KATHMANDU: Minister for Women, Children, Gender and Sexual Minorities and Social Security Sita Badi held a courtesy meeting with Australian Ambassador to Nepal Simon Ernst on Tuesday.
During the meeting held at the Ministry, the two discussed ways to further strengthen and make the friendly relations between Nepal and Australia more productive.
According to the Ministry, discussions covered women’s empowerment, child rights and protection, disability inclusion, social security, the care economy, human resource development and the exchange of policy experiences.
Minister Badi said Nepal and Australia have maintained friendly and cordial relations since the establishment of diplomatic ties and stressed the need to make bilateral cooperation more result-oriented in the coming days.
She expressed gratitude for Australia’s development assistance to Nepal in areas including education, human development, good governance, gender equality and social inclusion.
Badi said Australia’s scholarship programmes have made an important contribution to enhancing the knowledge, skills and professional capacities of Nepali students, researchers, professionals and government employees.
She said the programmes have also had a positive impact on policy formulation, implementation and public service delivery.
Discussing the link between social security and the care economy, Badi stressed the need to economically recognise and value women’s contributions to household and care work.
She also emphasised that Nepal-Australia relations should move beyond development assistance towards a broader partnership involving technology transfer, exchange of policy experiences, institutional capacity building and stronger people-to-people ties.
Ambassador Ernst highlighted the importance of ongoing cooperation between Nepal and Australia and said Australia remained committed to making collaboration more effective in areas of mutual interest and priority.
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