IMPACT WEEK Nepal 2026
Nepal is undergoing radical change, the challenges are numerous, and Impact Week is returning – to empower local change-makers to help their communities.
After 2019, we will be on site for a second time to sow the seeds of powerful solutions.
The story of Impact Week Nepal began in 2019 with a successful first event at King’s College in Kathmandu. The second edition in 2020 was ultimately prevented by COVID-19 – a challenge we rose to with the virtual Impact Week “Nepal vs COVID-19”.
Now we’re heading back to Kathmandu! In 2026, we’re continuing the partnership to train more people in Design Thinking and give more King’s College students the chance to take part in our exciting, interactive four-day Design Thinking Challenge. We will equip 30 local and international Junior Coaches and around 90 young student participants with Design Thinking skills that they can use to solve social challenges in the communities of the Kathmandu Valley.
Kathmandu, the capital and largest city of Nepal, has over 1.5 million inhabitants in the metropolitan area and is the cultural, political, and economic center of the country. With a rapidly growing and young population, the city faces a number of pressing social challenges, including air pollution, traffic congestion, unemployment, limited access to quality education, inadequate waste management, housing shortages, and the effects of climate change. In addition, issues such as urban poverty, migration from rural areas, rising living costs, and inadequate health infrastructure continue to shape daily life in Kathmandu, reflecting many of the common development challenges faced by urban centers across South Asia.
On the bright side, these challenges are a great chance to make a difference by empowering young people to solve them. The mission of Impact Week in Kathmandu will be to support young people in applying the concept of Design Thinking to find people- and community-centered solutions to the challenges in their community.
And you can be part of it – and gain a valuable skill for navigating an agile and digital world along the way.
Key facts
Dates
Train-the-Coach: August 26 – 28
IW Challenge: August 31- September 3
Location
Kathmandu, Nepal
Local Partner
King’s College in Kathmandu
Wanna Join?
Apply here until 30 June
What to expect
With our two-module approach, we will train a new batch of Junior Coaches by guiding them through a 3-day „Train-the-Coach“ phase. The international and local participants will then take on their new roles as Design Thinking Coaches and work together with the scholars from King’s College and other local partners to find solutions for local challenges. This defines the „practical phase“ and will give the new Coaches the unique opportunity to directly implement what they have just learned while being guided by experienced Senior Coaches along the journey.
The innovative and customer-focused orientation of the Design Thinking methodology helps all participants to foster their way of tackling a challenge, and the unique spirit of the Impact Week experience will definitely inspire you to look at entrepreneurship and social innovation in a completely different light.
What are the benefits of joining an Impact Week?
- Upon completion of the program, you will be a trained Junior Design Thinking Coach, having already applied the methodology.
- You’ll gain key skills through Design Thinking, such as innovation, customer focus, and implementation orientation.
- The intercultural experience at Impact Week will also help you gain different perspectives on problem solving as well as build your international network, which will be key to boosting your resourcefulness at work as well as creating avenues for future collaborations.
- In addition, Impact Week promotes local entrepreneurship and social innovation. We enable our local partners to apply Design Thinking themselves and run their own Impact Weeks.
Who are our local partners?
Our local Partner for this event is the King’s College Kathmandu. It is a higher-education institution located at Babarmahal, Kathmandu, Nepal. It features approximately 38 academic faculty members and hosts about 400 students.
King’s College served as our partner in the first edition of Impact Week Nepal in 2019 and also collaborated with us for the virtual edition “Nepal vs. COVID-19” in 2020.
What are the focus areas for challenges?
Each participating team will work on one focus area. The students can choose their focus area in the application process and get matched accordingly. Then it is up to them to own the challenge and create an innovative idea to tackle it – always keeping the Design Thinking methodology at heart.
Our tracks and the coaching experts will be published soon.
Timeline
|
|
|
|
30 June |
Registration closes |
| July |
Virtual kick-off meeting for all participants |
| 24 August | Travel to Kathmandu |
| 26 – 28 August | Train-the-Coach: Our Junior Coaches get a professional Design Thinking training |
| 31 August – 3 September | Impact Week Nepal – 4 days Design Thinking Challenge |
| 3 September | Pitch day and closing ceremony of Impact Week Nepal 2026 |
Health & Safety
At Impact Week, we prioritize the health and safety of all our participants, ensuring that your experience in Nepal is both enriching and secure. While security measures are firmly in place on-site, we encourage you to consult your home country’s travel advisory for additional peace of mind.
We’re always here to assist! Feel free to reach out to us directly with any questions or for further details. We look forward to welcoming you to an impactful and memorable experience in Nepal!
Costs
Participation
FEE
3500€ training fee + 500€ local costs
We are open to discussing special pricing if you represent a smaller or local company or if you are only interested in participating in the Train-the-Coach phase.
Due to the longstanding relationship with the Lufthansa Group for almost 9 years, participants from any Lufthansa Group company can participate at a reduced fee of a total of 3.175€.
What’s
included
- Shared room accommodation
- Airport transfers
- Meals
Not
Included
-
International flights to/from the local Airport
-
Visa and vaccination fees
-
Recreational activities
Our Team for Kathmandu
Tilo Hillmer
Organizer
tilo.hillmer@impactweek.net
Johanna Unsin
Co-Organizer
jojo.unsin@gmail.com
Desiree Heine
Co-Organizer
desiree.heine@gmx.de
Prof. Dr. Bettina Maisch
Lead Coach
bettina.maisch@sce.de
What our former participants say
“”I think this is a wonderful experience that everybody should take part in.
By becoming a Coach, you learn everything about Design Thinking and Innovation and coaching teams through challenges where they can from a human-centered perspective develop solutions for relevant problems.
My best experience has been just seeing how within the teams that we’ve created people didn’t know each other in the beginning and within just a short period of time they became really close, had a lot of fun together and developed really interesting solutions.
“Mindblowing experience where you learn things for your life time”
“Please allow yourself to live this great experience”
“Impact week is an incredible Once in a lifetime experience – packed with innovative spirit, inspiration, ideas, amazing stories & people, intense workshops and – needless to say – lots of fun!”