Gender and social inclusion is a core component of the project. ESP has established a Gender and Social Inclusion Unit at the ECN and supported the development of the Gender and Social Inclusion Policy and the Gender Action Plan for ECN. Additionally, ESP supported the following:
- The various trainings on gender, social inclusion and elections reached 574 (Female: 542) ECN staff and other stakeholders and sensitized them on gender and inclusion issues.
- In 2017, the project also supported ECN technically in preparing the training manual for leadership development of local women leaders. Using this manual as a basis, the project worked with 24 CSOs to enhance women’s leadership and participation in 2017 elections.
- Once the 2017 local elections were called, ECN with technical support from ESP organized 2,000 orientations on women’s leadership and participation for over 50,000 potential women candidates for the local level elections, particularly Dalit women.
- The project also worked with the National Deaf Association of Nepal and the Nepal Association of the Blind to raise awareness about the issues faced by the hard of hearing and the visually impaired communities, and for ECN to conduct voter education considering the special needs of this audience. ESP also supported these federations to develop a pool of expert facilitators on election issues as well as a set of materials on political participation of people living with disabilities. The related trainings reached 2,301 participants directly, including 991 females, all people living with hearing disability and/or visual impairment.
- The project also facilitated direct contact between the national civil society organizations it partnered with over the years and the Election Commission and political parties for their issues to be heard.