Project Title: MaUKa - Mahila Udhyamshilta Karyakram (Women’s Entrepreneurship Program)

Location: Asia → Nepal

Grant Amount: $50,000

Grantee Website: dzi.org

Mission of dZi Foundation
dZi Foundation partners with communities in Nepal to achieve shared prosperity by ensuring access to basic needs, catalyzing inclusive economic growth, and creating an environment for lasting change.

Summary
This grant supports dZi’s MaUKa Initiative — short for Mahila Udhyamshilta Karyakram (Women’s Entrepreneurship Initiative) and meaning “opportunity” in Nepali. This initiative addresses persistent gender-based economic disparities in Nepal, where women farmers play vital agricultural roles yet face limited access to financial skills, business knowledge, and markets.

The MaUKa Initiative empowers marginalized women with comprehensive finance and entrepreneurship training to support sustainable agri-enterprises, increase income, and strengthen community resilience.


Why We Love This
We love that MaUKa is locally co-designed with local-language instruction, and it is scheduled around agricultural seasons and domestic responsibilities, which results in high participation rates. It doesn’t stop at training: the program couples financial literacy and business planning with hands-on enterprise support and market linkages, positioning women to generate sustained income. The approach strengthens household well-being and community resilience, creating multi-generational impact. Backed by evidence and dZi’s strong track record, this is a pragmatic, scalable path out of poverty and to closing gendered economic gaps in rural Nepal.