Grantee: Nepal Development Research Institute (NDRI)
Partner organizations: N/A
Country of focus: Nepal
Grant period: November 2025 – January 2027
FutureWORKS Asia is part of a global initiative supported by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) of Canada, aimed at addressing the evolving challenges in the world of work across the Global South. As the Asian arm of the broader FutureWORKS network, the initiative is led by LIRNEasia and focuses on supporting high-quality, innovative, and gender-responsive research to inform skills development and policy pathways for an inclusive and sustainable future of work in Asia.
Following the completion of the first competitive selection process, five research projects under Cycle 1 are currently ongoing. In November 2025, FutureWORKS Asia onboarded seven additional research projects under Cycle 2, expanding the regional research network. These Cycle 2 projects will run until April 2027, deepening evidence and policy engagement across diverse future-of-work themes, including climate transitions, gender, and labour market transformation.
NDRI has been selected to conduct a 15 month research and advocacy project, Fields Without Safety Nets: Analysis of Gendered Informality in the Agricultural Sector and Cost of Social Insecurity.
This project examines why women working in Nepal’s agricultural sector rely more heavily on banks, cooperatives, and microfinance institutions than on government-led social protection schemes. Despite progressive policies such as Nepal’s Social Security Act (2018), uptake among rural women remains low, even as they shoulder increasing responsibilities in farming and unpaid care work due to male outmigration and climate pressures.
The project investigates how informal work arrangements, gendered labour dynamics, and structural barriers shape women’s access to social protection. By combining policy analysis with community-level research, the study seeks to uncover both supply-side and demand-side constraints that limit women’s participation in public safety nets. Ultimately, the project aims to co-develop gender-responsive, care-inclusive social protection pathways that enhance women’s financial security, resilience, and recognition in Nepal’s evolving rural economy
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Research objectives
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Methodology
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Grantee information
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Research team
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Publications
The project aims to:
- Develop a foundational understanding of the gendered risk environment faced by women agricultural workers, including existing coping mechanisms and the role played by basic financial instruments.
- Systematically map and analyse existing social protection schemes, identifying design gaps and opportunities for gender-responsive reform.
- Identify gendered uptake patterns across different schemes using administrative and supply-side data to understand institutional and implementation barriers.
- Examine the demand-side constraints—social, economic, and informational—that limit women’s access to social protection, even when they are eligible.
- Translate research findings into actionable, co-designed policy recommendations that improve access, uptake, and effectiveness of social protection for women informal workers.
The study adopts a mixed-methods, participatory action research approach across two rural districts in Nepal. It begins with a desk review of social protection schemes, agricultural policies, and gender-disaggregated data, followed by comprehensive mapping of government and NGO-led social protection programmes.
Primary research includes focus group discussions, in-depth interviews, and institutional interviews with women agricultural workers, male household members, local governments, financial institutions, cooperatives, and national policymakers. Participatory tools such as seasonal calendars and activity mapping are used to capture women’s unpaid care work, risk exposure, and time poverty.
A central component of the methodology is a co-design process, where women beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries collaboratively redesign aspects of social protection schemes to address barriers related to eligibility, access, and implementation. Findings are validated through stakeholder workshops and translated into actionable policy recommendations.
The Nepal Development Research Institute (NDRI) is an independent, non-profit think tank established in 2004, committed to advancing evidence-based policymaking through rigorous, interdisciplinary research. Based in Nepal, NDRI works closely with government agencies, civil society organisations, academic institutions, and international development partners to address emerging challenges related to economic development, gender equity, climate resilience, agriculture, and livelihoods. Over nearly two decades, NDRI has built a strong reputation for bridging research and policy, particularly on issues affecting marginalised communities
- Dr. Manjeshwori Singh – Principal Investigator
Leads overall project design and implementation, ensuring gender, equity, and inclusion are embedded across all stages, and spearheads national-level policy engagement.
- Dr. Shikha Thapa Magar – Co-Principal Investigator
Provides sectoral expertise on sustainable agriculture and gender-responsive technologies, and co-leads validation and stakeholder engagement processes.
- Mr. Daya Shrestha – Economist
Leads the economic valuation of unpaid care and informal agricultural labour and contributes to policy analysis and recommendations.
- Ms. Binita Shahi – Research Coordinator
Oversees day-to-day research operations, field coordination, data quality, and supports participatory research activities and advocacy outputs.
- Mr. Ram Prasad Devkota – Field Coordinator
Manages community mobilisation, local research teams, and field data collection in rural sites.
This project is one of the twelve projects selected under the FutureWORKS Asia, a research initiative funded by IDRC and led by LIRNEasia, a pro-poor, pro-market think tank specializing in digital infrastructure and policy research. LIRNEasia’s work focuses on leveraging digital technology to enhance knowledge, information access, and economic opportunities, particularly for underserved communities.
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