By Pratigya R. Khaling, World Vision Nepal

The Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare Board and World Vision International Nepal (WVIN) signed a project level agreement on June 25 2008 to work together on child rights.

The agreement is the first of its kind between World Vision and government and indicates exciting new possibilities for recognition of child protection needs in Nepal.

The agreement aims to strengthen the Child Protection and Participation mechanism of Nepal. WVIN will work in partnership with CCWB (Central Child Welfare Board), a unit of the Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare Board to implement the project.

The basic rights of children are the rights to survival, development, participation and protection. However, the children of Nepal face a very different scenario. Due to lack of awareness and education, most Nepalese children do not get to practice their rights.  

Twenty-eight percent of Nepalese primary school age children are not at school, and of these the majority are girls. Challenges such as poverty, shortages of schools and teachers in isolated areas, high dropout rates in primary school, low enrolment in secondary school and poor facilities preclude children from receiving education.

Among adults, the overall literacy rate is around 57%. A little less than a quarter of women can read and write.

Over the last two years, Nepal has seen dynamic changes in its political front. Yet despite ratification on the UN Convention on the Rights of Children, children still fall very low in the political priorities of the country.

Deepesh Paul Thakur, Advocacy and Public Policy officer for World Vision International Nepal, says "It is an agreed fact that if children are able to practice their participatory rights then they will be able to claim their other rights too. In Nepal, basic beginnings need to be done on development and survival rights when it comes to protection and participation. Start up of this partnership with CCWB is just a beginning of a long-term relation. Establishing this partnership will better position WVIN to advocate for issues relating to children's well being. Nepal does not have a national framework to promote children's participatory and protection rights. Through this partnership we plan to work together with other stakeholders to come up with one."

As a government-sponsored organisation, CCWB's Strategic Direction highlights to take the lead role in influencing and ensuring the programming of the government line ministries for children, keeping in line the spirit of the UN Convention on Rights of Children's Principles and Provision and building up co-ordination and an environment of working together for the children of Nepal.

Their direction complements the work of WVIN, a child-focussed organisation committed to work with government bodies to bring about changes in systems and policies contributing to better development for the children of Nepal.

This project will be implemented in four districts: Kaski, Morang, Lalitpur and Jumla. World Vision has active Area Development Programmes (ADP) in all the four districts.