Large-scale infrastructure investments carry increased risks of sexual exploitation, abuse, and harassment (SEA/H), especially in contexts with labor influx and limited protection systems. In the Nepal Strategic Road Connectivity and Trade Improvement Project, the World Bank assessed SEA/H risk, first as substantial before upgrading to high, due to the increase of predominantly male workers into nearby communities.
In its Good Practice Note on Addressing Sexual Exploitation and Abuse and Sexual Harassment in Investment Project Financing, the Bank emphasizes that effective prevention and response require understanding how project-related risks intersect with local contexts. In Nepal, GBV is widespread while reporting rates are low, often due to stigma, limited awareness, and low trust in formal institutions. Children, in particular, face distinct and heightened vulnerabilities to SEA/H.
A Multi-Actor Approach
The Roads Project benefited from an unusual level of institutional investment in child protection, where the Bank went beyond its safeguard requirements to adopt a more expansive approach. The Bank partnered with the Care and Protection of Children (CPC) Learning Network, a consortium with specialized expertise in child protection, which then worked directly with World Bank Task Team Leaders (TTLs) to identify child SEA/H risk pathways and integrate child-focused prevention and response measures into project systems. The borrower also contracted Sahayatri Samaj Nepal (SSN), a Nepal-based civil society organization, to strengthen SEA/H risk management during implementation.
Additionally, Bank Information Center (BIC) partnered with the Transcultural Psychosocial Organization (TPO Alliance) to support independent, community-based monitoring of the SEA/H risks affecting women and children. TPO brought longstanding experience in psychosocial support, child protection, and community engagement in Nepal. Rather than treating civil society engagement as adversarial, TTLs used TPO’s input for adaptive management, allowing for the early identification of gaps and increasing the team’s willingness to revisit project plans and timelines in response to evidence from the field.
Persistent Gaps in Reporting and Response
TPO’s monitoring brought critical community dynamics to light, documenting how the low participation of women, caregiving responsibilities without adequate childcare support, and alcohol consumption among male workers heightened SEA/H risks. Monitoring also surfaced instances of inappropriate worker behavior toward school-aged girls and found that children were unlikely to report concerns through standard project channels.
Additionally, even after a year of construction, the project’s grievance redress mechanism (GRM) was not fully operational. Community members lacked clear information on how or where to report SEA/H and project actors lacked clear referral and response procedures, gaps that increase risks for children since they are less likely to access formal channels.
Translating Findings to Change
TPO presented these findings to the World Bank during a series of advocacy meetings. In response, the TTLs supported a set of corrective actions to strengthen SEA/H risk management across the project. These included revising the SEA/H Action Plan to integrate child-specific risks and mitigation measures across project activities, updating the Code of Conduct to explicitly prohibit child SEA/H, and upgrading the project’s SEA/H risk rating from substantial to high to better reflect conditions on the ground. Together, these steps marked a shift toward treating SEA/H risk management as a core element of project implementation rather than a response to individual compliance gaps.
Monitoring also informed prevention and outreach. Given that children were unlikely to report through standard channels, TPO emphasized the need for child-appropriate communications, trusted reporting points, and outreach in spaces where children already felt safe, such as schools and youth clubs. With support from the Bank and CPC, the borrower developed child-friendly Information, Education, and Communication (IEC) materials, delivered targeted training on child SEA/H risks, and introduced school-based awareness activities.
This approach benefited from a set of conditions that remain uncommon in World Bank operations, including sustained child protection expertise, independent community-based monitoring, and a task team willing to adapt implementation in response to evidence. While this type of institutional investment is not the norm, this project demonstrates that strong child protection outcomes are achievable when child SEA/H risk management is integrated into project implementation rather than approached primarily as a compliance exercise.
