USAID’s Business Literacy Program in Nepal

Donor: USAID

Project Period: March 2014 to February 2017

The three-year, $ 4.09 million USAID’s Business Literacy Program in Nepal is part of the U.S. Government’s Feed the Future (FTF) Initiative. The project aimed to achieve initiative’s goal of ‘increased resilience of vulnerable communities and household’ by enabling access to agricultural and nutrition interventions and business opportunity for women, youth, disadvantaged castes, and ethnic minorities.

The project was implemented in USAID’s 20 focus districts in the west, mid-west, and far-west regions and build skills related to Literacy and numeracy, Nutrition education, Life skills, Entrepreneurial skill and Access to finance.

 

Project Area

In the first phase, the project will operate in 10 districts in the mid-west: Banke, Bardia, Dailekh, Dang, Jajarkot, Pyuthan, Rolpa, Rukum, Salyan and Surkhet.

In the second phase, it will target six districts in the far-west –Achham, Baitadi, Dadeldhura, Doti, Kailali and Kanchanpur – and four districts in the western region –Arghakhachi, Gulmi, Kapilvastu, and Palpa.

Project Activities

  1. Develop business literacy training materials (Literacy and Numeracy, Nutrition Education, Life Skills, Entrepreneurial Skills, and Access to finance)
  2. Develop Trainers (150 Master trainers and 2000 community trainers)
  3. Deliver business literacy training (organize 48 weeks long training for 48000 beneficiaries)

Achievements

USAID’s Business literacy classes ran smoothly in all 20 districts. In the 1st phase of the program 32641 beneficiaries participated in 1267 classes. Out of them 845 were dropped for various reasons and 31796 beneficiaries completed all 5 modules and also appeared 12 tests including the Overall Post Test. 31197 beneficiaries successfully completed the Overall Post Test in the 1st phase.

Similarly, in the 2nd phase of the program 21417 beneficiaries participated in 792 classes from 10 districts as listed above. By the end of February 2017, M1, M2 and M3 was completed and Module 4 was concluded in following year with 792 classes.