JILAF | Japan International Labour Foundation

JILAF dispatched a delegation to Nepal from May 30 (Friday) to June 8 (Sunday) for the SGRA (Supporting Grass-Roots Activities through the International Employers’ and Workers’ Network) project, which is being implemented under commission from the Japanese government (Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare). As well as the capital city of Kathmandu, the delegation visited the Bhaktapur and Parsa districts, where the project is being implemented, and the district of Morang, where it is being launched from the current fiscal year. Meetings, life support seminars, and training of trainers seminars were held.
The SGRA project in Nepal had organized about 320 informal-sector workers and their family members (commonly known as “network members”) by the end of fiscal 2013, providing them with life support seminars to supply information contributing to improving and raising their livelihoods and vocational training aimed at increasing their income through work and employment. In fiscal 2014 the plan is to further increase the number of beneficiaries by organizing about 50 new network members in each district. This time the JILAF delegation attended life support seminars in Bhaktapur and Parsa, which succeeded in organizing a total of 106 people in the two districts.
In the life support seminars JILAF representatives explained the purpose of the project, and trainers tasked with promoting local activities supplied awareness-raising information on the basic human rights of Nepalese people and information relating to support that the Nepalese people can receive free of charge, such as social insurance and public services. The trainees urged the participants to access these services and to convey the information to others in their communities.
In the training of trainers seminars, in addition to the three existing groups on SGRA shops, sales and marketing, and cooperative societies (sahakari), a new group was set up in the current fiscal year on instructors. These instructors are scheduled to give talks at life support seminars and to produce and distribute leaflets offering useful information for livelihood improvement. In this training, the participants shared the targets and activity plans of each group for the current fiscal year, strengthened group solidarity, and confirmed their determination to promote the project in an independent manner.
In the Nepal SGRA project, vocational training (sewing, knitting, candle making, hairdressing, etc.) and literacy education will begin from mid-July. In addition, the cooperative societies that were established in the Bhaktapur and Parsa districts in fiscal 2013 will be promoted in cooperation with local government, labour, and management toward their stable management.