Completed Projects

Project Description: The overall objective of the study is to carry out an assessment of the extent to which available data and nationally prioritized SDG targets and indicators at both national and local levels are disaggregated by gender and other variables, viz, caste/ethnicity, social and economic status, region and other variables as required by the SDGs, and specifically related to women migrant workers.

Project Description: The overall objective of the current study is to carry out research for the development of the Nepal Labor Migration Report 2022 by providing a comprehensive overview of labor migration from Nepal with a focus on fiscal years 2019/20 and 2021/2022.

Project Description: The study aims to conduct a mapping and assessment of business practices of selected recruitment agencies by comparing their recruitment process against fair recruitment principles. The study will examine the recruitment practices of the agencies in different steps of the recruitment process and post-deployment, such as sourcing of workers, selection, hiring, and post-deployment engagement with migrant workers.

Project Description: The onset of the COVID­19 pandemic has resulted in many migrant workers becoming particularly vulnerable to economic and social hardships. Temporary migrant workers are concentrated in industries that cannot readily adapt to remote working practices and are usually excluded from social safety nets, thus increasing their precarity. This vulnerability became dramatically visible during the global pandemic as temporary migrant workers were reported to be unemployed, unpaid, and at the mercy of their employers before having to return to their home countries. This proposed project examines the pressing issue of the impacts of COVID­19 on the worsening precarity of temporary labour migrant workers. It uses the case of Nepal to study the consequences of the large­scale return and reintegration of migrant workers to their home countries.

Project Description: This study aimed to use the narratives of migrant workers to document the migration experience and identify the various intermediaries involved in facilitating migration for foreign employment. It examined the interaction of migrant workers with various actors in the recruitment process, estimate the cumulative costs of transactions incurred as they work through agents and other intermediaries, identify various other services these intermediaries provide to migrant workers, such as lending money, and understand the strategies workers use to meet these costs. The study also examined existing policies that govern and regulate the activities of the above-mentioned actors, and the actual practices, while taking heed of non-regulatory measures such as community-driven interventions, and examine how they help or hinder fair recruitment.

Project Description: The proposed study aims to identify existing gaps, barriers and challenges that both prohibit and inhibit men and women migrant workers from accessing justice with complaints related to recruitment, and also identify practical solutions and policy changes to address these issues. The findings of the study can also facilitate the objectives and commitments made in the Global Compact for Migration (GCM), and also help attain the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), especially (SDG 10.7) to facilitate fair and ethical recruitment and access to justice in case of violation of rights of migrant workers.

This study assessed the functioning of labour administration in Nepal by analysing the current gaps (technical, human, financial, knowledge) as well as challenges and opportunities in labour administration practices at the federal, provincial and municipal government levels, the labour offices, labour departments, and labour courts, among others. Based on the evidence generated through this assessment, a practical strategic plan of action with clearly defined roles and responsibilities of relevant agencies and actors for a stronger labour administration system will be prepared. It is expected that the perceived Strategic Plan of Action for Labour Administration will be useful for all relevant governments and their agencies, trade unions and civil society organisations, the business community, and development partners.

The main objective of this study is to assess the impacts and contribution of the Civil Society: Mutual Accountability Project (CS:MAP) on enhancing and promoting inclusive, participatory and effective governance through civic engagement. It tries to address the broad questions about how and whether civil society and the media are advancing public interests in the programme intervention areas. The more specific objectives of the study are:
● to identify how the project interventions have contributed to aligning laws and policies with human rights and principles of gender and social inclusion;
● to explore how and to what extent the project has contributed to ensuring and strengthening public participation and accountability in public service delivery at the local level; and
● to understand whether and how the capacities and influences of civil society and media have transformed and to what extent they are contributing to the improvement of local governance.

Project Description: The overall objective of this study was to understand the flows of returnee migrant workers from industrialised countries such as Japan and identify their interests and skills to work in the industrial sector of Nepal as well as the factors preventing and supporting their reintegration into the Nepali labour markets. The study also aimed to identify the initiatives and the policy measures of the Nepal government to involve returnee migrant workers from countries like Japan in industrial or any other sectors of Nepali economy. The study also explored the current situation of the industrial sector in Nepal, including the capacity and interest of Nepali employers in accommodating the skills and experiences of returnee migrant workers.

Project Description:  This research project had the goal of improving the efficiency and effectiveness of screening and service provision to victims of trafficking in persons (TIP) and gender-based violence (GBV) in diverse contexts. The primary objective was to identify promising practices and challenges in integrating or separating services for victims of human trafficking and GBV.

Batoghato is pioneering communication project: a research-based graphic novel (a book that tells a story via drawings and text) that dramatizes the human stories within a pressing national issue, the politics of road construction in rural districts of Nepal.

Post-publication dissemination activities create contexts for discussion of the book’s themes, for participatory story-telling, and for introductory training so that others can use the graphic novel medium for socially-relevant stories.