Overview of the Workshop
On 12th and 13th November, 2021 Bikalpa an Alternative with support from CIPE International and Network for Free Society organized a two-day workshop on “Freedom & Entrepreneurship” to celebrate Global Entrepreneurship Week 2021.
The program’s objective was to further educate and engage Bikalpa fellowship members on Entrepreneurship development and about the mission and values that Bikalpa has been working for. The two-day workshop also involved a variety of interactive learning methods including dialogues, Group works, Debate and Movie Screening designed to provide participants with opportunities to explore and share ideas about Business and Entrepreneurship.
We had 20 enthusiastic participants from diverse backgrounds come together, spend two days together and deliberated over intense lectures, working groups and activities. Some of the participants were our Bikalpa Fellowship Members. The sessions included a Recap of the one-day workshop, Introduction to Bikalpa and Economic Freedom campaign, Doing Business Challenge in Nepal, Movie Discussion, Property Rights, Rule of Law and Entrepreneurship, What Motivates people? (Incentive Matters), 7 principal of sound public policy, Who should be Aaccountable (Debate Session) and Colloquium on Strategies on Achieving Poverty. Mr. Abhinayak Malla, Director of Malla Enterprises and Advocate Mr. Rupesh Koirala, were invited as resource persons for the Workshop.
Summary of the Program
Shristika Neupane
The program started with welcome note and program objective sharing by the Bikalpa Member Ms. Shristika Neupane. She also helped in introducing all the Participants with each other through game Activity. After that the floor was handed over to Mr. Basanta Adhikari.
Basanta Adhikari
Mr Basanta Adhikari took sessions on “Introduction to Bikalpa and Economic Freedom” and during his presentation, he introduced about Bikalpa’s mission, vision, thematic areas and about the Economic Freedom Campaign. He also introduced participants to how the idea of Bikalpa developed and its ongoing activities in Province 1, Biratnagar. He also shared about the need to raise voice and sensitize the public about the economic and public policy issues. He also talked about the Importance and basis of Economic Freedom and Markets where he stated that without Economic Freedom there was no opportunity for prosperity in any country. While sharing about the Economic freedom campaign, he stated four key themes of the Campaign, namely;
Freedom to enterprise
Rule of Law and Security of Life and Property
Freedom of Choice and Competition
Accountable and Limited Government.
Abhiyanak Malla
The next session was a group work session where participants were divided into four groups, and each group was assigned a presentation on the hassles of doing business in Nepal. The participants were given 30 minutes of preparation time, and after that, each group presented their assignment in a 5-minute pitch. After completion of the presentations, Mr. Abhinayak Malla conferred his feedback regarding the group work and set forth his insights into the challenges of doing business in Nepal. He shared several case studies and hurdles he had previously faced in his entrepreneurial endeavor. During his presentation, he highlighted the critical barriers of doing business like; personal challenges, business registration, construction permit, struggle for the permit, tax enforcement, etc.
Punam Giri
The Movie-discussion session was facilitated by Mr. Punam Giri, in which, three short films namely “i-TSHIRT, “The story of a Tshirt” (related to Economic Freedom and the invisible hand), “Competition (प्रतिस्पर्धा)“, “Let me earn my living (Sadak Chheu ko Byatha)”, were screened to help participants relate to policy issues. The first one portrays a lifecycle of a T- shirt which highlights the challenges of doing business, what value do entrepreneurs create in common people life and to society. while the second movie put explores the doing business-related issues. The movie revolves around an innovator determined to convert his innovation into a commercial venture but faces societal and system hurdles. The third movie highlighted about the bureaucratic hassles and the challenging scenario of conducting economic activities in Nepal. After each movie screening, Mr.Giri, took some feedback from the participants and clarified the issues related to those movies.
Rupesh Koirala
The First day ended on the topic of Property Rights, Rule of Law and Entrepreneurship. The session was facilitated by Mr. Rupesh Koirala. In his session, he provided a perspective of why rule of law and private property was important in our lives to all the participants. He highlighted the interconnection between Individual Liberty and Property. He said that the private property system gives individuals the exclusive right to use their resources. He shared that without Property Rights there will not be incentive for individual to acquire property. He also talked about the history and origin of the Nepali Law. Through various examples from Soviet Russia to today’s global scenario he showed us how mechanisms of law work in different countries.
The Second day of the workshop started off with a recap of the previous sessions. After that a session on “What Motivates People” was moderated by Mr. Basanta Adhikari. He started the session by organizing a group activity on “How incentives drive human choices”. In his presentation he talked about people having different incentives and Individual were moved by their own pursuit of self-interest. He also further talked about self-interest and Greed where he said Greed is the excessive desire to gain something by causing harm to others, while self-interest is gaining something by producing good outcomes without harming others.
Sarwagya Raj Pandey
The other session on 7 principles of sound public policy was facilitated by Mr. Sarwagya Raj Pandey where he talked about the seven key principles of sound public policy. He provided examples on the issue of corruption, bad public service delivery and elections to talk where proper policy plan would take place.
Suman Rai
Following that the third session on debate “Who should be responsible for delivering the public goods?” was moderated by Mr. Suman Rai. In the session, participants were divided into three groups. The area selected for the debate were education, health, fuel/gas, and electricity. The three teams, Government, Community, and Private, vowed on how their respective sector can handle public delivery more efficiently than the opponent sectors. Mr Sarwagya Raj Pandey also played Advocate role in the debate session on summarizing their points and gave respective feedback to all the team.
Riwaj Dahal
The last group discussion session on the article “Strategies for achieving poverty” by Leon Louw was moderated by Riwaj Dahal. In the discussion, the participants shared their views on government intervention in the economy, its effects, and solutions. The discussion based on the article went through the examples of policies in Argentina, China, East Germany which degraded the economy of the states. During the discussion Mr. Basanta Adhikari also provided some insights regarding the topic. Summarising the session at the end, participants shared the ideas they gained on free markets and their essence, effects of policies like minimum wage, price controls. The discussion lasted for 90 minutes.
The Program was ended by taking the Feedback from Participant’s and with the distribution of certificates.
