The YI-Lab is a collaborative platform to catalyze and mobilize the creative energy of young people to co-create solutions for inclusive development. YI-Lab works to promote local innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystems through the spirit of volunteerism, nurturing young talent into ambitious achievers and providing individuals with the tools and understanding to lead the aspirations of the community. The YI- Lab employs an asset and strength based approach, working to enhance existing strengths of an individual and assets of a community, advocating for micro-level, place-based actions and connectivity to drive large-scale change with a value on creativity, evidence-based research, and diverse knowledge systems. This enterprise actively encourages the participation of young women and youths from marginalized groups in our programs to provide diverse and inclusive viewpoints.
‘Sankalpa’ – Women’s Alliance for Peace, Justice, and Democracy, is an alliance of diverse women’s organization. Sankalpa literally means a resolve, a promise, a commitment, and determination. As such it strives to give voice, genuine space, dignity and respect to Nepali women in the new constitution in the making of Nepal. Sankalpa is dedicated to ensure women’s equal opportunity in the state making process irrespective of caste, ethnicity, religion, language, occupation, or degree of physical ability. Its objective is that diverse groups of women are visibly engaged at all levels of the Constituent Assembly and peace building processes. It has defined itself as “Mission 50/50”, meaning proportionate and representative participation of women at all levels of the peace process and all state structures. Sankalpa was initiated after the peace process began in April 2006, and was legally established on 24 June, 2011 after being registered at the local district administration office. Sankalpa, as an inclusive alliance joins hands also with all other alliances and movements of women to build solidarity to consolidate women’s strengths to achieve what we collectively set out to do. (Connection between HMP and Sankalpa’s approach-)
Hamro Mahila Pratinidhi (HMP) is an interactive portal complete with profiles of elected 315 female political leaders of the National Assembly, Federal Parliament and Provincial Assembly of Nepal. Our platform visualises profiles of elected 14,353 local level female representatives throughout the country. Through the Constitutional provision established in 2015, one third of every political sector is reserved for female electives. Yet there is a disconnect between position and power, and women's voices are still curtailed. Through this portal, we aim to bring the ambitions of female officials to the forefront. Additionally, HMP examines key data points such as age, education and political commitments of the respective government representatives in order to augment a holistic public understanding of the platform of elected female officials. We believe that direct access and information about political electives, and open data is quintessential to accountability in a successful democracy. Through HMP, our goal is to bridge the general public to their local elected female representatives. This platform is a joint initiative of Youth Innovation Lab, Sankalpa Nepal and the Norwegian Embassy in Nepal.
