ELAM – Small businesses in Nepal

project partner: Helvetas

Small businesses create jobs at home

Every year, around 400,000 young people in Nepal enter the labor market. Unfortunately, there are too few job opportunities. As a result, a quarter of them leave the country to find work abroad. There, however, they are often exploited as cheap labor on construction sites and in factories. However, the money they send home accounts for more than 30 percent of Nepal's gross national product.

Helvetas' ELAM project (2017-2020) aimed to invest the money family members send home from migration wisely. It did so by focusing on technical innovation and the promotion of small businesses. This in turn enables the new entrepreneurs to create new jobs in their own country.

ELAM - Small business woman creates paper

Produce new products

The new small entrepreneurs process banana tree trunks into paper or yarn, or distill essential oils from peppermint, eucalyptus or lemongrass, for example.

ELAM -Small business owners learn basics

Learn the basics for business

Interested people learn not only how to make new products. They also learn the basics of entrepreneurship: how to create a business plan, keep accounts, etc.

ELAM - Small businesses bring more jobs in the home country

More jobs in the home country

The newly created small businesses create jobs in their own country. This in turn improves the situation on the labor market in the long term.

ELAM successfully supported the establishment of small businesses in Nepal in 2017-2020. The beneficiaries were not only able to significantly increase their own income and free themselves from poverty. They also created additional jobs and thus permanently improved the situation on the domestic labor market.

ELAM – Small businesses in Nepal

Happel Foundation, Schweiz - Logo

Happel Foundation | Helvetas

⇒The Happel Foundation supported Helvetas' ELAM project in Nepal. The project successfully promoted the establishment of small businesses and led to significant increases in income for the beneficiaries and the creation of new jobs. ⇐

HEVETAS - Logo

The Happel Foundation

Areas of Activity

The Happel Foundation supports projects according to the principle of “help for self-help”.

Sponsorship application

Sponsorship applications can only be submitted online on our application platform.

About the foundation

The Happel Foundation Switzerland is a charitable Swiss foundation based in Lucerne.