‘Sahi Ho!’ campaign launched

Kathmandu, January 17

The ‘Sahi Ho!’ campaign was launched amid a function organised here today.

Implemented by Equal Access with support from UN Women, ‘Sahi Ho!’ is an action-oriented advocacy campaign that raises awareness, challenges barriers and highlights women’s empowerment and gender equality issues at national and sub-national levels.

According to Equal Access, its goals are to raise awareness on gender-based discrimination and structural barriers hindering women’s leadership roles in economic activities in households, communities and labourmarkets in the local context; bring about policy changes that are sensitive to the needs of women by advocating strongly for gender sensitive plans and policies; and promote increased participation and representation of rural women farmers in local level decision-making process through community-level awareness raising and policy advocacy.

Through a year of engaging activities, the campaign will focus on advocacy, policy influencing and community engagement at both the national and local level. Women make up just over half of the population in Nepal and should be a major positive force in the country’s overall development. However, lack of employment opportunities and limited access to economic resources means women’s ability to participate in and contribute to economic and leadership activities in the country is severely restricted, it says.

Research conducted by UN Women and more recently Equal Access has highlighted that women in Nepal are mostly engaged in home-based, unpaid and unrecognised labour. Those that do attempt to access more employment and leadership opportunities outside the home face deeply rooted social biases, structural barriers, gender-based discrimination, and violence from their families, communities and the markets.

The campaign will focus on advocacy, policy influencing and community engagement at both the national and local level. At the launching event, member of National Human Rights Commission Mohna Ansari, chief of Women Empowerment Division at the Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare Radhika Aryal, gender and social inclusion expert Bharati Silwal Giri and other guests highlighted the importance of the campaign.

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