1. Introduction

Governments had increasingly recognized social protection as a key policy instrument to build a more productive, protected and healthy population in Asia and the Pacific. In 2020, ESCAP member States endorsed the regional Action Plan to Strengthen Regional Cooperation on Social Protection (Action Plan), which served as a shared vision, strategy and platform for promoting partnership and peer learning and identifying needs for capacity development. The Action Plan set out 12 national actions that underpinned the achievement of more inclusive and comprehensive social protection systems, ranging from upholding the right to social protection in legislative and regulatory frameworks, to ensuring a more effective design, coordination and delivery of social protection schemes.

To support member States in the implementation of the regional Action Plan, ESCAP had been mandated to facilitate peer learning as well as take stock of the readiness of countries to implement the Action Plan and achieve more inclusive and comprehensive social protection systems. Pilot stocktaking initiatives had been conducted in six countries across Asia and the Pacific (Cambodia, Georgia, Maldives, Mongolia, the Philippines and Türkiye) to share national experiences and pathways towards this vision and in 2024 ESCAP expanded this to Fiji, Nepal and Thailand.

Social protection systems were also confronted by an increasingly volatile riskscape in Asia and the Pacific. As they were being increasingly called on to deliver support during crises and shocks, there was a need to review new vulnerabilities that are emerging, and to explore how these can be protected by social protection schemes. With increasing attention towards adaptive and shock-responsive social protection systems, routine social protection systems were under pressure, and it was necessary to rethink how social protection can best support preparedness, early warning systems, post-crises rehabilitation as well as financing mechanisms to respond to climate change-related shocks and build climate resilience.

Social protection also played an important role in building people’s resilience in the context of slow onset events, such as sea level rise, increasing temperatures, ocean acidification, glacial retreat and related impacts, salinization, land and forest degradation, loss of biodiversity, desertification.1 In the shift towards a carbon neutral economy, social protection could help smoothen people’s transition and facilitate mitigation and adaptation measures. In addition to climate risk-focused social protection measures, robust social protection floors would be needed to ensure people were resilient across the lifecycle. 

Nepal faced several climate change-related hazards which had significant impacts on its environment, economy, and society. It was the 10th most affected country from 2000 to 2019 on the long-term Global Climate Risk Index, reflecting that the country was highly impacted by extreme weather events and was highly vulnerable to climate risks. Climate policies in Nepal were beginning to address some interlinkages with social protection in their action plan. Several of the actions were social protection measures, but some provisions such as the provision of cooperatives or saving and credit groups were not strictly social protection actions. However, they featured broad risk management measures which could help in risk pooling and risk sharing and thus supported in managing the risks. Therefore, there was need to systematically integrate social protection and poverty reduction considerations in climate policies, measures and strategies, including NDCs, and NAPs. Similarly, integration of climate change considerations into social protection policies, strategies and programmes as well as action plans was also necessary. This could include programme (re)design, for example to better link social assistance and re-skilling, for an adaptive and scalable system – bringing social assistance, social insurance and active labour market interventions together.

It was important to consider these emerging issues within the social protection framework in Nepal, and thus ESCAP, jointly with the National Planning Commission and in close collaboration with the RCO, prepared a report to address these emerging issues, as well as the overall situation of social protection. A national consultation was conducted with stakeholders from relevant ministries and stakeholders to discuss and review the findings of the report and agree on proposed recommendations.

Day 1 of the consultation served as a national dialogue on climate change and social protection, bringing together stakeholders from both climate change and social protection sectors, to identify entry points to strengthen their coordination. The first half of Day 2 reviewed the overall findings of the report and recommendations through groupwork and discussion. The afternoon of Day 2 was a workshop to introduce the SPOT Simulator to build understanding on the impact that benefit parameters can have on poverty, consumption, inequality and their costs. The SPOT Simulator was an online microsimulation model that draws on national household income and expenditure surveys to project economic outcomes of investing in child benefits, disability benefits, maternity benefits and old age benefits.

2. Objectives of National Consultation

The objectives of the National Consultation were to:

• Share initiatives and commitments of Government of Nepal to achieve more inclusive and comprehensive social protection systems for all, including in the context of a changing climate.
• Initiate a national dialogue on climate change and social protection with relevant stakeholders.
• Identify key progress and challenges of Government of Nepal to implement the Action Plan to Strengthen Regional Cooperation on Social Protection.
• Discuss the findings and recommendations of the draft report.

3. Participants

Participants were key stakeholders in their expert capacity, in relevant line ministries, including from the National Planning Commission, Ministry of Forest and Environment, Ministry of Home Affairs, development partners and other stakeholders.

4. Format

Featured speakers from government and stakeholders were invited to share their views on ways to strengthen the social protection system in Nepal through groupwork and plenary discussion, as inputs to the report and its recommendations.