The Lotus Initiative, a partnership with the Lotus Life Foundation Singapore, is a social innovation and entrepreneurship development partnership involving stakeholders from various sectors to improve livelihoods in Sahidbhumi, a rural village in Eastern Nepal. The initiative aims to strengthen local capabilities to drive programmes that tackle poverty in entrepreneurial, collaborative and innovative ways.
Enable & Engage
Training boot camps, workshops, and SMU faculty & student will develop local capabilities in social innovation and entrepreneurship.
Connect & Support
Local & international practice fellows, financial inclusion and technical assistance grants will provide support to co-develop innovative solutions.
Learn & Share
Data will be systematically collected to produce evidence-based insights for programme learning and lasting impact.
We use Human-Centred Design (HCD) as a creative and inclusive approach to unearth issues faced by the community, and to subsequently unlock local entrepreneurial abilities to solve the issues. Popularised by the Stanford d.school and IDEO in the United States, HCD is singularly focused on the user, their activities, habits, challenges, aspirations, and creative confidence to design relevant solutions. It is with this socially-innovative mindset that we co-research, co-validate, and co-design solutions to improve livelihoods in Sahidbhumi.
