The event, organized by Climate Policy Initiative (CPI), ForestAction Nepal (FAN) and Southasia Institute of Advanced Studies (SIAS) “Unpacking and Bridging the Financial Barriers to Empower Women-Led Enterprises in Nepal,” held on 22 January 2026, convened researchers, policymakers, financial institutions, women entrepreneurs, and development partners to critically examine the systemic constraints limiting financial access for women-led enterprises (WLEs). The discussion placed particular emphasis on climate-sensitive sectors such as agriculture and forestry, where women’s enterprises play a crucial role in livelihood resilience, yet remain structurally underfinanced. The event aimed not only to unpack persistent financial barriers but also to identify practical, ecosystem-based pathways to improve inclusive financing for women-led and home-based enterprises.
Introductory Remarks and Research sharing
In the opening remarks, Dr. Meena Bohara (ForestAction) emphasized the centrality of natural resource–based sectors to Nepal’s inclusive growth and climate resilience. Despite their economic importance, women-led enterprises operating in these sectors continue to face entrenched barriers to accessing finance. She underscored the need for collaborative approaches that move beyond isolated financial interventions and instead address structural and institutional gaps affecting women entrepreneurs.
Welcoming participants, Dr. Gyanu Maskey (SIAS) highlighted that women-led enterprises, particularly those in climate-sensitive sectors, remain underfinanced despite strong policy commitments. Drawing on insights from earlier action research on womens’ economic empowerment under the GLOW Program (implemented by SIAS and FAN), she noted that access to finance consistently emerges as a critical bottleneck. She positioned the CAFIN project’s (Climate Action Financing through Women and Social Enterprises) landscape study as a source of grounded evidence to inform policy reform, financial product design, and development programming, noting that the event also served as a platform to launch key research findings and stimulate solution-oriented dialogue.
Dr. Ishita Sachdeva (IDRC), in her keynote address, framed financial exclusion as a systemic design failure rather than a deficit in women’s motivation or capacity. She cautioned that access to credit alone can exacerbate vulnerability if it is not accompanied by technical assistance, enterprise preparedness, and market linkages. Emphasizing the importance of finance readiness, she advocated for differentiated support mechanisms, including project preparation facilities, to ensure women-led enterprises can effectively absorb and utilize finance. Her key message resonated strongly throughout the event: “Finance does not empower women, ecosystems do.”
Speaking on climate finance, Mr. Debal Mitra (CPI) highlighted the acute scarcity of climate finance in developing economies, particularly in South Asia. He noted that gender vulnerability acts as a cascading risk, as women dominate agricultural production yet are disproportionately exposed to climate shocks. Women-led enterprises, he argued, are strategic entry points for strengthening income security, agency, and leadership. However, financial solutions must be embedded within broader ecosystems that address skills development, market access, and structural inequities.
The presentation of key research findings by Ms. Manika Gupta and Mr. Shriven Trivedi (CPI) revealed that over 60 percent of women-led enterprises in Nepal are micro or home-based, operating with minimal fixed capital. Nearly 90 percent rely on personal savings, and more than half have never applied for formal loans. Limited asset ownership, complex documentation requirements, and rigid financial products were identified as major constraints. Additionally, while climate shocks affect approximately 65 percent of enterprises, preparedness remains low. The study underscored that women-led enterprises face intersecting challenges across social norms, finance, markets, and climate risks. The core insight emphasized that credit alone cannot address these structural barriers; instead, sequenced technical assistance and ecosystem support are essential. Key recommendations included graduated support tailored to enterprise scale, integration of technical assistance as a bridge to finance, risk-sharing instruments such as insurance and guarantees, and collective aggregation through cooperatives and women-led associations.
Panel Discussion
The panel discussion, moderated by Dr. Mani Ram Banjade (Nirvana, SIAS and ForestAction) explored systemic challenges and pathways to improve financial access for women-led enterprises (WLEs), particularly in climate-sensitive sectors like agriculture and forestry.
Panel discussions underscored that:
- Policies often treat women as welfare beneficiaries rather than economic actors with agency.
- Blanket financial solutions fail to address geographic, sectoral, and social diversity.
- Finance alone is insufficient without enterprise development support, market linkages, technology access, and climate risk management.
- Micro-Finance Institutions (MFIs) play a crucial role in building credit history, but clear graduation pathways to commercial banks are needed.
- Risk-sharing mechanisms, blended finance, and value-chain financing can unlock lending at scale.
The panel reached a strong consensus that empowering women-led enterprises requires a shift from isolated financial interventions to a coordinated, ecosystem-based approach integrating policy reform, capacity building, enterprise development, market access, and climate resilience.
During the panel discussion, Dr. Meeta Sainju Pradhan (SIAS) critiqued existing policies for treating women primarily as welfare beneficiaries rather than economic actors. She highlighted that one-size-fits-all approaches fail to account for geographic, sectoral, and social diversity, and noted that despite women’s strong repayment records, institutional mindsets have not evolved accordingly. She called for periodic policy reviews, customized interventions, and the integration of climate risk considerations into financial systems.
Ms. Anuja Rajbhandari (FWEAN) highlighted persistent structural disadvantages, including lack of collateral, weak market access, and low bargaining power. She noted that poor outreach limits women’s awareness of available financial schemes and raised concerns about proxy entrepreneurship, where businesses registered in women’s names are controlled by men, undermining genuine empowerment. She advocated for clearer enterprise categorization, higher loan ceilings, and strengthened financial literacy initiatives.
From a value-chain perspective, Mr. Sushil Gyawali (Himalayan Naturals Private Limited) observed that women are largely concentrated in production roles, while men dominate marketing and value capture. He emphasized that finance without enterprise development such as technology adoption, processing capacity, and export readiness remains ineffective. Gender and social inclusion, he argued, must be embedded into value-chain design from the outset rather than added as an afterthought.
Representing the banking sector, Mr. Binaya Ratna Shakya (Muktinath Bikas Bank) explained that banks must manage risk responsibly as custodians of public deposits. Informality, mixed household and business finances, and climate uncertainty increase perceived lending risks. However, he acknowledged positive shifts, including collateral-free agricultural loans and the use of digital tools. He stressed that scaling finance for women-led enterprises requires robust risk-sharing mechanisms and ecosystem-based lending models.
Mr. Sandip Lamichhane (Chhimek Laghubitta – Microfinance) highlighted the foundational role of microfinance institutions in building credit history and financial literacy for women entrepreneurs. He noted, however, that MFIs face regulatory ceilings and high operational costs. He emphasized the need for clear graduation pathways from MFIs to commercial banks and greater policy clarity for unmarried, widowed, and single women.
The Q&A session reinforced these themes, with participants emphasizing that finance availability is not the primary constraint; rather, ecosystem gaps and weak implementation limit impact. Women entrepreneurs shared lived experiences of distrust from lenders, high interest rates, and rigid microfinance conditions, particularly affecting unmarried and widowed women. Participants called for decentralized, adaptive financial services, enterprise categorization, and structured graduation pathways supported by exposure, technical assistance, and market connections.
Concluding Remarks
In his concluding reflection, Dr. Mani Ram Banjade emphasized that Nepal’s core challenge lies not in a lack of financial liquidity, but in the systemic failure to translate available finance into inclusive enterprise growth. Despite progress in business registration reforms and policy frameworks, women-led enterprises remain excluded due to entrenched socio-cultural norms, informality, and weak institutional coordination. He stressed that credit-only solutions are inadequate without enabling policies, institutional trust, and market integration, cautioning that financial inclusion efforts risk remaining symbolic unless these structural linkages are addressed.
Concluding the event, Dr. Sujata Tamang (ForestAction) reflected on the deeply embedded institutional and diversity-blind challenges that continue to constrain women-led enterprises. She noted that while policies and financial instruments exist, their rigidity often prevents effective uptake by women entrepreneurs with diverse realities. She emphasized that women experience intersecting vulnerabilities related to geography, marital status, enterprise size, and sector, and called for capacity-building initiatives and policy reforms that move beyond intent toward flexible, context-sensitive implementation. She concluded by stressing the need for regular review of financial products and regulatory provisions to ensure they accommodate diverse enterprise models, particularly in climate-sensitive and informal sectors.