WB-funded ‘Youth Employment Transformation Initiative’ project comes online from today

KATHMANDU, July 20: The government with the support of the World Bank launched a project titled ‘Youth Employment Transformation Initiative’ on Monday. The US $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.

Minister of Labor, Employment and Social Security Rameshwar Raya Yadav and World Bank Country Director for Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka, Faris Hadad-Zervos jointly launched the project. The project financed by the World Bank will function in coalition with the Prime Minister Employment Program. It will aim at facilitating mainly the poor and vulnerable youth to gain access to employment, skills development and capacity building opportunities, according to a press release issued by the World Bank.

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Last November, the government signed an agreement with the World Bank to implement the project. Of the $120 million credit funded by the international lending institution, around 90 percent has been allocated to the local levels to create jobs in the maintenance and upgrading of public infrastructure and public services for 100,000 unemployed youth. The project has targeted to provide 60 percent of the targeted employment to women.

The project will support 753 Employment Service Centers at the local level to strengthen the workforce and to provide services in registration, profiling, referral, temporary work placement and on-the-job training. It is expected to relieve Nepal’s labor market that is affected with a huge number of job losses as a consequence of COVID-19. 

“In addition to the longer-term goals of the project, as part of the World Bank’s COVID-19 response, the project funding is being frontloaded this year to support over 75,000 of the most vulnerable unemployed youth at the local level to earn 100 days of wages each through the creation of temporary employment opportunities in the maintenance and upgrading of public infrastructure,” said the World Bank’s Country Director Faris Hadad-Zervos at the project launching event.