Sri Lanka, has been quoted as saying in a press statement issued by the bank today. 'With the reallocated funds, the project will provide temporary employment for many poor people who lost employment or could not find work during the pandemic.'

This reallocation of the project funds to provide temporary employment follows global good practice where existing social protection programmes are expanded to cover a larger group of beneficiaries during a crisis.

This complements the YETI project's ongoing efforts to improve employment services and labour market outcomes, especially for youth.

These funds were made available by activating the Contingency Emergency Response Component (CERC) of the YETI project. CERCs allow funds to be reallocated from existing projects to address emergency response needs.

A version of this article appears in the print on May 06, 2022 of The Himalayan Times.