Project Title: Co-producing a shock-resilient business ecosystem for women-led enterprises in Nepal (CREW)
Project Leader: Dr. Mani Ram Banjade
Project Partners: Aria Solutions, NIMS College, Himalayan Bio-Trade Pvt. Ltd. (HBTL)
Funded By: International Development Research Centre (IDRC), Canada
Duration: October 2021- March 2024
Project Description:
The COVID-19 pandemic in Nepal has added pressures on women who are already at the forefront of facing the brunt of climate change. The double burden of the pandemic and climate change has particularly been difficult for women in Nepal due to existing discriminatory gendered practices experienced by them. As the situation worsens with the unfolding of the pandemic, women-led businesses and those involved in climate-sensitive sectors have been deeply impacted. In regards to this context, the project aims to co-produce workable solutions for financially sustainable and shock-resilient agriculture and forest-based enterprises for women’s economic self-reliance. It will be carried out in two economic corridors with a focus on three commodities- wintergreen and legumes in Dolakha and Ramechhap corridor and vegetables in the Arghakhanchi-Rupandehi corridor.
This participatory action-research project will identify gender-based constraints faced by women farmers and entrepreneurs, create an ecosystem of support for the promotion of inclusive women-engaged enterprises, capacitate target beneficiaries and build their agency and voices. Overall, the interventions are focused on enhancing decision-making and improving access to market and resources for women, contributing towards gender and climate-sensitive policies, building digital and financial literacy, and creating models and champions who can inspire and engage the community in the longer run. The specific objectives of the project are listed below:
- To understand gender-based constraints to women’s economic empowerment in the context of agriculture and forest-based enterprises in Nepal.
- To facilitate technological and institutional innovations for shock-resilient women engaged enterprise development by strengthening an ‘ecosystem of support’(through interventions on improving production, environment, value addition and branding, technological support, linkage with financing and market).
- To development the capacity of women farmers and entrepreneurs to increase political space, agency and voice in collection action arenas.
- To disseminate knowledge and inform policies and practices towards enhancing women’s economic empowerment.
The following questions will guide the research:
- What are the short/long-term impacts/ disruptions caused by COVID-19 on women’s economic activities and women-engaged agriculture and forest-based enterprises?
- What are the climate risks and challenges women farmers and entrepreneurs are confronted with, and, if any, how are they coping with these risks and challenges?
- What are the key gender-based constraints women face in the different nodes of the value chain of selected agriculture/ forest products?
- How to increase access and capacity of women farmers/ entrepreneurs to FinTech and digital platforms?
- How do smart technologies (digital marketing platforms, climate-smart technologies) help overcome women’s gender role and time constraints and contribute to entrepreneurial competencies?
- How does women’s collective action help influence local governments to adopt gender and climate-responsive policies to promote women’s entrepreneurship?
- How do women entrepreneur role models and local champions contribute to women’s entrepreneurial aspirations?
The progress and outcome of the project will be communicated through policy briefs, fact sheets, working papers, discussion papers, conference papers, discussion papers, review papers, presentations, newspaper op-eds, blogs, journal papers, podcasts, and video bytes.
