Stories of change from Nepal

July 3, 2023

ActionAid’s Women’s Rights Programme has been running since 2012. The overall goal of the programme is to increase the safety and security of women and girls and improve their economic wellbeing in the three countries, Kenya, Ethiopia and Nepal.

We have a long-running partnership agreement with Irish Aid to run the Women’s Rights Programme. Irish Aid is the Irish Government’s programme for overseas development and humanitarian support and is funded by the Irish taxpayer.

ActionAid Nepal has created a video series and documentary to highlight the impact of Irish Aid funding on the lives of women and girls in Nepal. Watch the full series here.

We are pleased to share that Irish Aid will continue to fund the programme for the next five years.

The documentary

6 Years of “Samunnati Project”-Women’s Rights Programme:

The video series

The series highlights how girls are taking the lead to end child marriage in their community. It also shows how young activists are creating safer public transport and safe public spaces for women and girls. In addition, the series showcases women who are standing up to violence; inspiring stories of women earning an income for the first time; and women who have taken leadership roles in their communities. The final video in the series highlights how women are transforming their lives through revaluing and redistributing unpaid care work.

The videos

“Girls Are Changing Social Norms By Challenging Harmful Practice.” Watch the inspiring story of change as girls take action to end child marriage in their community. पर्साका शाहसी किशोरीहरुका कथा-The Story of Brave Girls of Parsa

“Breaking Barriers: Youth learning the Way in Creating Safe Public Spaces for Women and Girls.” Witness the inspiring efforts of young activists as they work towards creating safer public transportation and spaces for women and girls. सुरक्षित शहर निर्माणमा जुटेका युवाहरुको कथा-Youth for Safe City

“Breaking the Silence: Women Speak Out Against Violence and Seek Justice through Legal Services.” The powerful stories of women who have refused to stay silent in the face of violence. न्यायको लागि उनको आवाज-She Speaks for Justice

“Unleashing Women’s Potential: Breaking Barriers and Engaging in Income-Generating Activities.” The strength and resilience of women who have broken free from the confines of their homes and engaged in income-generating activities. समाजलाई सिकाएका महिलाको कथा- The Story of Women Who Taught Society

“Breaking Stereotypes: Women Come Out of the Closet and Take the Lead.” Witness the inspiring stories of women who have defied societal stereotypes and taken on leadership roles. हामी सक्छौं-We Can

“Sharing Unpaid Care Work: A Step Towards Empowering Women. A heartwarming story of change where wives and husbands take a joint initiative towards women’s economic empowerment by sharing the burden of unpaid care work. As a result, women have time to engage in paid work, pursue education or start their own businesses. फर्किएका खुशीहरु-Reviving Happiness

Protestors at COP 28 in Dubai. Photo: Konrad Skotnicki.

Belfast Climate Change March, 2019. Photo: Trócaire.

The Profit Driving the Crisis

Despite their overwhelming contribution to global emissions, fossil fuel companies continue to attract significant financial backing—driven by their enduring profitability. This is starkly illustrated by the case of ExxonMobil, the top fossil fuel investment held by asset managers based in Ireland. In 2023, ExxonMobil reported €33.63 billion ($36 billion) in profit. That is almost twice the GDP of Botswana (€18.1 billion) and nearly three times Namibia’s GDP (€11.5 billion).

Ireland plays a hugely disproportionate role in facilitating investments into fossil fuel companies like ExxonMobil. In 2023, the investments made into fossil fuel companies by investment managers based in Ireland generated an estimated 72.5 million tons of CO2e. This is more than the CO2e emissions for the entire country of Ireland—and more than ten times that generated by Sierra Leone.

The Global Human Impact

The climate crisis is here, now, and it is causing disproportionate harm in the Global South. In Bangladesh, rising sea levels and increasingly severe cyclones are displacing coastal communities, with projections indicating that 17% of the entire country could be underwater by 2050. The legally binding Paris Agreement on climate change explicitly acknowledges the importance of tackling private finance. Its three overarching goals are: keeping below 1.5C of warming; increasing adaptation and making finance flows consistent with low emissions and resilience.

This gives a clear mandate for action: both tax reform and corporate regulation are needed to tackle financial flows, and both nationally in Ireland and at EU level, ‘polluter pays’ taxes are lacking and regulation of the financial sector remains weak and fragmented. While EU regulation exists, it is designed more to nudge investors toward more sustainable investment practices by increasing transparency and reporting levels than to enforce strict standards. And it is moving in the wrong direction: the recently passed EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive excluded investments; and now the EU Commission’s Omnibus legislative proposal threatens to undo the limited gains made on climate plans, as well as blocking future attempts for stronger action at national level.

The Risk of Inaction

Fossil fuel investment is too profitable to remain weakly regulated. If Ireland continues with its current strategy of encouraging FDI at all costs, and relying on weak EU regulation, we are headed for catastrophe. The Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change has repeatedly warned that every fraction of a degree beyond 1.5°C brings irreversible consequences: collapsed ice sheets, vanishing coral reefs, and extreme weather events that will make vast regions of the planet uninhabitable. And yet, companies are developing oil and gas fields that could push global warming beyond 2°C.

Our research found that 91% of the investments made into fossil fuel companies by investment managers based in Ireland were to companies that have plans for fossil fuel expansion like these. Ireland cannot afford inaction on this issue.

About This Research

The figures in this report regarding investment from Ireland are based on new research commissioned by ActionAid Ireland and Trócaire. In the paper, we uncover the scale of fossil fuel investment through Ireland, who the investors are, and in which fossil fuel companies they are investing. We analyse the current regulatory framework and explain why it is inadequate—and moving in the wrong direction. And we make specific recommendations for change, which are summarised below.

Summary of Recommendations

Regulate the private financial sector
Ireland must end its outsized role as an enabler of destructive fossil fuel investment. Ireland should introduce a strong gender-responsive national human rights and environmental due diligence framework which includes the regulation of investors with respect to human rights and the environment and climate. The transposition of the EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive could achieve this if downstream activities are included and the Omnibus proposal is rejected. Ireland should prohibit investments in fossil fuel expansion and require investors to implement climate transition plans consistent with a 1.5°C climate limit.

Endorse the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty
Ireland should endorse developing a Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty to curb fossil fuel expansion and commit to a fair and funded phase out of fossil fuels.

Support tax justice
Ireland should support bold and fair new global tax rules through the UN Framework Convention on Tax, should adopt all OECD BEPS measures, and should conduct an updated and comprehensive spillover analysis of its tax policy. Ireland should take coordinated action globally, at the EU level and domestically to introduce a range of new taxes to mobilise finance needed for climate justice, based on ‘polluter pays’ and social equity principles such as wealth taxes for the highest earners, climate damages tax on investors, fossil fuel production taxes and levies on aviation and shipping.

Finance a just transition
Ireland must also meet its fair share climate finance obligations under Article 9.1 of the Paris Agreement, and pay our ecological debt to the Global South. Ireland should support conditionality-free debt cancellation for countries on the front lines of the climate crisis, commit to a new UN Framework Convention on Sovereign Debt, moving debt negotiations from the IMF to the UN, and to a debt workout mechanism that is fully representative and fair.

Stories of change from Nepal

The documentary

The video series

The videos

The Profit Driving the Crisis

The Global Human Impact

The Risk of Inaction

About This Research

Summary of Recommendations

Further reading

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