Social and Solidarity Economy (SSE) has been embraced in Nepal as a source of decent
jobs/enterprise for social economy (larger than household economy) as well as for
national economy. The social solidarity economy has recently emerged in Nepal;
however, its application dates back to the ancient past entrenched with indigenous
institutions/cultures. It has been rooted particularly in rural and suburb areas as a
resilient response against prevalent poverty, subsistence economy and casual
hegemonies. Informal ways of exchanging goods and services (barter system),
extending unconditional help to helpless, free-of-interest-borrowings among kith and
kin, collective responsibility of performing rituals such as marriage, funerals and some
unavoidable cultural and religious functions are still prevalent in various parts and
among various ethnic and tribal groups of Nepal. Most of these practices have now
institutionalized into SSE organizations as cooperatives, fair trade groups, user groups,
federations and social enterprises, however almost of them are in infancy stages and
sought to be capacitated. Strengthening partnerships between social and solidarity
economy actors, civil society movements and government has largely been recognized
and urged globally as a smooth pace for social and solidarity economy to reach its
potential. In this context, an attempt to catalogue the social solidarity economy
attributes of Nepal is important before aims at capacitating and strengthening them.