Livelihoods, basic services and social protection in Nepal. SLRC Working Paper 7

Abstract

This review paper seeks to answer the following overarching question: what do we know about livelihoods, basic services and social protection in Nepal? After the introduction, Section 2 provides an overview of the country context, including a brief history of the armed conflict and the situation since 2006. Section 3 looks at the effects of conflict on livelihoods and patterns of local economic activity, exploring the ways in which households have responded to the disruptive effects of high intensity violence over time. It then describes the main livelihoods strengthening policies and programmes supported by the government and international donors and synthesises available evidence on the impacts of important livelihoods interventions. Section 4 focuses on basic services, namely health, education, and water and sanitation. It describes the main providers of services, outlines important programmes and initiatives, and reviews the existing evidence on their outcomes. Section 5 traces the expansion of social protection initiatives since the 1990s, looking at the roles of different institutional actors in programme design and delivery, and assessing the effectiveness of social protection programming over recent years. Section 6 focuses on the nature of the evidence base on livelihoods, basic services and social protection in Nepal, in particular providing reflections on data problems and evidence gaps. Section 7 concludes with a final overview