The National Cooperative Federation of Nepal (NCF) virtually met the European Union Delegation to Nepal (EUD Nepal) to explore potential areas of collaboration between the organizations. The meeting was also participated by the ILO Nepal.

Ms. Eloisa ASTUDILLO-FERNANDEZ, Deputy Head of Cooperation, EUD Nepal noted that decent work opportunities, division of labour, gender equality and social inclusion (GESI), could be interesting areas to consider as women do not have access to financing services at the grassroots level.  She said the EU could support the digitalization of cooperatives as well so they could serve better. Ms. Fernandez mentioned that the collaboration with cooperatives is good and the EU and its partners are ready to strengthen the collaboration. There is a need to narrow down the requirement and ask for specific support needed to initiate the work.  

Dr. Ranjan Prakash Shrestha, Senior Programme Manager, EUD Nepal mentioned that the EU has worked closely with cooperatives while implementing the EU funded Renewable Energy Project. The services provided by cooperatives to increase access to energy were very commendable. He said that the partnership with cooperatives and NCF would be instrumental to extend services to rural and poor communities where other financial services providing institutions are not present. He said that the cooperatives reach those areas, probably where the sun could not reach. 

Mr. Richard Howard, Country Director, ILO Nepal informed that women in Nepal are actively involved in forestry, agriculture and value chain programmes. Working with cooperatives is important to strengthen skills and ensure social protection. However, there is a need to connect the producers and the market to implement the immediate activities through pilot projects. Mr Howard also proposed to have a technical meeting to identify the common areas of work without further delay.

Mr. Andrew Bonges, a consultant from the ILO Nepal office noted that in the labour market, one in every three persons is a woman, therefore, it is important to focus on areas empowering women including GESI and violence against women. He said that the task is challenging in terms of reality on the ground. It is important to understand the capacity of the women and how we could extend support to women in the areas of empowerment, low carbon economy, and green growth. He emphasized on connecting the targeted people with the value-added integrated activities and added that the role of cooperatives for realizing the targeted people is imperative.

Mr. Prakash Pokharel, National Programme Manager, ILO Nepal noted that ILO is looking forward to mitigating differences in the work categories. Working with cooperatives is important to cater to all the services, especially accelerating financial services. He said that cooperatives are trusted institutions where every woman and household are involved. This is why ILO has chosen to work with cooperatives in various sectors. He also emphasized the growing needs for cooperatives to work with the marginalized section of the society, stressed initiating the immediate work as a ground for the next project.  He also expressed his experience of a good working relationship with the NCF for women empowerment and gender inclusion.

Mr. Min Raj Kandel, NCF Chairman, delivered the vote of thanks to EUD Nepal for organizing the follow-up meeting. He expressed his happiness to EUD Nepal for its consideration to include cooperatives in the EU Country Road Map. Mr Kandel opined that the motto of cooperatives is to fulfil the economic, social, cultural and environmental needs of the members and communities based on mutual collaboration. Partnership in line with achieving such objectives is needful.

Ms. Om Devi Malla, Global Board Member of ICA and Senior Vice-Chairman and Constituent Assembly member, NCF expressed gratitude to the EU for its collaboration with ICA. She emphasized on the need for a joint project on gender empowerment to reach the deprived people in remote areas through cooperatives. She urged for the partnership with EUD Nepal as ICA gives high importance to promote GESI. She said cooperatives are the most effective tool to empower women and continued their work in various areas during the pandemic situation as well.

Ms. Chitra Kumari Subba, General Manager, NCF noted that sustainability is the DNA of cooperatives and informed that there is 56% women participation among the 7.3 million members in cooperatives in Nepal. She said that NCF is playing an active role in implementing the SDGs through cooperatives.  Agreeing with the view of ILO colleagues, Ms Chitra said that the partnership between ILO and NCF was very good in the past and wished to continue the collaboration.

Babul Khanal, Deputy General Manager, NCF, agreeing with the view of the need for a cooperative approach for the benefit of the poor. He said that there is a need to launch the green economic development project for poverty alleviation while capacitating cooperatives. He noted the need for livelihood promotion activities targeting the COVID-19 affected migrants and deprived people through an integrated approach as an immediate action for collaboration. 

Mr. Ramesh Prasad Pokharel, Vice-chairman, NCF, Mr. Amit Adhikari, Programme Officer, and managers of the different project components from EUD Nepal were also present on the occasion.

The meeting concluded with the need for identifying the tangible activities to be launched immediately in line with addressing the COVID-19 pandemic affected people, focusing on migrants and jobless returnees to create self-employment and livelihood opportunities. The delegates also agreed to continue the dialogue and initiate the immediate activities as a pilot to extend it in the future.