[{"bbox": [83, 105, 1147, 187], "category": "Text", "text": "again from women. With the education system already facing a number of challenges, the pandemic-induced school closures are likely to be detrimental to girls' education. Local elected women representatives have raised concerns around being excluded from key decision-making processes, in the aftermath of the crisis¹⁷."}, {"bbox": [136, 215, 409, 248], "category": "Section-header", "text": "## 2.2. Problem Analysis"}, {"bbox": [83, 266, 880, 295], "category": "Section-header", "text": "### Priority Area and sectors: Governance - Ending violence against women and girls"}, {"bbox": [83, 300, 1147, 673], "category": "Text", "text": "GBV against women, girls, LGBTIQ+ persons and other vulnerable and excluded groups remains a common occurrence in their homes, communities, workplaces and learning environments. One in five women in Nepal aged 15-49 have experienced physical violence since the age of 15, and at least one in four (26%) ever married women have experienced spousal physical, sexual, or emotional violence – with husbands accounting for 84% of the perpetrators¹⁸. GBV also manifests through context-specific forms such as harmful practices, which include child marriage, dowry, witchcraft accusations and persecution, *chhaupadi*, *deuki*, *jhuma*, and *dhan-khaane*.¹⁹. PWDs disproportionately face increased risks of violence (6 out 10), while the intersection of ethnicity, age, caste and gender increases vulnerability and exposure to violence and abuse. As per 2020 police data, children represent 60% of cases of sexual abuse reported, while over 40% of cases managed by One-stop Crisis Management Centres (OCMCs) concern children and adolescents.²⁰ At work, 54% of women report experiencing harassment²¹ and are often silenced or forced to tolerate harassment and victimisation. Impunity, rooted in an ineffective justice system weakened by political interests, corruption and patronage, and a weak GBV prevention and response capacity affect the ability to address immediate and medium-term consequences of GBV, and to challenge social norms and expectations that restrict women and girls' potential through “normalized” gendered violence and discrimination."}, {"bbox": [83, 672, 1147, 939], "category": "Text", "text": "While the Ministry of Women, Children and Senior Citizens (MoWCSC) under the new federal structure continues to be the nodal agency for drafting policies and standards, the provincial and local levels lack clear coordination structures on gender issues. This is crucial for a multisectoral response on GBV (health, justice, shelter, economic autonomy). With the proposal to open safe houses for women in 53 districts under the President's programme for the uplifting of women, MOWCSC's support and engagement in implementing international standards on managing safe houses and shelter homes will be instrumental. With its remit to formulate national policies and programs concerning the rights and interest of women and submit it to the government for implementation, the NWC remains centralized, under-capacitated, and without structures at the local level, which further limits it reach. They have been fraught with lack of leadership due to delays in recruitment and retention of its senior management. Civil society plays a strong role in response to GBV, with shelters and psychosocial counselling."}, {"bbox": [83, 967, 620, 994], "category": "Section-header", "text": "### Priority Area and sectors: Governance - Labour rights"}, {"bbox": [83, 994, 1147, 1260], "category": "Text", "text": "Prevailing gender inequality is reflected in barriers women and girls face in access to education, decent work, and income opportunities. In general, women's economic opportunities are characterized by precarity, informality, job insecurity, unsafe and unhealthy working conditions. Women's labour force participation is about half (26.3%) of men's (53.3%); and most women are engaged in unpaid household or care work²². About two of three women (65.7%) work on at least one activity to produce/collect goods for own use and 90.4% are engaged in services for own use, while 56.8% are engaged in both the labour market and unpaid work²³. Economic exclusion starts early with compounding barriers to access marketable skills and accessing opportunities to be gainfully employed. Between ages 15 and 24, twice as many girls/women as boys/men are left out of learning and economic opportunities. Rates of persons Not in Education, Employment or Training for females and males are 46.6% and 21.5%, respectively. When in the labour market, women are more frequently in informal employment (90.5%) and paid less than their"}, {"bbox": [72, 1308, 1157, 1359], "category": "Footnote", "text": "17 Gender Equality Update 19: Women's Leadership in COVID-19, 30 June 2020, pp. 2-4. Available here: https://asiapacific.unwomen.org/en/digital-library/publications/2020/07/gender-equality-update-20"}, {"bbox": [72, 1357, 527, 1383], "category": "Footnote", "text": "18 GoN, 2017. Nepal Demographic and Health Survey 2016."}, {"bbox": [72, 1384, 1158, 1477], "category": "Footnote", "text": "19 *Chhaupadi* is a form of menstrual exile where women and girls sleep in small huts or animal sheds during menstruation and immediately after childbirth; they are also not allowed to bathe or drink milk; *Jhuma* is a Buddhist practice of offering a daughter to a monastery to bring good fortune to the family; *Deuki* refers to offering a Hindu girl to a temple for ceremonial purposes; and *Dhan-khaane* refers to receiving money for solemnizing the marriage of a child)."}, {"bbox": [72, 1476, 1157, 1525], "category": "Footnote", "text": "20 Women, Children, Senior Citizen Directorate - Analysis of GBV and VAC data, 2020. Available at: https://cid.nepalpolice.gov.np/index.php/cid-wings/women-children-service-directorate"}, {"bbox": [72, 1524, 519, 1549], "category": "Footnote", "text": "21 ILO, 2014. Sexual harassment at the workplace in Nepal."}, {"bbox": [72, 1549, 548, 1572], "category": "Footnote", "text": "22 GoN and ILO, 2019. National Labour Force Survey 2017/18."}, {"bbox": [72, 1571, 1158, 1638], "category": "Footnote", "text": "23 Production or collection of goods includes foodstuff production (61.3%), collecting firewood (21%) and hauling water (14.4%). Services for own use include household chores (88.6%), unpaid care work of children, older persons, or persons with disabilities (31.5%). Source: GoN and ILO, 2019. National Labour Force Survey 2017/18."}, {"bbox": [1051, 1663, 1158, 1687], "category": "Page-footer", "text": "Page 6 of 22"}]