ILO welcomes the development of National Occupational Safety and Health Programme for Nepal

KATHMANDU, Nepal (ILO News) – The Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Security (MoLESS), Government of Nepal in collaboration with the ILO (supported by the Safety + Health for All in South Asia Programme and the ILO Country Office for Nepal), on the eve of the World Day for Safety and Health at Work has taken the historical step to develop the first National Occupational Safety and Health Programme for Nepal.

The first step towards this direction was the inclusion of a chapter on occupational safety and health in the new Labour Act 2017, followed by the formulation of the National OSH Policy 2019. This was followed by the development of the National Occupational Safety and Health Profile for Nepal – 2022. The OSH Policy and National OSH Profile are based on the framework recommended by ILO, namely through the ILO Promotional Framework for Occupational Safety and Health Convention, 2006 (C187) and Promotional Safety and Health Recommendation, 2006 (No. 197).  

The tri-partite partners, different line ministries, key stakeholders including the OSH experts, academia, and civil society jointly identified the key priority areas for the National OSH Programme for the next 5 years. Some of the key priorities identified by the stakeholders included: strengthening the national law to include all workers including the workers in the informal economy and ow-account workers, strengthening the national OSH system, labour inspection ad labour administration, capacity building, focussing on strategic areas and compliance where OSH challenges are more, reaching to most vulnerable workers, strengthening OSH incident reporting and management systems etc.

Speaking at the occasion, Mr. Eaknarayan Aryal, Secretary MoLESS, Government of Nepal  said that promoting safety and health for all workers is a key priority for Nepal, and drafting a National OSH Programme has become even more critical now as the “right to safe and healthy working environment” has become a fundamental right now.  He said that Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Security (MoLESS) has stood committed since its establishment and is desirous of working towards strengthening the existing National OSH systems within the country to reach out and cater to all workers, especially to the most vulnerable ones.

Congratulating the MoLESS, Govt. of Nepal, Numan Özcan, Director, ILO Country Office for Nepal said that ILO is happy to support this initiative of development of National OSH Programme. He said that we need to have a strategic approach to deal with issues of safety and health, even more than before. This is because the nature of work and working conditions are changing and to enable safety and health for all workers, strategic focus and priority engagement is needed at the highest level.

 

Tsuyoshi Kawakami, ILO Senior Specialist on OSH, said that National OSH programme enables the government to work on the priority areas and defines the national objectives that need to be achieved in a predetermined time frame, by establishing priorities and means of action, on the basis of the analysis of the national OSH situation as summarized by a National OSH Profile as well as the outcomes of this national meeting, and provincial level discussions that will be conducted.

Bharti Birla, Chief Technical Advisor of the ILO’s Safety + Health for All in South Asia Programme said that national level engagement through the process of social dialogue with participation of workers’ and employers’ organizations, different government line ministries and key national and provincial stakeholders is important to make safety and healthy working environment for all a reality.  National Programme on occupational safety and health (OSH) can give a clear picture to all concerned stakeholders including government (at national, provincial, and local level) and different line ministries and departments about their priorities, objectives, and targets for improving OSH within a predetermined timeframe, along with indicators for assessing progress.

At the eve of the World Safety Day, Mr. Eaknarayan Aryal, Secretary MoLESS, Government of Nepal  and Numan Özcan, Director, ILO Country Office for Nepal also released a poster to spread awareness of OSH becoming a fundamental right.

As part of the next steps, meetings will be organized in select provinces to discuss the priorities and objectives identified at the national level and to take inputs from the provincial level government and stakeholders.  Basis these, the draft National OSH Programme will be prepared and presented to the National OSH Committee which has been set-up by the government. Once wetted by the committee, it will be validated in a tri-partite workshop and formally adopted for implementation.