From June 15th to 27th June, 2019, DEC Nepal conducted a field survey at all 11 target project wards of two selected municipalities (Kalika and Icchyakamana) of Chitwan to assess the training needs on the topic “Helping young Chepang women leaders to promote gender responsive governance in Nepal”. Training need assessment survey analyzed knowledge, skills and attitude of the participants for assessing the relevancy of the training to be provided under this project.
Among the total respondents of 111, 98% shows dire need of the capacity building training. Chepang women age group of 15-30 years comprise of the most educated groups including the graduates which is also target group of this project. Hence, it is good indicators that would contribute to the effectiveness of the knowledge and skills to be provided in the training as educated populations are the fast learners and implementers. Only 14% seems to have attended 1-3 trainings, however despite their participation they exhibited very poor knowledge on the gender and SA tools. The assessment also shows that very few are still practicing their knowledge attained through trainings. Few WOCAF groups previously formed under “Reinforcing women of the Chepang community as change agent for promoting local governance in Nepal” were found to have conducting regular meetings. The respondents showed very poor knowledge and participation in local planning process accounting to only 2%. Also, banking networks were found to have gaining popularity in the target community and areas that is providing loans at higher interest rate. Therefore, if this component could be included in this project with low interest would highly benefit Chepang community financially. The unequal power relations is still strong in the target community with women receiving minimum support from family for participating in the public domain. The respondents also recommended that if income generating skills could also be provided along with this training, it would highly support the Chepang women to successfully participate in the public domain including local planning process.