[{"bbox": [96, 120, 1134, 651], "category": "Text", "text": "Women's control over decision-making on health and nutrition related issues is low, and this is worsened by intersecting forms of discrimination such as age, disability, caste, ethnicity, geographic location and income, among others. Despite the progressive commitments laid out in Nepal's 2015 Constitution and the Gender Equality Strategy (2020), weak capacities for implementation, enduring social norms devaluing women and harmful cultural practices continue to present considerable barriers for women and girls to enjoy their right to health and well-being. The proposed action will simultaneously focus on opportunities at all three levels of government to support meaningful leadership outcomes with regard to the quota system for women - particularly those from poor and marginalised communities related to nutrition. In line with the EU's Gender Action Plan (GAP III) together with the recently launched EU programme 'Empowered Women, Prosperous Nepal' (2023-2026), opportunities will be identified to sensitively advance the introduction of gender transformative approach with a special focus on youth as agents of change. This will be undertaken in the context of addressing the core challenges of reducing the unequal share of unpaid and undervalued household and care work that women undertake while ensuring freedom from all forms of gender based violence and strengthening women's voice and political representation at every level. As highlighted by the detailed EU country level Sector Gender Analysis (2022) these challenges can be considered as basic causes and hence prerequisites for ending malnutrition and strengthening the gender responsiveness of sectors beyond a narrow approach that primarily concentrates on improved nutrition services for women in the context of their reproductive roles as mothers⁴⁹. Including men and boys in nutrition discussions at the household level is key. At the same time, the scaling up of interventions to advance healthy diets and good nutrition that adolescent girls, pregnant and breastfeeding women and their children will also be accelerated in line with the targets of MSNP-III."}, {"bbox": [96, 676, 1134, 759], "category": "Text", "text": "In particular, this action is aligned with the following thematic area of engagement of the EU's GAP III and the GAP III Country Level Implementation Plan (CLIP) (2021-2025): \"Promotion of economic and social rights and empowerment of girls and women\"."}, {"bbox": [96, 789, 243, 816], "category": "Section-header", "text": "## Human Rights"}, {"bbox": [96, 841, 967, 870], "category": "Text", "text": "This action is aligned with the EU's Action Plan on Human Rights and Democracy 2020-2024."}, {"bbox": [96, 907, 1134, 1226], "category": "Text", "text": "The Prime Minister of Nepal has stated that nutrition must be seen 'as the foundation of human rights' and the MSNP-III explicitly highlights 'respect, protection and fulfilment of human rights' as a core value. The rights to food sovereignty, food security, equal access to free basic health and nutrition services, clean drinking water, and sanitation are all enshrined as fundamental human rights in Nepal's 2015 Constitution. Given that the root causes of malnutrition include multi-dimensional poverty, inequality and discrimination, the proposed action builds on the commitment of the Commission to adopt a human rights-based approach to development cooperation which will ensure respect for all human rights, participation, non-discrimination, accountability and transparency throughout the action. In line with the human rights-based approach methodology, the proposed action will abide by the 'do no harm principle' to avoid unintended negative impacts in terms of human rights. Given that the majority of the population is unable to afford a healthy diet, strengthening coherence between MSNP-III and both the Right to Food and Food Sovereignty Act (2018) and the Social Security Act (2018), together with the Integrated National Framework on Social Protection (2022) present important areas of opportunity for EU policy engagement."}, {"bbox": [96, 1257, 195, 1283], "category": "Section-header", "text": "## Disability"}, {"bbox": [96, 1284, 1134, 1444], "category": "Text", "text": "As per OECD Disability DAC codes identified in section 1.1, this action is labelled as D1. This implies that specific attention will be given to the commitment of MSNP-III to support \"a disability friendly continuum of care and services\", as part of its promotion of Gender Equity and Social Inclusion (GESI). In addition, this action seeks to contribute to the commitment set out in the current Government 15th National Development Plan (2019-2024): \"To dignify and promote the rights of persons with disabilities, the country must emphasise inclusion, equity and participation\"."}, {"bbox": [96, 1469, 1134, 1550], "category": "Text", "text": "Analysis of disability issues impacting nutritional status and norms/root causes of the discriminatory practices, to identify specific social barriers for persons with disabilities will be advocated as part of the policy dialogue. Specific interventions should be promoted to address these barriers in implementation and monitoring, leading to"}, {"bbox": [85, 1612, 1144, 1662], "category": "Footnote", "text": "⁴⁹ As the study pointed out, unfortunately the situation of 'men's indifference to nutrition' persists and there is a pressing need to sensitise men to engage in and assume co-responsibility for the nutrition agenda."}, {"bbox": [1027, 1682, 1144, 1706], "category": "Page-footer", "text": "Page 15 of 27"}]