FROM THE FIELD: Supporting Nepal’s migrants, as overseas work dries up

The UN is supporting efforts to manage the large-scale influx of returnee workers.

Nepal is one of most remittance-dependent countries in the world, with many Nepalese sending homes around $8.79 billion from abroad. However, since the economic slowdown resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, work for many of them has dried up. The UN is supporting efforts to manage the large-scale influx of returnee workers.

A project run by the International Fund for Agricultural Development, IFAD, which was already in place before the pandemic, developing enterprises in rural areas of Nepal, is now providing a range of services for migrants, forced to return home.

These include repatriation for workers stranded overseas, matching job-seekers with available jobs within the country, helping them to find other income-generating activities, and providing technical and vocational training. In addition, IFAD, working with the UN migration agency IOM, and other partners, is assisting local government as they design policies to reintegrate returning migrants into the local workforce, and programmes that ensure easy access to start-up funds.

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