April 8, 2022. Jankarpurdham. Over 1500 returnee migrants who have lost jobs owing to COVID-19 and returned to Nepal will be receiving job-oriented skills training in agriculture, construction, and tourism sectors, including certification and post-training support.

UNDP’s ‘Enhancing Returnee Migrant Workers Skills for Employment’ was launched in Janakpurdham, capital city of Madhesh province which has received support from British Council managed Dakchyata project and funding from European Union in Nepal. The programme will cover returnee migrants from Madhesh Province and Lumbini Province. The project aims to generate evidence on future skills needs, promote the upskilling of migrant workers, and identify new opportunities for migrant returnees to successfully reintegrate into the labour market. Its purpose is to support returnee migrant workers and their families who were affected by the pandemic, through identifying skills and reskilling demands for sustainable reintegration and/or safe labour migration.

In the launching event, Minister for Women, Children, Youth & Sports, Madhesh Province Birendra Prasad Singh said, “In order to help Nepali migrants utilize their skills and knowledge they gained while working abroad, the government should provide highly subsidize loans, seed money for self-employment and entrepreneurship and tax breaks”. He also expressed his commitment to extend all the necessary help and support of the Madhesh government to this skill-oriented capacity building programme.

Also speaking at the program, Member of Provincial Assembly of Madhesh Province Chameli Devi Das stressed on the need for all the three levels of government to introduce and implement innovative programmes that will contribute towards creating employment and entrepreneurship opportunities for youth who have returned from foreign employment. Member of the Provincial Policy and Planning Commission Pramila Devi Singh assured to provide necessary suggestions and advice to incorporate this current programme in the plans and programmes developed by Government of Madhesh Province.

Portfolio Manager of UNDP Kalpana Sarkar informed that the programme aims to cover14 municipalities in Madhesh Province and 7 municipalities in Lumbini Province, prioritizing women, historically disadvantaged, poor and marginalized communities. “The project will analyse returnee migrants’ skills and competencies so as to provide relevant training according to market needs, certify their skills, including coach and mentor them into engaging in self-employment and entrepreneurship,” she said.

Similarly, Director of Council for Technical Education and Vocational Training Deepak Paudel lauded the Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Technology for coming up with this programme which aims to significantly reduce the problem of unemployment faced by a large number of youth from Madhesh Province after returning home from abroad.   

The event was organized by Education Journalists’ Group with the support of Federal Ministry of Education, Science & Technology, Provincial Ministry of Social Development, Provincial Ministry of Women, Children, Youth and Sports.