Poverty in Nepal is serious partly because it is deeply rooted in Nepal’s prevalent social system of discrimination based on caste, ethnicity, region and gender. To overcome this problem, the Government of Nepal (GoN) has long been making efforts to promote Gender Mainstreaming and Social Inclusion (GM/SI). However, various policies and guidelines developed and adopted at the central level have been hardly implemented or effective at the local level, thus making little progress in overcoming the social discrimination and exclusion.

It is in this context that the project of Gender Mainstreaming and Social Inclusion was officially requested in 2007 by the Government of Nepal. In response to this request, JICA sent a preparatory mission in September 2008 to assess the proposed project’s validity and feasibility and design its contents. Based on the mission’s conclusions, the Ministry of Local Development (MoLD), the Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare (MoWCSW), and JICA signed the Record of Discussion (R/D) on December 7, 2008.

The overall goal of Gender Mainstreaming and Social Inclusion Project (GeMSIP) is developing and implementing GM/SI responsive programs in Nepal. The purpose of this project is to develop and implement GM/SI responsive programs at the national level and in the two target districts (Syangja and Morang).

Target Districts