The Youth Acceleration Program aims to strengthen youth-led enterprises in Nepal by supporting young entrepreneurs to grow their businesses, create jobs, and expand access to markets. The program will focus on early-stage businesses led by young people who have viable business ideas or small existing enterprises but lack the technical support, networks, and resources necessary to scale. By providing structured business acceleration support, mentorship, and market linkages, the program will help youth-led enterprises transition from small, informal activities into sustainable businesses that contribute to local economic development.
a. Enterprise Development and Business Growth
b. Seed Grant and Job Creation
c. Market Access and Value
d. Innovation and Sustainability
The Youth Acceleration Program will focus on young entrepreneurs with more than 50 % women participation and emerging youth-led enterprises in Madhesh Province, Bagmati Province, and Lumbini Province. These provinces have large youth populations but limited access to enterprise development support, financial resources, and market networks, leaving many young people underemployed or engaged in small informal businesses. While these regions possess strong economic potential, including agricultural production, local manufacturing, and service sectors, youth-led enterprises often struggle to scale due to gaps in mentorship, technical capacity, product development, and market linkages.
By targeting these communities, the program aims to unlock local economic opportunities by supporting enterprise growth, value-added product development, and expanded market access. Strengthening youth-led businesses will not only increase sustainable income for young entrepreneurs but also generate employment opportunities for others in their communities. This approach addresses youth underemployment, reduces outward migration for work, and contributes to more resilient, inclusive, and locally driven economic development in these provinces.
The Youth Acceleration Program promotes economic growth by strengthening youth-led enterprises, generating local employment, and enhancing women’s financial independence. It also supports environmental sustainability through value-added products, and eco-friendly enterprises, while fostering social resilience and building inclusive, skills-driven, and thriving rural communities.
The impacts of the projects are:
Reduced youth underemployment and outward migration
Stronger, youth-driven local economies
Promotion of inclusive and sustainable economic development
Improved resilience and livelihood opportunities in Madhesh, Bagmati, and Lumbini provinces
