Investment dialogue for scaling climate-responsive solutions in the Hindu Kush Himalaya

AGENDA

About the event

ICIMOD’s Himalayan Resilience Enabling Action Programme (HI-REAP) is co-organising an investment dialogue with the United Nations Development Programme and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change – Regional Collaboration Centre – Asia and Pacific to bring together development partners, investors, and innovators to mobilise financing for climate-resilient and nature-positive solutions in the Hindu Kush Himalaya region. The event aims to scale impactful regional initiatives and strengthen the entrepreneurial ecosystem for sustainable mountain development.

This forum is funded by the United Kingdom International Development (UKID) through its Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO).

Background

The Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH) region is highly vulnerable to climate change, biodiversity loss, and livelihood insecurities, which demand urgent and scalable investments in climate-resilient solutions. Despite growing global commitments, the region faces systemic challenges like fragmented financial systems and limited institutional readiness, making it difficult for entrepreneurs and community-led enterprises to access the finance they need – especially for scaling.

Scaling climate-resilient solutions requires a combination of entrepreneurial investment, blended finance, and strong partnerships between development actors, governments, and the private sector. The International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) has supported grassroots innovators through initiatives like the HKH-ICE (HKH Innovation Challenge for Entrepreneurs), successfully helping 12 grantees develop and scale climate-resilient solutions in the first cohort. However, important gaps in the entrepreneurial ecosystem of the HKH remains in gaining stronger support from the development sector beyond funding, especially in areas such as capacity building, mentorship, and encouraging collaborative models with regional impact, as well as ensuring further investments for scaling from private, public, and blended finance modalities.

HKH-ICE has successfully supported in developing and scaling climate-resilient solutions. Parallelly, ICIMOD established the HKH Investment Working Group (IWG) in May 2025, a collaborative platform of 11 like-minded organisations dedicated to leveraging investment for sustainable development in the region. One of the key priorities identified by the IWG is to collaborate on regional challenge funds for climate-responsive solutions. This forumis closely linked to that commitment, designed to build on the success of the HKH – ICE and pave the way for a more robust, regional approach to investing in climate innovation.

Objectives

This two-day dialogue aims to:

• share and promote best practices and lessons of leveraging climate solutions, investments and challenge funds.
• promote strategies to strengthen green entrepreneurial ecosystem addressing technical assistance, enabling policy, market linkages, and access to finance to entrepreneurs.
• enable networking among investors, entrepreneurs, development partners and relevant stakeholders to build synergies and partnerships for scaling.
• organise pitch sessions to promote partnerships.

Expected outcomes

The consultation is expected to result in:

• shared knowledge and lessons: Consolidated insights on leveraging challenge funds, blended finance, investor priorities, and ecosystem enablers to scale climate-responsive solutions in the HKH region.
• strengthened entrepreneurial ecosystem: Identified strategies for enhancing technical assistance, mentorship, policy support, and market linkages for green enterprises.
• new partnerships and investment opportunities: Facilitated networking, business pitches, and dialogue between entrepreneurs, investors, development partners, and policymakers to catalyse scale-up capital.