The overall objective of the Work is to analyze the factors influencing women informal workers’ greater reliance on formal financial institutions (BFIs) over government-led social security fund in Nepal’s agriculture sector, and to understand how this dependence is shaped by women's informal work, gendered labour dynamics, and shifting employment trends in rural areas.
 
The specific objectives of the Project are:

1. To establish a foundational understanding of the gendered risk environment and existing coping mechanisms, including the role of Basic Financial Instruments (BFIs).
2. To systematically catalog, filter, and deeply analyze key social protection schemes to identify design flaws and opportunities for gender-responsive redesign.
3. To quantitatively identify schemes with gendered uptake patterns and use supply-side data to understand the administrative reasons behind them.
4. To uncover the nuanced, demand-side barriers that prevent women from accessing social protection, even when eligible.
5. To translate research findings into actionable recommendations for policymakers and program designers.

Team Members

• Principal Investigator: Dr. Manjeshwori Singh
• Co- principal investigator : Dr. Shikha Thapa Magar
• Field Coordinator: Mr. Ram Prasad Devkota
• Research Associate: Ms. Binita Shahi