Nov 15 2016: Needs Assessment of Top 20 Women Entrepreneurs in Palpa As part of our endeavor to empower the rural women entrepreneurs, particularly the Top 20 that were selected through Daayitwa Women Enterprise Challenge (DWEC) Palpa 2016, we are furthering efforts to conduct needs assessment, to understand challenges and prospects for women entrepreneurship acceleration. The outcome of the research is to guide the development of specific technical interventions and strategy for accelerating the businesses of women entrepreneurs in Palpa, in particular of the Top 20 entrepreneurs. WREAP team traveled to Palpa on November 15, to survey the Top 20 women entrepreneurs regarding different kinds of challenges, bottlenecks, and constraints they face (also in respect to men entrepreneurs). Next Step: The collected data will be analysed to accordingly devise programmatic interventions.

Nov 3 2016: Top 10 entrepreneurs announced and awarded cash prize to scale up their business

On November 3, the Daayitwa team traveled to Palpa with a team of 8 jury members to

evaluate the Top 20 women entrepreneurs and select the Top 10. Joint Secretary Ms. Yam

Kumari Khatiwada of the Ministry of Industry attended the Top 10 announcement event as

Chief Guest. She highlighted key takeaways, gave an overview of the government’s efforts

and reiterated commitment for the SME sector.

Over a period of 2 days, jury members visited each entrepreneur’s homes and businesses to

evaluate their personal traits as well as their businesses. The entrepreneurs also gave a

2-minute public presentation on the final day’s event, followed by questions from the jury.

The scores of the jury visit as well as their presentations were combined to select the Top 10.

Each Top 10 entrepreneur was awarded a cash prize of Rs. 25,000 with which they will scale

up their businesses. In the coming months, Top 5 entrepreneurs will be selected and

awarded a further amount of Rs. 50,000 from Nepal Rising.

We are delighted to announce our Top 10 women entrepreneurs of Palpa as follows (in no

particular order):

1. Sunita Rana, Beauty Care and Institute 2. Devi Malla, Vegetable Farm 3. Pawisara Rajali, Dhaka Production 4. Binu Gautam, Vegetable Farm 5. Laxmi Gyawali, Vegetable Farm 6. Man Kumari Gaire, Veterinary and Animal Husbandry Services 7. Bishnu Karki (Thapa), Incense Production 8. Goma Bhandari, Lemon Farm 9. Prema Neupane, Animal and Vegetable Farm 10. Shanta Gautam Nepal, Goat and Fruit Farm

Each Top 10 entrepreneur was awarded a cash prize of Rs. 25,000 with which they will scale

up their businesses. In the coming months, Top 5 entrepreneurs will be selected and

awarded a further amount of Rs. 50,000 from Nepal Rising.

Our jury members were:

1. Ms.Anamika Singh Bhandary, Executive Director, FWEAN

2. Ms. Susmita Rajopadhyaya, Organizational Services Coordinator, Bihani Social Venture

3. Ms Bimala Bashyal, Bee Farmer, Daayitwa Enterprise Challenge 2014, Top 5 Winner 4. Ms. Indira Rana Magar, Founder, Prisoners Assistance Nepal, 5. Dr. Bharat P. Bhatta, Entrepreneurship and Market Researcher and Lecturer, King’s

College 6. Mr. Babu Ram Khanal, Assistant Professor, Agriculture and Forestry University

(AFU) 7. Mr. Ram Kharel, Director of Nepal Allied Industries 8. Mr. Babu Ram Kandel Branch Manager, Nepal Investment Bank Ltd, Palpa

Jury members and Daayitwa staff with entrepreneur Ms. Sunita Rana outside her Beauty Care and Institute

Jury members and Daayitwa staff with entrepreneur Ms. Sitam Bhandari in her Dhaka shop

Ms. Yam Kumari Khatiwada, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Industry, awarding our Top 10 entrepreneur Ms. Shanta Gautam Nepal as jury member Ms. Anamika Singh, Executive Director,

FWEAN, looks on

Entrepreneurs giving their 2-minute presentations for the jury members, Chief Guest and audience

20th-23rd August: Business Model Canvassing and Book-keeping Training to the Top 40

On 20th August, the Daayitwa team from Kathmandu traveled to Palpa to provide business

model canvas and book-keeping training to the Top 40 women entrepreneurs, and felicitate

the Top 20 women entrepreneurs in a ceremony at the District Development Committee

office. The Top 40 entrepreneurs represent 22 VDCs of Palpa, and run a wide range of

enterprises, including farming of vegetables, animal husbandry and service-based

enterprises such as beauty parlors. The cohort also includes teachers, students, a social

mobilizer, a former member of parliament, a migrant returnee, and a member of the Bote

community.

The business model canvas training helped entrepreneurs formulate their respective

enterprise’s value proposition around which they drew a visual chart of their businesses that

they can use to manage and scale up their enterprises. The training was led by Mr. Tara

Prasad Panthi, Program Manager of REAP, with coaching help from Ms. Meenu Maharjan,

Ms. Sabrina Singh and Mr. Yagyamurti Timilsina, District Officer of Innovation Action Palpa

(IAP), our local partner organization in Palpa. The book keeping training helped the

entrepreneurs gain basic accounting skills, including ways on tracking profits and losses. The

training was designed and led by Mr. Suraj Panthi, Finance Officer of IRDS, our local partners

in Gulmi.

On 22nd August, the Top 20 entrepreneurs, selected through a community SMS voting

process were felicitated in a ceremony attended by the Chief District Officer Mr. Baburam

Gautam as Chief Guest, and Mr. Chudamani Bashyal from the District Development

Committee as Special Guest. Other guests also included former District Enterprise

Challenge winners Mr. Durga Bahadur Khand and Mr. Om Saru, community leaders, other

entrepreneurs and the media.

The Top 20 entrepreneurs felicitated are as follows:

Bandana Gaire

Hema Rai Pawisara Rajali Sita Devi Puri

Binu Gautam Laxmi Gyawali Prema Neupane Sitam Bhandari

Bishnu Karki Leela Kumari Bagale Rama Devi Gaire Sunita Rana

Goma Bhandari Man Kumari Gaire Shanta Gautam Nepal Tika Devi Koirala

Harikala Thapa Meera Singh Thakuri Sita Devi Pandey Devi Malla

June 18 On June 18, Daayitwa in collaboration with ‘Innovation Action Palpa’ announced the top 40

entrepreneurs of Daayitwa Women Enterprise Challenge (DWEC) 2016, Palpa. The team

launched an SMS voting campaign where the top 40 entrepreneurs did a month long voting

campaign for the selection of top 20 entrepreneurs.