The mapping and assessment of Nepal’s Child Protection System was initiated and completed by Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare, Central Child Welfare Board and Interagency Working Group member organizations, including UNICEF. The objective of the mapping was to identify system-wide strengths, weaknesses and gaps in relation to international standards, with the aim of guiding strategic actions to protect more children in particular the most vulnerable.
Some of the key findings include gaps in legislation on the definition of the child, minimum age of criminal responsibility and minimum age for employment being below international standards; as well as fragmented system with ineffective coordination of multi-sectorial interventions and lack of integrated child protection services that mainly rely on external development agencies funding and NGO sector; and relatively high level of harmful cultural practices as child marriage, chhaupadi and low value of the girl child.