With funding made available through the Australian Government’s Gender Equality Fund, the Department of Foreign Affair and Trade (DFAT) and UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, signed an agreement on 23 March 2016 providing a A$500,000 grant for empowering girls in Nepal through life skills and comprehensive sexuality education. The beneficiaries are school age children, aged 5 to 16, attending public schools, as well as some participating in non-formal education.
The initiative will be implemented by UNFPA, in partnership with the Government of Nepal. Gender equality is the main focus of the initiative. This initiative will:
- promote learning for all through its special focus on the needs of girls, especially as they face early marriage,
- contribute to a better quality basic education for the majority of Nepal’s children, and
- enable young people to gain life skills needed to be productive members of society.