Crew Project

Co-producing a shock-resilient business ecosystem for women-led enterprises in Nepal- a collaborative action research project initiated by SIAS in support of IDRC, Canada, and in collaboration with Aria Solutions, NIMS College, and HBTL.

Project overview

As women in Nepal face the brunt of climate change, the coronavirus pandemic has added to that burden. Discriminatory gendered practices existent in Nepal that marginalize women has exacerbated the double threats of the pandemic and the climate crisis. Women-led businesses are one of the crucial sectors deeply impacted by the consequences. With this context, the CREW project envisions to co-produce workable solutions for financially sustainable and shock-resilient agriculture and forest-based enterprises for women’s economic self-reliance.


The participatory action-research project will identify gender-based constraints faced by women farmers and entrepreneurs and create an ecosystem of support for the promotion of inclusive women-engaged enterprises and capacitate target beneficiaries. Other equally crucial aspect of the project is dissemination of knowledge and supplementing policy-making processing to enhance women’s economic empowerment.
The project is 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.

Research sites

Arghakhanchi

Elevating women’s role in vegetable value chain in Arghakhanchi

RAMECHHAP

Enhancing Ramechhap’s status as pocket area of legumes

DOLAKHA

Expanding economic possibilities of wintergreen in Dolakha

Priority areas

  • Digital Technology

    Despite rampant digitization, women’s access to digital technology is still limited. A few of those who do have access are limited by only a few utilities such as surfing social media and receiving phone calls. CREW project focuses on digitally equipping women to materialize the power of technology to elevate their engagement in different levels of agricultural value chain.

    Digital Technology
  • Marketing

    The roles of women have mostly been restricted to production. The multiple burdens of household chores limit their participation in more lucrative ends of the value chain such as marketing. Through the project, we aim to empower and elevate women and position their role in the upper ends of the value chain.

    Marketing
  • Women Champions
    / Role Models

    CREW project intends to highlight local women who have overcome traditional barriers and set themselves apart through their leadership and resilience. The champions will also act as a bridge in reaching out to other local women farmers and entrepreneurs as well as become key agents in establishing and developing relationships with local institutions.

    Women Champions<br>/ Role Models
  • Co-Production

    Co-production is at the heart of the project and intends to become a key tool in ensuring sustainability and ownership of the project. The co-production approach ensures that the beneficiaries are classified not as mere respondents of the project but as research participants.

    Co-Production
  • participatory Action Research

    This project applies Participatory Action Research (PAR) in recalibrating the empirical findings from the research and develops a more replicable local model that can be used as a reference for Women’s Economic Empowerment (WEE) projects in the hills of Nepal. This PAR approaches used will ensure that the needs of women are identified, and action is taken for social change. Hence, the study is nested within the proposed interventions in the community. These two aspects of the research are guided through research questions and project objectives.

    participatory Action Research

    Engagements

    Publications

    Meeting with SIAS Board Members, Advisors, Partners and Project Staff: Co-Producing A Shock-Resilient Business Ecosystem for Women-Led Enterprises in Nepal (CREW) Project

    On January 26, 2022, SIAS, as part of the CREW project, organized a meeting with its board members, project advisors, partners and project staff. The meeting was organized to build a common understanding of the project and gather feedback from the participants to further improve the research’s approach and design. The report presents a summary of the event and highlights the comments, feedback and questions brought forward by the participants.

    Prepared by:- Avipsha Rayamajhi, Dipika Das, Dr. Mani Ram Banjade

    National Level Inception Workshop: Co-producing a shock-resilient business ecosystem for women-led enterprises in Nepal

    On January 26, 2022, SIAS organized a national level inception workshop as part of CREW project. The event intended to inform participants from diverse fields regarding the project and gather their feedback to further enhance the project’s approach. The report covers a summary of the event and key highlights, comments and feedback of the participants.

    Prepared by:- Avipsha Rayamajhi, Dipika Das, Dr. Mani Ram Banjade

    Team

    Supported By

    Partners