All activities that are planned and implemented within the intervention areas are designed to achieve a sustainable impact in our programme districts and thus to fulfil our programme objective. Please take a look at the following:

Promoting entrepreneurship and access to finance through the support of the Youth and Small Enterprise Self-Employment Fund (YSESEF) Programme

GIZ/INCLUDE supports the MoF and FNCCI in the implementation of the Youth and Small Enterprise Self-Employment Fund (YSESEF) Programme cooperating closely with FNCCI and a number of local Chambers of Commerce and Industry (CCIs) at the district level. Training of Trainers (ToT) on entrepreneurship development for officers of the chambers of commerce and other potential trainers were implemented in four regions: far-western and mid-western region with the location Birendranagar, Surkhet, western region with the location Tansen, Palpa, central region with the location Narayangarh, Chitwan and eastern region with the location Dharan, Sunsari. In 2009, a trainer pool of 74 facilitators (60 male and 14 female) from 59 CCIs was established. Together with FNCCI and the CCIs, INCLUDE has developed an innovative training approach for enhancing entrepreneurial competencies that encompasses diverse areas such as attitudes, motivation, assessing of markets, matching of skills up to the elaboration of a bankable business plan. The CCIs are now in a position to train small-scale business owners, start up entrepreneurs and young people in many districts of Nepal. Baseline surveys were conducted in four districts to be able to better focus the training contents on the needs of the target group on CCI level.

The loans under the YSESEF Programme will be provided by banks and other financial institutions. For this purpose, an intensive relationship and trust building between the CCIs and the banks/financial institutions would be required. INCLUDE also would be able to support such a facilitation process. In this regard, GIZ/INCLUDE, as per the agreement between MoF, FNCCI and INCLUDE, conducted surveys of Financial Institutions in the districts of Chitwan and Palpa for the YSESEF Programme in order to identify the interests of the local financial institutions and to collect their suggestions for the successful implementation of the YSESEF Programme.      

Snapshot of the BUS training (farmers business training) held in Chitwan

Participants and trainer of the BUS training conducted in Palpa

Strengthening business services to support local entrepreneurship

With the establishment of ‘One Stop Shops’ (OSSs) at local CCIs, entrepreneurs will be assisted in business start-up and post start-up processes. The OSSs provide information on government regulations and registration requirements including relevant form sheets as well as business development services. Further, entrepreneurs are advised on what kind of financial services are available and where these services can be obtained from. GIZ/INCLUDE has assisted local CCIs in the formal establishment of OSSs in Surkhet, Makwanpur, Palpa, Kailali, and Chitwan since January 2009, where over 1000 people have visited with their enquiries and business concerns.

The OSS housed at Palpa Chamber of Commerce & Industry

Promoting value chains and the local business environment

Honey, dairy and ginger are identified sectors with good employment and income generation potential in several districts. Here, activities to support the areas of production, processing and marketing are being promoted by INCLUDE and good practices are documented. Sector-specific dialogues, such as on the migration of bees between beekeepers and forest users, are initiated in the districts to create a more favourable local business environment. Stakeholders discuss policy-related issues of their sector and recommendations are channelled into the national level policy dialogue.

Ginger, honey and dairy are sub-sectors with great economic potential in some of INCLUDE’s programme districts

Special projects for the upliftment of disadvantaged groups

GIZ/INCLUDE is supporting Janachetana Agriculture Cooperative Ltd. in Makwanpur in production and marketing of quality honey (apis cerena: Asian hivebee) in the Village Development Committees (VDCs) of Manahari, Kakada and Rakirsang, covering around 80 Chepang households. The objective is to improve the beekeeping techniques of the traditional beekeepers and to upgrade their production skills. Further it is envisaged to link with national and international suppliers and to organise the producers in sub-groups for the collection of honey and to establish honey collection centres.  So far, 25 women and 55 men of the Chepang community have benefited from the programme. Out of them, nine have started to work full-time in the honey value chain. Through INCLUDE’s help, Janachetana Agriculture Cooperative Ltd. was able to link up with Kathmandu-based honey traders to assure the market for their products.

Preparations for local honey processing

Bottling of processed honey

Another example would be the support of Uddhamshil Krishi Multipurpose Cooperative Ltd., the District Agriculture Development Office (DADO) and the District Development Committee (DDC) in Dang in a riverbed farming programme. The importance of this farming technique is two fold: it is a source of income and employment for riverbank communities as well as a means for reconstructing the natural habitat of the area.

Promoting marketing efforts

As part of the cooperation with local Chambers of Commerce and Industry (CCIs) for the promotion of the social and economic development in the region INCLUDE supports the organisation of business and trade fairs in its programme districts. Trade fairs and exhibitions offer a good platform to create awareness on the potentials of a region, to bring stakeholders together and subsequently to promote income and employment opportunities. Recently, INCLUDE supported Kailali CCI in the organisation of the “Sudoor Paschim Mahotsav 2066” (Farwest Festival 2009) that was held from 10^th to 19^th December 2009 as well as Ratnanagar CCI’s “Dairy and Honey Expo” as part of the “Ratnanagar Mahotsav 2066” that was held from 11^th to 19^th January 2010.     

Further, INCLUDE is among others assisting beekeepers and their umbrella organisations to promote the sector. The Nepal Beekeeping Cooperative Union and Pragitishil Beekeeping Cooperative Private Limited participated with the help of INCLUDE in the “Farwest Festival 2009” providing information on beekeeping and honey to create awareness on the usefulness of honey and its business potentials.

Enhancing the capacities of the cooperative sector

Cooperatives are important partners of INCLUDE as their dual function as enterprises and civil society organisations enables them to contribute to developing value chains and technical and financial services as well as to be active in Public Private Dialogues (PPDs). Based on this, cooperatives are in a good position to support the governance within a value chain, i.e. to balance the interests of the various actors as well as to increase the benefit of disadvantaged groups in the value addition. By their nature they provide connections between different levels of a value chain, e.g. collection, processing and marketing. In its programme districts INCLUDE works closely together with the district cooperative unions of the selected sub-sectors.

Various activities have been identified to strengthen the cooperative sector at all levels (macro, meso and micro). At national level an informal cooperative coordination network has been established which is coordinated by the National Cooperative Federation of Nepal Ltd. (NCF). Its membership comprises of all national cooperative federations, relevant government bodies, NGO federations and other agencies involved in the promotion of cooperative sector. The network raises issues of the cooperative sector such as "Value Chain Finance" and jointly develops ideas for solution as well as comes up with recommendations to improve the framework conditions for the sector.

Similarly informal cooperative stakeholder networks have been formed at district level in Rupandehi, Chitwan and Dang which are coordinated by the respective District Cooperative Union. Members of the cooperative stakeholder networks are from public, private and civil society sectors such as District Milk Producers’ Cooperative Union, District Agriculture Development Office (DADO), District Agriculture Cooperative Union, Women Development Office, Division Cooperative Office, district level NGO Federation (if any), representative of network of women cooperatives, local Chamber of Commerce and Industry etc. These networks identify and discuss issues of cooperatives locally, try to find workable solutions and thus contribute to the inclusive economic development of the district. In case issues cannot be solved at district level they will be channelled to the national level network.

Further, various training programmes are being conducted to strengthen the cooperative sector. More than 60 cooperative leaders and managers from eight districts are being trained as trainers for "Cooperative Management and Value Chain Development". They are going to conduct such trainings at VDC level in several districts. More than 20 specialists have been trained on the issues of "Cooperative Auditing and Supervision". In addition, the INCLUDE programme will help to establish district level cooperative promotion centres, support business planning of cooperatives and help to establish radio programmes on cooperative issues in selected districts.