Tayar Nepal, USAID’s disaster risk management project, said on Monday that it is organising an initiative to engage the private sector in the search for innovative and sustainable solutions to contribute to disaster management in Nepal.

The potential startups or existing businesses from all across Nepal can apply for the challenge where 10 innovative businesses or ideas will be selected for an intensive five-day bootcamp, the organiser said.

The top three ideas or enterprises will be selected for a further four months of intensive programme that will bring the business ideas to market.

The three selected ideas will be provided with seed money of Rs200,000 to Rs300,000, said Milan Kumar Joshi, consulting manager of Practical Action Consulting South Asia speaking at the press conference organised in Kathmandu on Monday.

“As the seed money is not sufficient, the programme is looking for sponsorship from different potential private sector partners of Rs2 million to Rs3 million for additional financial support. Till now we have secured Rs800,000 under sponsorship,” Joshi said.

For additional financial sources, the team is in talks with banks to provide funding or loan investment, he added.

“Tayar Nepal is focusing on floods, landslides, hailstorms, heat and cold waves, and road accidents, but we will look for any ideas that have potential in disaster risk management in four phases: mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery,” Joshi said.

Startups with zero to two years of operations and existing businesses with two to five years of operations can participate in the programme. The existing businesses over five years can also apply but those applicants will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis.

The final pitching event will be held on April 22.

Tammie Harris, chief of party at Tayar Nepal, said the programme works at both federal and local levels. “At the national level, Tayar Nepal is supporting the government to build capacity for disaster risk reduction at national institutions,” Harris said.

According to Harris, there are three different approaches to engage the private sector. First is doing business continuity management support for private sector partners to ensure that they are able to sustain their businesses during the last two years in Nepal.

The second area is innovation. “We want to promote innovative solutions to build community resilience and that is a big part of the activities that we are launching today,” she said.

And the third area is to foster partnership between public and private and also between private enterprises to help build capacity to create an enabling environment for private sector engagement in disaster risk reduction management, Harris said.

The application has already been opened from February 21 which will last for a month.