The goal was never to stay forever.
Co-Investing in Nepal's Future
From the moment One Heart Worldwide enters a district, we are preparing for our exit.
We provide hands-on assistance to the local government in planning and budgeting for their maternal and newborn health systems. This establishes the foundation that keeps these programs running long after our involvement ends. By asking government partners to share costs and responsibilities from the start, we ensure that what we build together endures for generations.
Cost-Sharing with Government Partners
Nepal’s health system is highly decentralized, with responsibility for basic healthcare services resting at the municipality level. While this structure gives decision-making authority to locally elected leaders who know their communities best, it can create real challenges for planning, funding, and delivering consistent maternal and newborn health services where local leaders lack the necessary operational expertise. In response to this challenge, we focus heavily on strengthening the capacity of government health officials to value, budget for, and sustain maternal and newborn health services.
A key component of our model is obtaining government buy-in for our work and promoting local ownership of the intervention. We measure this through cost-sharing commitments from municipal governments for program expenses.
Our healthcare facility renovations are structured as co-investments, with municipalities requested to contribute at least 50% of the renovation costs.
Government partners also regularly co-invest in One Heart Worldwide’s other programs by contributing funds beyond required cost-sharing for healthcare renovations, including support for healthcare provider training, equipment transport, and simulation-based training labs, among others.
In 2025:
of municipal partners met the 50% co-financing target for healthcare facility renovations
of our municipal partners contributed additional program costs
total amount of cost-sharing funds provided by our government partners
