Pillars of the Project 

The project adopts an integrated, three-pillar approach that addresses the interlinked barriers limiting meaningful youth participation in Nepal, a necessary factor for transparent and accountable governance. This approach is designed to create reinforcing pathways from knowledge and skills to institutional access, to safe and trusted civic spaces, ultimately enabling young people, particularly young women and marginalized youth, to engage effectively in governance. 

• Building civic and political literacy: The project strengthens civic and political literacy through community-based, and peer-to-peer learning approaches. By equipping youth with contextual knowledge of democratic governance, local decision-making, and citizen rights and responsibilities, reaching youth, women, and marginalized groups, with a specific focus on addressing gendered, the project enables them to participate confidently and make informed contributions to public debate. Through partnerships with academic institutions, the integration of curricula for civic and political literacy and multistakeholder civic engagement advocacy platform will provide sustainability and greater participation of civil society. 
• Youth-friendly governance: The project supports the institutionalization of inclusive youth participation at national and subnational levels. This includes establishing or strengthening youth councils and structured feedback mechanisms for accountable governance. Through targeted support provided to young women to build their leadership skills, who often face additional barriers, the project seeks to enhance their leadership while strengthening citizen-state accountability mechanisms for open governance. These interventions provide formal channels through which youth, especially young women, Dalit, Madhesi, Indigenous, Muslim and rural youth, and those at civic desert can influence decision-making. Furthermore, capacity building support to lead evidence-generation further adds to institutionalizing youth-led analysis within governance systems, ensuring policy dialogue is informed by evidence. 
• Safer and trustworthy digital spaces: The project also advances information integrity and digital resilience by fostering youth-led media and digital literacy, and partnerships with civil society, tech actors, and the other government agencies/institutions. These activities will help young people navigate misinformation, promote transparency, and contribute to a healthier information ecosystem.

The approach bridges the gap between state institutions and youth, addressing capabilities and skills of youth while supporting participatory systems, information integrity and institutional responsiveness.

This project builds directly on the findings of UNDP Nepal’s country programme evaluation that recommended intensification of engagement at subnational level, by combining youth-centred civic literacy, and institutionalized participation mechanisms. By fostering gender equality and inclusive participation across diverse communities, it strengthens democratic engagement. Collaboration with youth networks, women’s groups, academia, and civic tech partners is essential to build trust, social cohesion, and a resilient democratic culture.

Conflict sensitivity and Do No Harm Approach

The activities are designed to be experiential, contextual, integrated, and inclusive. They will create opportunities for youth to lead initiatives and learn through peer-to-peer engagement, while ensuring all interventions are safe, conflict-sensitive, informed by context analyses following a do no harm approach. The programme will activate “third places,” community hubs, cultural spaces, and digital platforms, where civic learning can naturally occur. It will embed civic education across governance, peacebuilding, and digital inclusion efforts. All engagement will be intentionally inclusive and intersectional, amplifying the voices and leadership of young women, youth, LGBTIQ+ persons, persons with disabilities, and other marginalized groups.

This approach aligns with the OIPS framework pillars. To ensure meaningful participation of young women and marginalized groups who face additional barriers to engagement, the project will make a concerted effort in implementation through a Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI) analysis and action plan for civic engagement.