Exclusive for Daily Outlook
KATHMANDU, NEPAL – The contrasts could not be sharper.  As Afghanistan struggles to break free from a turbulent modern history that seems at times to keep the country mired in poverty and the past, China at year’s end joined the United States and the former Soviet Union as only the third nation to put a lunar lander on the Moon.  In November, India successfully launched a spacecraft to Mars, seeking to become the fourth to reach the Red Planet.
Yet, even as Asia looks skyward, much more needs to be done here on earth, including in Afghanistan, to lift millions out of poverty and bring business growth to some of the highest parts of Asia and the Pacific, a region that is still home to the vast majority of the world's poor.  It needs not be a tale of Moon and Mars vs. the mountains.
Poverty remains a persistent challenge among the people who continue to make their lives in some of the world's most remote mountain regions, whether in Afghanistan, Nepal or even China.  Limited economic opportunities still characterize sparsely populated communities on the Tibetan plateau as well as Himalayan villages that Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay Sherpa once passed through 60 years ago this year en route to the first successful ascent of Mount Everest.  By some estimates, more than 180 million people live in communities spread across Asia's highest mountains, and more than 15 million live in Afghanistan’s part of the Hindu Kush-Himalayas.
At a recent conference in Kathmandu on poverty reduction, which helped mark the 30th anniversary of the International Center for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), key differences in poverty rates were noted in mountain vs. non-mountain areas in several of the member nations of the Hindu Kush-Himalayan region – Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Myanmar, Nepal and Pakistan.  Headquartered in Nepal, ICIMOD is an intergovernmental knowledge and learning center founded on Dec. 5, 1983 to serve the Hindu Kush-Himalayan region.
For Afghanistan, ICIMOD reported some 42 percent of the nation’s mountain population lived below the poverty line, compared to 22 percent in the nation’s plains. The Kuchi population – traditionally nomadic herders whose livestock and migration routes have been particularly disrupted by conflict and insecurity – was reported to have the highest poverty rates, with some 57 percent of their numbers in the mountains living below the poverty line.
Here and elsewhere in Asia, however, the reality remains that while government has been the key driver in putting a lunar lander, or man, on the moon, it is the private sector that is key to sustainable economic growth, job creation and poverty reduction.  That is as true in the plains and lowlands of Asia, as it will be in its remotest mountain regions, typically home to indigenous peoples and characterized by inaccessibility and fragile agricultural ecosystems.
To address this, business, government and civil society must come together and move beyond the politics, stereotypes and animosity that have for too long divided the Hindu Kush-Himalayan region – home by some estimates to more than 180 million people, as well as vast water, forest and other resources at risk of unsustainable exploitation – and focus instead on partnering for sustainable economic growth.
For Afghanistan, the challenge is particularly steep unless the nation’s leadership moves quickly forward to ensure a U.S. security presence, and rededicates itself to the ongoing fight against corruption and cronyism.  Peace, security and rule of law are fundamental building blocks for private sector success and poverty reduction.
At the recent ICIMOD conference, I joined with several business and local chamber of commerce counterparts on a panel moderated by CSR Asia.
Together, we outlined three areas that must also be addressed to spur private sector engagement in Asia's remote mountain regions, including in its most difficult operating environments. Policymakers in Afghanistan and across Asia would do well also to focus on the "three 'i's'" of partnership.
The first is innovation.  The private sector is often ready to explore partnerships.  Joint activities and plans for engagement, however, must be innovative, with a business model that is not purely philanthropic, but structured to ensure both end beneficiaries in the community and the private sector can benefit.
This will include an assessment of risk and return, something that the private sector is long accustomed to, and which government and civil society should also integrate into their own efforts in increasing accountability for time and money spent.
The second is involvement. Too often, the business community is invited to "participate" in a project or asked to fund a piece of research that already has been outlined and decided.  The message is in essence, we want your money, but any other involvement is not welcome lest it "taint" the effort.
Instead, the private sector must be engaged early on.  An innovative partnership would go beyond business as usual, and involve the private sector in fashioning programs that also leverage a commercial partner's market experience and knowledge.  Such innovative, involved and engaged partnerships can be to the long-term benefit of both mountain communities and the bottom line.  This is critical to success and sustainability of any private sector involvement.
One spotlighted example of private sector intervention discussed in Kathmandu was a pilot effort to work with marginalized farmers in South Asia, helping catalyze linkages – just as other programs have facilitated cooperatives – to share information, improve agricultural products and yields, and ultimately build better supply chains and profits.
The third is impact.  For the business community, impact assessment is critical.  Unlike government, business depends on past success to fund future successes.  Results must be measured to ensure there is rationale for sustained or expanded business involvement.
The remoteness of mountain communities cannot be an excuse for the lack of financial returns on a business investment.  When a pilot program is brought to the business community for assessment and possible expansion, its impact and scalability must be clear and transparent.
Pilot projects help demonstrate that something is possible, but impact assessment is necessary for the business community to decide on scaling up an engagement.  Don't throw good money after bad, as it were.
During my time as U.S. ambassador to the Asian Development Bank, I saw firsthand how governments, including in Afghanistan, typically drive basic infrastructure investments such as rural electrification and farm-to-market roads.  But I also saw how the private sector is well positioned to help communities by providing financing, market linkages, knowledge and other services.  In the long run, Afghanistan cannot rely on donor dollars and development agencies’ largess.  This is neither sustainable nor good for the progress or pride of the Afghani people.
Here on earth, and even in space where the private sector has become increasingly involved, it is clear that business can be a powerful partner in any endeavor.  This must include the fight against poverty in Afghanistan and elsewhere in the Hindu Kush-Himalayas.
Even as Asia reaches for the stars, let's not forget the poorest of the poor still at home, in the shadows of Asia's tallest mountains.