Nepal is one of the most seismically acting regions in the world, but poor-quality building supplies have resulted in 50% of houses not meeting safe housing standards and millions of people living in sub-standard and insecure homes. ‍ Australia’s partnership with Build Up Nepal, part of the Business Partnerships Platform, has enabled the scale-up of affordable, safe and eco-friendly bricks through catalytic funding. The bricks use compressed stabilised earth in an interlocking design that is more affordable and reduces carbon emissions. ‍ A major pivot point was the magnitude 5.7 earthquake that hit Nepal in November 2023, leading to widespread building collapses. No buildings made from Build Up Nepal’s bricks collapsed, demonstrating their resilience. ‍ Australia subsequently supported Build Up Nepal to play a key role in the rebuilding process by providing additional funding to focus on the affected Jajarkot District expertise to work closely with provincial governments on public infrastructure and standards.

Nepal’s agriculture sector is dominated by low-income smallholder farmers who lack both access to markets and the technology to boost production. The sector makes up only 25% of the country’s GDP whilst occupying over 60% of the workforce. ‍ Australia has supported smallholder farmers’ access to markets and promoted sustainable farming by supporting a new sales channel to scale whilst integrating sustainable farm management tools through the Consciously Farming, Consciously Consuming partnership, part of the Business Partnerships Platform. Australia has provided catalytic funding and capability building. ‍ The partnership pivoted in early 2023 to add a digital agri-loan service, recognising the barrier of access to finance amidst Nepal’s economic crisis. The result has been a six-fold increase in farmers using Kheti and attending training. Over 2000 farmers (905 women) adopted climate resilient practices including the use of tunnel house farming, drip irrigation, biological pesticides and post-harvest management practices.

Under the Business Partnerships Platform, the Climate Adaptation partnership (Mekong Conservancy Foundation; Vietnam Housewares; Australian Government) is pioneering nature-based solutions to climate change while providing economic opportunities for vulnerable groups, especially women and people with disabilities – those often most affected by climate change. ‍ The project establishes bulrush plantations as a replacement crop, and offers training in planting, harvesting and weaving, so bulrush can be processed and made into homewares like baskets, and sold. Naturally found in the Mekong Delta, bulrush tolerates high salt water, making it resilient to changing delta conditions and also improves water and soil quality. ‍ Through a train-the-trainer model and collaboration with unions representing women, Mekong Conservancy Foundation trained 3,168 people (88% women; 71% over 40 years old; and 14 people with a disability). The project created 472 full time equivalent jobs (214 were for women), produced 196,288 goods and planted 45 ha of bulrush.