Partnership Catalyst

Program Context

Nepal’s unique topography creates structural barriers to economic development: steep terrain, limited road infrastructure, and geographic isolation make it expensive and difficult to deliver services to communities outside Kathmandu. Digital technology offers an opportunity to leapfrog physical infrastructure—but only if solutions are designed for Nepali realities, not imported from high-income contexts.

The Partnership Catalyst in Nepal was developed as a key component of DIGI Nepal, an SDC-led initiative aimed at fostering digital innovation to improve access to affordable basic services for discriminated groups and communities outside the capital. The hypothesis: combining Swiss technical expertise with Nepali contextual knowledge and market access could produce digital solutions with real reach.

PHASE 1: LANDSCAPE STUDY
Building on an SDC-commissioned landscape study of Nepal’s digital innovation ecosystem, the SDC identified three sectors with high impact potential and strong conditions for cross-border partnership:

• Fintech: Nepal has a large unbanked and underbanked population, particularly in rural areas. Mobile and digital financial services are growing rapidly but face challenges of trust, connectivity, and regulatory complexity.
• Healthcare: Geographic isolation means many communities have limited access to medical services. Digital platforms for remote consultation, patient management, and health information have significant potential but require local language, trust, and last-mile distribution capabilities.
• Food-Related Logistics: Agricultural supply chains are fragmented, with high post-harvest losses and limited market information for smallholder farmers. Data-driven supply chain optimization could reduce waste and increase farmer incomes.

PHASE 2: SELECTION AND MATCHMAKING
A structured selection process created conversations with over 50 Swiss and Nepali companies. Evaluation criteria included: technical capabilities, impact orientation, openness to collaboration, and complementarity with potential partners. Three partnerships were formed:

PHASE 3: THE CO-CREATION WORKSHOP

• Dates: February 3–6, 2025
• Location: Kathmandu, Nepal
• Facilitation: Dino Darmonski and Dr. Justus von Grone, CLIS-HSG

The four-day workshop brought all three partnerships together in Kathmandu. The in-country setting was deliberate: it put Nepali partners on home territory, enabled site visits to real user contexts, and ensured that solutions were designed with Nepali realities—not European assumptions—as the starting point.

What made it work?

• Complementary expertise: Nepali partners brought local knowledge, language, community trust, and regulatory understanding; Swiss partners contributed technical depth, scalability experience, and access to European funding
• Structured process: The four-day arc provided a common methodology, reducing the ambiguity that often derails early-stage partnerships
• Shared purpose: All participants were united by a genuine commitment to improving digital access for underserved communities
• n-person, in-country: Physical presence in Kathmandu built relational trust that is difficult to replicate through video