Livelihood Fellowship Student: Ganesh Dhungana

        WDAC and TISS together lunched a program a while back, called “Post Graduate Diploma in Disaster and Livelihood Recovery program” in consideration with the massive earthquake that hit us last year and the after-effects that it left. Among many students who applied for the course, Ganesh Dhungana was one of the selected students.

Dhungana studied Rural Development as a postgraduate student at Tribhuvan University in Nepal, having graduated in Literature and Political Science from the University of Bangalore.

With more than a decade long training and experience in social work and leadership, he Has worked for many organizations till date. He has served as international secretary for World Organization of Students and Youths. He also worked as a council member of the US Embassy’s Youth Council. Presently, he is the Director of Action Nepal, a non-governmental organization that has been taking care of various developmental and awareness programs in Dhading. During a short Q&A session, he answered these questions and gave his personal thoughts.

How you got into your chosen field?

I prefer to say my passion and the destiny.     

Why do you want to pursue this course?

    This course for me is a platform for me to lead the pace of development projects that are linked with Disaster and livelihood recovery. Having experienced such a tremor, I felt the need of critical understanding of risk reduction and preparedness before such tragedy hits us again. So, I wanted to engage myself in activities here at TISS, so that I can foster my knowledge and be not just someone who wants to serve but someone who is capable to serve.

What are the different occupations practiced by different groups in your community?

The major groups of people residing in my community are Brahmin, Chhetris, dalit, janajatis, marginalized ethnic groups.

   There is no clear distinction in their work occupations. However, in generally, Brahmin and chhetris can be found engaged in government and private level jobs, tourism, agriculture and other business activities. Dalits are usually found working in iron-smith and other agricultural occupations.

How has the earthquake affected the livelihood of different individual groups’ in your community?

718 people has been reported killed in Dhading, and 702 people injured. Government estimates suggest that aprox 20,000 buildings have been completely destroyed and aprox 15,000 buildings damaged in the district.

   Recovery and rebuilding campaigns seem definitely peeking up the pace. However, lack of organization and management of the programs, I believe, has not addressed the disturbed behavior and economic practices of Dhading. Their income sources and standard of living plummeted rapidly depriving them of basic needs. More, specifically, from the fuel crisis not long ago, marginalized community, in particular has faced shortage of essential food items, scarcity of drinking water.

According to you, which livelihood sector (agriculture, livestock, service, tourism etc) needs urgent attention for disaster recovery and why?

     Agriculture and livestock is certainly the key areas which needs urgent attention. Especially in rural areas, where agriculture and farming has created a foundation and supports their survival. Many farm lands and agricultural land has certainly been reported destroyed. In such case, it is just like hitting them in the gut when they are still hungry.

+Bnay Shrestha - Business Student, Music Enthusiast

This Blog post is as part of collaboration as View Your Choice,an outreach partner of WDAC

Entrepreneurship as an Economic Development Strategy

Entrepreneurship as an Economic Development Strategy

As a Daayitwa Fellow, I am interested in learning how a government takes on the role of an investor to support innovation and how risk-taking attitude and entrepreneurial culture can be encouraged either at a behavioral level or at an institutional level. With these questions I set out to learn more on what strategies governments have used to develop entrepreneurship within a given state, region or nation.

One case that catches everyone attention is the American case. Yes, the Silicon Valley; the synecdoche for the American high-technology economic sector. Talking about Silicon Valley, it is particularly interesting to think about what led to this success? If we look at the history of entrepreneurship policy in the U.S. then we begin to understand how this success came and, to some level, the role a government plays in supporting innovation. And I say, “begin” because this is not the entire picture but looking at it from one perspective i.e. policy.

Economic development in the U.S came as a result of the government-sponsored efforts (Pages et al, 2003). In 1930s and 1940s, public officials tried to jump-start economic development through aggressive recruiting for manufacturing industries. For example, state economic development agencies tried to sell low labor cost in more expensive part of the country and offered subsidies and incentives to persuade firms to relocate. But as international trades developed, foreign competition increased. Cheap labor from Asia and Europe made it difficult to maintain labor cost at home, which ultimately changed the U.S. manufacturing industry landscape.

The government agencies, in response, focused on supporting homegrown small businesses and creating jobs. The programs and services that came into existence to reduce barriers for doing business throughout 1950s – 1980s are the evidence of the government’s shifting priorities. Examples of such services include, access to capital, business incubation space, business training subsidies, and state funded venture capital firms. One of the most notable federal programs is Small Business Investment Companies (SBIC), administered by the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) established after the enactment of the Small Business Act of 1953, which has been financing small business entities since 1959.

In 1978, the U.S. Small Business Administration, through SBIC program, invested in Apple, when it was a mere company of 63 employees and earned less than $50,000 in profit. Today, Apple employs 100,000 people and reported more than $53 billions in profit in 2015 (Techrunch, July 4, 2016).

So, the U.S. government can be credited for making Apple products available to the world but for those of us who aren’t quite the Apple aficionados but sure can’t live without an iPhone, iPad, Mac Pro or Mac Air, we can blame for inducing human race, unintentionally, to a state of high attachment and unrealistic love for inanimate objects!

The number of such programs and services grew during the decade. But the coordination among these entities and service delivery became difficult. Ultimately, this strategy also failed to address the gap created by declining manufacturing industries. Therefore, the delivery mechanism and content of the entrepreneurship policy became the next focus among public agencies and policy makers. Now, the American entrepreneurship thinking have shifted from businesses to individuals i.e. starting new business and growing businesses that can exploit new opportunities as opposed to just creating jobs (Pages et al, 2003).

Besides the American case, I learned about another interesting government initiative that led to the creation of capital markets for startups. The case in point is Yozma program, a $100M Government owned Venture Capital (VC) that invested $8M per fund, in 10 early stage private companies during in the 1990s. The big claim is Yozma triggered the creation of VC industry in Israel by dealing with specific system failures of the entrepreneurship process - the early stage equity gap and lack of complementary assets and skill in entrepreneurial firms (Avnimelech, 2009).

Other studies also support this claim by asserting that Israel’s high tech cluster development was strongly related to the development of a local VC industry. The story of this success is concentrated in the early 1990s, when the government was trying to find a way to employ thousands of engineers that emigrated from the Soviet Union. Hence, few targeted programs emerged during this decade such as Inbal, a government owned insurance company that gave partial guarantee to traded VC funds; Magnet program, a support for cooperative, R&D firms and universities; and Technology Incubator program, which supported startups for three years. Some of these programs failed but they did provide important learning lessons to move forward.  

As I am looking at other country’s success cases, I wonder what will be Nepal’s story. As the prospect of Challenge Fund remains. I believe this mechanism will prove useful in a way that brings positive spillover effect that goes beyond the firm level and touches entrepreneurs at the individual level. If you’re wondering what is this challenge fund then simply put it is a financing mechanism to allocate money for specific purpose. By using competitive bidding process (SIDA Challenge Fund Guidelines), government can provide risk capital and pose a challenge to generate pro-poor innovations that are commercially viable for making social impact. Next, I will share more on challenge fund modality, strengths, weaknesses and other important considerations for implementers and administrators.

Livelihood Fellowship: Subash Thapa

      Subash thapa  is one of the livelihood fellowship students who was selected Post Graduate diploma in disaster and Livelihood recovery program initiated by Tata institute of social science, TISS in association with Women Development Advocacy Center.

       Subash Thapa, is an undergrad student of Business administration from Lincoln College. He has worked as coordinator in Welcome to my yard foundation. Welcome to my yard is an organization that has been involved in inspiring and enabling, helping young street children get back on their feet. They have been encouraging and helping them in educational needs. And having worked in such an organization, he has developed a keen interest in working in social work background. He is specially interested in social entrepreneurship which would help country and community develop through business.

        
         One may not realize how important students in this background are. And not just for our country but worldwide. As pointed out by Liz Heimann, constant change in domestic and international environment has led to lots of natural disaster just last year among which includes massive earthquake in Nepal. And there are people providing charity and basic needs to the victims, there are not a lot of people who would actually go to the field to help. Passionate youths like Subash is a good example of people who are serious about helping others.  In a short write up interview, he shared with us how he is doing there, and he plans to do when he comes back.     

How did you come to pursue this course?

Though I come from a business background, I always had a interest in contributing to the society. I disliked how our country was running with disparity and discrimination. Street community peoples have been suffering a lot, especially since post-earthquake. So, Welcome to my yard has always been a way for me to work with street community peoples for their social, educational upbringing. 
         And being from Gorkha, one of the major places of earthquake, I saw the desolation that remained after the disaster. So, i could not help but notice the need for capable social workers in Gorkha. I want to uplift the social and economic status of Gorkha and my country. And when i heard about this course, I immediately felt the that I had to join it. 

How important is social work, especially with the recent earthquake and crisis. How important is it to you?

Well, Social workers are needed worldwide. we may not realize but social work is in great demand and not just because we had an earthquake. But because of other reasons like migration, climate change, natural disasters and much more. And being a social worker means not just working in these areas. It is a very flexible job. You could switch environment from government agency or offer counseling as private practitioner. Social worker play important role in hospitals, clinics and schools. And as a social worker you will face lots of challenges. And while it may be stressful, it also provides opportunity to make a difference and prompt changes. So, it’s a very important job and is needed in lots of sectors.
      To me it is specially very important. I come from business background and I envision myself being in a social business that brings change in society through business. Social business i think is an effective way for social and economic uplifting. I really would like to have a correct sense of social work before getting to business. So, personally social work is of great importance to me.  

How has the earthquake affected the livelihood of different individuals/groups in your community?

Gorkha was at the epicenter for the 2015 earthquake. This took a large toll on lives as well properties and industry. After the earthquake the livelihood of the people has been stripped away. When last I was visiting water access was a huge issue, with many people struggling to access safe and clean water. Most of resources have been stopped and people que up for several hours for a single jar of water. Because of the location of the epicenter of the earthquake, damage to houses has caused huge displacement of people as these houses are unsafe to live in and have not been repaired or rebuilt. Many people still live in tents and are essentially homeless. Farmers are not getting a proper place to collect their harvested crops. The cattle are still spending their nights under temporary roof. Many of the natural water resources have been dried up. The roads have been damaged which has made their life more difficult as the import-export of goods from those places have been slowed down. Many people are showing signs of trauma and experiencing mental health problems.

How severe was the impact?

NEPAL Earthquake 2015 affected the livelihoods of over 2.28 million households and 8 million people in 31 districts, with total damage and loss to livelihoods of NPR 28.4 billion (USD 284 million)The earthquake has pushed an additional 700,000 people below the poverty line Over 5 million workers have been affected, with about 150 million work days lost, 69% of which are in the agriculture sector About 135,200 tons of foodstuff, 16,399 large livestock, 36,819 small livestock, and 460,762 poultry animals have been lost More than 3.5 million people are food insecure, and some 180,000 people engaged in tourism are extremely vulnerable

The agriculture sector suffered total damage and loss of NPR 25.5 billion (USD 255 million), with maximum losses (86%) in Nepal’s mountains and hills The average value of per capita disaster effect is highest in the mountains (NPR 219,503/USD 2,195) and the lowest in Inner Terai (NPR 50,813/USD 508), with an average of NPR 130,115 (USD 1,301) in the 14 most affected districts The per capita disaster effect is positively correlated with poverty (0.46), indicating that less developed and poor communities, many of which are in mountain areas, endured a larger portion of disaster impacts Poor women and disadvantaged groups suffered more in terms of death, person years of life lost, injury, displacement, and impacts on other livelihood assets (Reference: www.icimod.org/resource/18890)

+Bnay Shrestha - Business Student, Music Enthusiast

This Blog post is as part of collaboration as View Your Choice,an outreach partner of WDAC