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.
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.
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.
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.
+++ News from the project +++
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.
