Structure

The Department of Women and Children is led by the Director-General. The Department is organized along functional lines. The central office in Lalitpur of the Kathmandu Valley has five wings which may be called Administration, Planning, Empowerment, Protection and Finance.

In charge of Finance is the Under-Secretary. The other four wings are headed by Directors, also Under-Secretaries. A wing has too sections or section-like units. The organisation of the Department is represented in Chart 1. But the role of each wing becomes clearer in functional terms. Here are some examples of wing-specific functions.

  • Planning: Policy making, programming, gender mainstreaming, rural business promotion, emergency response, implementation of the National Action Plan on BPFA
  • Empowerment: Rural institutional development, reproductive health care, seed money support, awareness raising, action research, implementation of the National Action Plan on CEDAW
  • Protection: Advancement of child rights, prevention of gender-based violence, control of sale of and trafficking in persons, promotion of men's involvement, operation of service or rehabilitation centres, implementation of the National Action Plan on CRC and also that on Control of Sale of and Trafficking in Persons
  • Administration: Staffing, organisational development, monitoring and evaluation, administrative oversight, social protection, public relations, general services
  • Finance: Budgeting, funds operation, accounting, financial control, financial reporting, actions on audit comments.

In districts there are Women and Children Offices everywhere. Of the 75 district offices 22 are headed by Chief Women Development Officers and the remainder by Women Development Officers. Like the centre, district offices are organized functionally. The Women Development Officer or Inspector is in charge of the development functions, which involves community-based activities. The protection wing is led by the Child Protection Officer or Inspector. Charts 2.a and 2.b present the ways in which the 22 and the rest of the district offices are organized.

Some districts have unit or contact offices at sub-district level. Unit offices are … in number and are spread over … districts. The number of contact offices in … districts is ….