February 15: Daayitwa, a not for profit non-governmental organization that envisions an enterprising Nepal, successfully organized a governance dialogue on strengthening the municipal enterprise ecosystem in Nepal on Tuesday, February 14.

The program had an attendance of over 60 stakeholders from private, public, and social sectors.

The dialogue aimed to discuss the current state of the entrepreneurial ecosystem, inspire collective actions, and deliberate on the way forward based on the ‘Scoping Study for Municipal Engagement on Local Economic Development’ under the Sub National Governance Program (SNGP).

SNGP is an Australian Aid initiative implemented by the Asia Foundation on behalf of the Australian Government. The study was conducted in the seven SNGP partner municipalities (Damak, Mithila, Bhimeshwor, Waling, Tansen, Birendranagar and Tikapur) across seven provinces.

Senior entrepreneurship expert of Daayitwa presented the preliminary findings of the ‘Scoping Study’ highlighting the possibilities and bottlenecks of local entrepreneurship development in all seven partner municipalities.

The discussion panel discussed about the challenges faced by local entrepreneurs, government and private sector, and stressed on the need to develop a strong enterprise ecosystem to bolster the economic development at local level. The discussion mainly highlighted the issues and concerns related to the existing policy gaps; the need for connecting the market, academia, and the government; importance of public, private and civil society collaboration; necessity of implementing output-driven policies and programs instead of input and process-driven ones and tactful marketing and promotion of Nepali products and services.

During the program, Bishnu Adhikari, the governance director of the foundation in Nepal pointed out that the current challenges seen in the local economic development of Nepal can be tactfully resolved with close coordination and cooperation of public, private and civil society sectors.