July 21: The government on Monday (July 20) launched the ‘Youth Employment Transformation Initiative’ project in collaboration with the World Bank.

The World Bank said in a joint statement that Minister for Labor, Employment and Social Security Rameshwor Raya Yadav and World Bank Country Director for Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka, Faris Hadad-Zervos jointly launched the project amid a function on July 20.

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, the statement said.

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

“With the onset of COVID-19 and the subsequent contraction of the global job market, Nepal’s labor 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,” the statement quoted Labour Minister Yadav as saying.

“This project plays a crucial role to expand the employment opportunities in the domestic labor market and to set up an automated system of Labor Information Bank and upgrade the Employment Management Information System by consolidating basic labor 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 labor market,” added Minister Yadav thanking the development partner for the continual support in the internal labor market strategy of Nepal.

World Bank’s Country Director for Nepal Hadad-Zervos said that the project funding is being frontloaded this year to support over 75,000 of the most vulnerable unemployed youth at the local level as part of the World Bank’s COVID-19 response. He added that this project would help the unemployed youth to earn 100 days of wages each through the creation of temporary employment opportunities in the maintenance and upgrading of public infrastructure.

“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,” Hadad-Zervos said.

The project agreement was signed in November 2019 by the Government of Nepal and the World Bank. Of the $120 million credit, about 90 percent 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% of whom will be women as per the project’s priority to inclusion.

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