The Issue
LGBTIQ+ people in Nepal continue to face discrimination, stigma, and family or community rejection, even with a progressive constitution and legal safeguards. Although the 2015 Constitution grants the right to citizenship, meaningful political inclusion of LGBTIQ+ communities is still not ensured.
LGBTIQ+ communities face structural, institutional, and social barriers, made worse by limited awareness among state actors and political parties. As a result, LGBTIQ+ issues receive little attention in political agendas, leading to a lack of inclusive policies and weak political participation at federal, provincial, and local levels.
Transgender people often struggle to obtain voter IDs and other documents that match their chosen gender and name, leading to frequent misidentification or exclusion from voting. Low political literacy and limited voter education within LGBTIQ+ communities further contribute to low voter registration.
Many lack awareness of their constitutional rights, electoral procedures, and available support systems, which restricts their ability to participate confidently as voters or candidates.
The Project
The ‘Promoting Rights, Inclusion, Dignity and Enhanced Political Participation of LGBTIQ+ Individuals in Nepal (PRIDE)’ project aims to strengthen the voice of LGBTIQ+ communities and civil society organisations (CSOs) to engage effectively with relevant government agencies and political parties at the provincial (Madesh, Lumbini, Bagmati and Sudurpaschim) and the federal level, ensuring meaningful participation and representation of LGBTIQ+ communities in the political space of Nepal through:
- Strengthening Capacity of CSOs by enhancing the knowledge and capacity of CSOs, including those led by LGBTIQ+ communities, to effectively voice their demands and claim dignified space in political processes.
- Evidence-Based Advocacy by strengthening evidence and data-driven advocacy to enhance strategic engagement of LGBTIQ+ communities in accessing resources and political opportunities across all levels of government and political parties.
- Inclusive Policies and Political Commitments: by developing and reviewing Policies, regulations, and action plans by political parties and government agencies to enable meaningful participation and representation of LGBTIQ+ communities.
These activities will strengthen and elevate civil society efforts that promote the meaningful political participation and representation of LGBTIQ+ communities across Nepal’s political systems and structures.
The Partners
Blue Diamond Society (BDS) is a pioneer organisation working for the LGBTIQ+ community in Nepal. We advocate for all sexual and gender minorities to ensure equal rights, economic empowerment, livelihood support, equal access to public and private services, representation and protection.
Federation of Sexual and Gender Minorities, Nepal (FSGMN) was founded in 2007 and is a network of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and Intersex (LGBTIQA+) organisations in Nepal. FSGMN has 35 affiliated community-based organisations and 53 offices in 32 districts. Its vision is to create a society in which all sexual and gender minorities are respected, and are able to live with dignity, free from discrimination, persecution, and violence.
Nepal Voters Right Forum (NVRF) is a non profitable, non-partisan, non-governmental, unique and inclusive network having representation of traditionally marginalized and excluded peoples’ organizations including, Dalit, women, people with disabilities, youth, religious minorities, indigenous nationalities, madeshi, LGBTI etc. and human rights, governance and media.
The Change
PRIDE seeks to address these challenges through three interconnected strategies:
- Empowering LGBTIQ+ communities and allied CSOs by fostering peer mentoring, collective advocacy, and awareness campaigns.
- Building a robust evidence base in collaboration with research institutions and youth-led organizations to inform CSO-driven policy advocacy.
- Strengthening engagement with duty-bearers by using research findings to enhance the capacity of state actors and political parties on inclusiveness.
Together, these approaches aim to create safer, more dignified pathways for LGBTIQ+ representation in Nepal’s political structures.
Specific expected outcomes are:
- The knowledge and capacity of CSOs, including those led by LGBTIQ+ communities, are enhanced to effectively voice their demands and claim dignified space in political processes
- Evidence and data-driven advocacy is strengthened to enhance strategic engagement of LGBTIQ+ communities in accessing resources and political opportunities across all three tiers of government and within political parties.
- Policies, regulations, and resourced action plans are reviewed and developed by political parties and government agencies to enable the meaningful participation and representation of LGBTIQ+ communities
The project is expected to reach almost 7,000 individuals directly and more than 100,000 indirectly.
About the project
- Title: PRIDE: Promoting Rights, Inclusion, Dignity and Enhanced political participation of LGBTIQ+ individuals in Nepal
- Timeline: 1st January 2026 – 31st December 2028
- Partner(s):
Blue Diamond Society (BDS)
Federation of Sexual and Gender Minority in Nepal (FSGMN)
Nepal Voter Right Forum (NVRF) - Amount: EURO 666,667 (EU funding EURO 500,000, DCA co-financing: 166,667.00)
- DCA Theme: Fight
- Expected number of people reached: Approximately 103,485 individuals.
- Donor(s): European Union (EU)
