Finland's Ambassador met Nepalise Minister for Women and Children

H.E. Mr. Pertti Anttinen met Hon’ble Minister Mrs. Tham Maya Thapa, Minister for Women Children and Senior Citizen on Monday at the Minister’s office at the Ministry.

Minister Mrs. Thapa and Ambassador Anttinen met to discuss gender equality collaboration.

Ambassador Mr. Anttinen briefed the Minister Thapa about Finland’s EU Presidency and Gender Champion role starting from July till end of December and about Finland’s on-going bilateral cooperation programmes in Nepal.

He informed the Minister that gender equality and women’s empowerment is one of the key pillars for Finland’s development cooperation policy and one of the main areas of work which Finland is supporting GoN through UN Women – one of the key strategic partners of Finland.

He assured the Minister about his commitment to promote gender equality and women empowerment issues in Nepal during his tenure as EU Gender Champion and asked for ministry’s collaboration for any possible areas/events.

Similarly, Minister Thapa briefed H.E. Pertti about Ministry’s strategic priorities and activities on gender equality and women empowerment. She gracefully expressed her appreciation for the supports that Government of Finland is providing to the Government of Nepal in various sectors and ask for strong collaboration and support for the coming years.

For the Ministry, women’s economic and social transformation in parallel to political participation is the key agenda, she added. The Minister also informed the Ambassador about the government’s recent initiative to celebrate 16 Jestha (30 May) as National Women’s Rights Day every year with specific theme in focus.

This year’s celebration is the first one and celebrated as the ‘The Year of Violence Against Women’ theme.