Climate change impacts are felt globally but not equally. Even within the most vulnerable groups, women are disproportionately affected by the impacts of a changing climate. This review delves into the issue of how climate change and related policy documents in Nepal have addressed the gender-differentiated impacts of climate change. Through a gendered lens, the policies are evaluated as to whether they are gender-blind or gender-aware. We have reviewed 24 documents with climate change as a thematic area of focus along with other climate change-related national policy documents on the environment, forestry and watershed, agriculture, and disaster. Out of the 24 documents reviewed, 19 were found to be gender-aware and 5 were found to be genderblind. We recommend gender-transformative policy development as it has been made clear that unless prevalent structural inequalities are addressed, the vulnerable cannot adapt to climate change impacts.

The High Impact Tourism Training (HITT) was a Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) programme implemented by the Netherlands Development Organisation (SNV). It targeted informal workers from the tourism sector, notably women and youth, unskilled and semiskilled workers in seven countries in Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia: among them, Nepal. Through innovative solutions, the programme aimed to provide vocational training in tourism related activities to workers from the informal sector, women and youths-who usually had limited access to formal education-in order to increase their employability and income. After drawing the contours of the TVET sector and listing the main challenges to education in Nepal, the article shows how the HITT initiative chose to address them. Based on quantitative and qualitative evidence, we show that the strategy of intervention rests principally on two pillars: the introduction of active learning methods, and close collaboration with the private sector at every stage of the process, from the analysis of the sector and needs, to the design of the training, to the implementation. The article further dwells on the potentialities, limits and replicability of the HITT programme in Nepal.

No abstract