CARE

CARE is one of the older international humanitarian and development organisations, founded in 1945 in the United States to send food parcels (the original "CARE Packages") to postwar Europe. It is now a confederation of member organisations working in more than 100 countries on poverty reduction with a stated focus on women and girls, covering food and water security, women's economic empowerment, sexual and reproductive health, education, climate resilience, and humanitarian response. The secretariat is in Geneva, and CARE USA in Atlanta remains the largest member and the lead for most Asian country offices, including Nepal. Funding is dominated by institutional grants from the US government, the EU, and other bilateral donors, with private giving making up the balance.

CARE has worked in Nepal since 1978. The country office is in Lalitpur, with programme presence concentrated in the Terai, Karnali, Sudurpaschim, and parts of Lumbini, and a history of long-term district engagement in places like Bardiya, Dailekh, and Kailali. Programme areas include women's and girls' empowerment (its Tipping Point work on child marriage is well known), sexual and reproductive health and maternal nutrition, food security and climate-resilient agriculture, water and sanitation, disaster risk reduction and emergency response, and governance and social accountability work with local governments. Like Plan and Welthungerhilfe, CARE Nepal implements mainly through local partner NGOs and positions itself as a technical and convening partner rather than a direct service provider.

For Nepalese professionals CARE hires project and programme managers, technical coordinators and advisers in gender equality and social inclusion, health and nutrition, agriculture and climate adaptation, WASH, and humanitarian response, along with MEAL and knowledge management officers, partnership and governance specialists, and communications and advocacy staff. Operations cover finance, grants and compliance, HR, procurement, logistics, admin, and IT. Nearly all posts are national contracts under a Nepali payroll, with a small expatriate leadership layer, and pay sits in the upper INGO band alongside Save the Children and Plan. Roles tied to specific donor grants are the majority, so contract lengths follow project cycles, and field positions in Karnali and the western Terai open more frequently than Kathmandu ones.