Enabling Economic Reintegration of Returnee Migrant Workers: Welcome Home Project Inception Workshops

The Welcome Home Project aims to enhance the employability of individuals who have returned to Nepal due to the loss of job opportunities caused by the COVID 19 pandemic, through strengthening public and private sector dialogues to address labour market challenges, improving the capacities of relevant stakeholders at the municipality level for registration of returnee migrants and their skills profiling, improving labour market transition, and providing support for up-skilling, re-skilling, skills certification and comprehensive post-training assistance.

The project organized the inception workshop in its three districts, namely Morang, Sunsari and Jhapa districts on 21 June 2022, 22 June 2022 and 24 June 2022 respectively with the aim of introducing the project activities to the project stakeholders, local governments, and organizations working in the migration sector and private sectors. The objective of these workshops was also to validate the proposed activities for necessary adjustment and develop operational frameworks for collaborating with varied partners for the implementation of the project. In all the three workshops, there was the presence of representatives from municipalities and Rural municipalities, District Administrative Office, District Coordination Committee, Employers Organizations, Workers’ Organizations, Migrant Returnee groups, Employment Service Centres, and other organizations working in the migration sector.

The participants highlighted the need of reintegrating Nepali returnee workers to utilize their skills and potentials for the development of the country and for promoting social and family harmony. They have also expressed their commitment to support during the implementation.

Menuka Pokharel Khatiwada –Deputy Mayor of Duhabi Municipality said that “We are pleased that this project is being implemented in Sunsari district. Duhabi Municipality is ready to collaborate on this project. Our Employment Coordinator will have support in the coordination and implementation of project activities. We want the project to focus on the needy and those who are interested in getting employed within Nepal, and we are ready to help the project in selecting participants for training and other interventions.

This project has comprehensive activities. The experience and lessons learned through this project will be useful for a new project entitled "Reintegration of Returnee Migrant Workers (ReMi) Project" that is going to be implemented in province 1 in the near future. Integration of a financial literacy component in skills training is important for those who are interested in establishing enterprises or being self-employed, Tara Guragai, Employment Coordinator, Urlabari Municipality.

I am a returnee migrant worker. We are facing difficulties in getting support from municipalities and rural municipalities to engage in income-generating activities. These local governments do not allocate budgets specifically for returnee migrants. There are several projects working for returnee migrant workers, but this project has comprehensive activities for increasing returnee migrant workers’ employability and we are happy that this project is collaborating with local municipalities and rural municipalities for registration of returnee works, skills profiling, skills training, policy dialogue, and awareness-raising. I am hopeful that returnee migrants could benefit from it."

Kumar Thapa, Acting Chairperson, Returnee Migrants Nepal, Jhapa

Suggestions provided by the participants were very useful for developing a practical operational framework for further implementation of the project. The workshop was also fruitful in terms of mapping of concerned stakeholders in the respective districts.

Bina Kunwar Thapa, Senior Programme Officer, Tara Prasad Bakhariya–National Project Coordinator, Lubha Neupane, WOREC and Manju Gurung, POURAKHI shared the project’s objectives and need for supporting returnee migrant workers.

Welcome Home is a project implemented by ILO in collaboration with implementing partners, supported under the Dakchyata TVET Practical Partnership managed by the British Council and funded by the European Union.” This project is being implemented in Morang, Sunsari and Jhapa districts of Province 1.