Research Team
PI:
Dr. Smrittee Kala Panta
Associate Academic Director/Full Time Faculty
Little Angels’ College of Management (LACM)
Email: Smrittee.panta@la.edu.np
Co-Pi:
Tara Prasad Panthi
Program Manager
Heifer International Nepal
Email: tara.panthi@heifer.org
Co-Pi:
Dr. Binod Krishna Shrestha
Professor of Marketing
Kathmandu University School of Management
Email: binod@kusom.edu.np
Embedded Research Translation Lead:
Tara Prasad Panthi
Program Manager
Heifer International Nepal
Email: tara.panthi@heifer.org
Supporting Partner(s):
Dr. Ghana Shyam Gurung
Country Representative
WWF Nepal program
Project Information
Project/Activity Name: Use of Digital Technology as an Enabling Strategy for Empowering Women Micro entrepreneurs from Marginalized Communities in the Context of COVID-19 in Nepal
Geographic Location(s) (Country/Region): Nepal
Project Length: December 2021 – February 2023
Lead Institution: Little Angels’ College of Management
Co-PI Institutions: Heifer International Nepal, Kathmandu University
Translation Partner (s): WWF Nepal, Heifer International Nepal
Research Objective:
- To identify barriers and enablers to the adoption of digital technology among women micro-entrepreneurs of marginalized communities
- To identify and test enabling practices for the adoption of digital technology among women micro-entrepreneurs of marginalized communities
- To understand the relationship between the use of DT and empowerment of women micro-entrepreneurs of marginalized communities
Project Description:
The USAID-funded Hariyo Ban Program-II has been implemented in Nepal from 2016-2021. This five-year program has adopted a market-based livelihood as a theme integrated within biodiversity conservation and climate change adaptation. Over the past 4 years, various activities have been implemented to promote entrepreneurship among poor, women, marginalized, and vulnerable communities in TAL and CHAL areas of Nepal. The COVID-19 pandemic has created new challenges for the micro entrepreneurs who are recently connected to the market. Digital technologies (DT) have offered some opportunities to address the disruption in the supply and demand chain caused by the pandemic. Particularly, in this project DT will be GeoKrishi app (online agriculture and livestock data-driven platform) and e-chautri (community-based hubs that are equipped with internet facilities and interactive digital interface such as Smart TV or laptop) and are operated by trained agriculture and veterinary technicians). However, women are further marginalized in digital connectivity that could provide them information on improved agriculture practices, access to market, and access to financial services to expand their enterprise. A significant gap exists in understanding how the adoption of digital technologies can be promoted for empowering micro entrepreneurs from marginalized communities especially women engaged in agriculture and green enterprises.
This project aims to explore the barriers and enablers to the adoption of digital technology by the women entrepreneurs/farmers in Hariyo Ban program-II areas of Nepal. Using participatory action research, this study aims to better understand the barriers and enablers to the adoption of digital technology by women entrepreneurs/farmers and the relationship between the adoption of DT and empowerment of women micro entrepreneurs. Adopting pragmatism, this study will use a mixed-method to collect primary and secondary data required to answer the research questions. The project will be implemented in two districts in Nepal – Bardia and Chitwan. The study will identify and test at least two strategies to create an enabling environment for using DT by women micro entrepreneurs in the Bridging the Gender Digital Gap (WGDP) project sites in Nepal.
| Embedded Research Translation Product | Type (research output/translated product) | Number |
Embedded Research Translation Audience:
|
| Data collection app | Research Output | 1 | This will be used for collection of survey data during baseline and end line surveys. It could be used by translation partners and other organizations for monitoring and evaluations in digital technology promotion programs. |
| Gender digital divide assessment manual | Translated product | 1 | This will be used to serve as an educational material and practical tool primarily for assessing and improving the online and offline digital platforms and services used in WGDP project and for other development practitioners at large. |
| GESI sensitive training module on DT and entrepreneurship development | Translated product | 1 | This will be used to build the capacity of women and men entrepreneurs of the selected cooperatives. This could be used in other project sites of WGDP and WWF Nepal for similar purposes . |
| Policy brief | Translated product | 1 | This will be used for lobbying the local, provincial, and federal governments. |
| Video | Translated product | 2 | One of the videos will be used as an education material for the project participants and the other will be used to inform the stakeholder, participants, and development agencies on the findings of the research project. |
| Conference paper | Research output | 1 | This will serve as a centralized and highlighted knowledge dissemination event for the stakeholders and development practitioners. |
| Practitioner case | Research output/Translation product | 2 | These products will serve as education material for the participants from other locations of the WGDP project, stakeholders, and general public. |
| Report | Research output | 1 | These will be primarily used for the second iteration of functionality of the online and offline digital platform to make it smallholder women-farmer friendly and financially sustainable and scalable by Pathway Technology and Heifer. This will serve as a centralized and highlighted knowledge dissemination event for the stakeholders and development practitioners. |
| Newspaper article | Translated product | 1 | These products will serve as education material for the participants from other locations of the WGDP project, stakeholders, and the general public. |
| Dissemination workshop at research site level | Translated product | 2 | This will serve as a main platform for sharing project’s findings at research site level. |
| Dissemination workshop at national level | Translated product | 1 | This will serve as a main platform for sharing project’s findings at research site level. |
Outputs:
A better understanding of men’s and women’s perspectives, their access to and control over digital technology resources, the existing social norms at the household and community level that are generated via this research will be communicated in the form of presentations, policy briefs, and project reports to the relevant policy makers, local government, development organizations, and cooperatives to influence their ongoing and future DT for entrepreneurship development programs targeting women. Meetings will be organized at the national level as well as at the cooperative level at the end of the project to share the results and learning. The translation products, especially the GESI sensitive Training module on DT & entrepreneurship, can be used not only by HIN and WWF, but also by other organizations involved in bridging the gender digital divide and empowerment of women entrepreneurs. The project aims to bring a wider level of awareness of the gender-specific barriers and facilitators of the DT adoption among women entrepreneurs among the public through conference presentations, audio-visual materials, and other publications. Social media (Facebook) will be used to share the cases and this will stimulate collaboration across various stakeholders (women cooperatives, private sector, government, translation partners, and academic institutions) at different levels to bring about gender equality through the promotion of digital technology adoption (for easy access to information and communication along the value chain) that is critical for the economic empowerment of women micro- entrepreneurs, especially in the context of COVID-19.
