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Livelihoods

Breaking the Cycle of Poverty

Poverty often means households lack the income to meet their basic needs—safety, food, shelter, health, and education. Cultural and social norms can also prevent people, particularly women and marginalized,  from attempting income-generating activities.  Further, the impact of climate change has made the livelihoods still worse.

When people have the skills, resources, and opportunities to increase their income with dignity, poverty loosens its hold. ADRA Nepal works alongside communities to enhance food security and develop sustainable livelihoods through their engagement in improved climate adaptive farm based, forest based and off-farm enterprises that give families security.

What we do

ADRA Nepal supports vulnerable communities—particularly marginalised groups and women—to access better livelihood opportunities by:

  • Providing hands-on training in agricultural and livestock tools, technologies, and practices that increase yield and sales.
  • Introducing innovative practices to improve resilience to climate change.
  • Enterprise development, vocational/skill-based training, startup support, and financial literacy.
  • Connecting smallholder farmers to value chains through Farmer Market Schools and market interventions.
  • Facilitating savings and credit groups and cooperatives strengthening.
  • Delivering climate change education, GEDSI education/awareness and resiliency actions in schools, communities and among stakeholders.
  • Helping forest communities manage resources to maintain biodiversity while meeting their needs.
  • Supporting farming communities in finding solutions to human–wildlife conflict.
  • Enabling people with disabilities to start sustainable enterprises.
  • Developing community facilities such as multi-use water system, irrigation and recharge ponds, resource centers, collection centres, etc.
  • Policy advocacy.

IMPACT 2024

PROJECTS

SAHAS

Kamla dughana

Project SAHAS is a 12-month project aimed at promoting the economic and social inclusion of people with disabilities in Madhesh Province, with a special focus on women with disabilities. The project targets three municipalities in Mahottari district, where disability-related stigma, exclusion, and poverty remain prevalent. Project SAHAS seeks to empower people with disabilities through skill development, entrepreneurship support, and improved access to services, while also strengthening local institutions such as Organizations of People with Disabilities (OPDs) and municipal bodies to advocate for disability rights and inclusive development. It will also engage in GEDSI (Gender Equality, Disability, and Social Inclusion) awareness, Gender Based Violence (GBV) prevention, and inclusive celebration of key events.

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RELIEF

relief

The RELIEF (Resilient Livelihood and Enhanced Food Security in Northern Dhading) project will directly work with 1,600 households, the majority of which belong to ethnic minorities and underprivileged people, such as Tamangs and Dalits. The main objective of the project is to improve food security and climate resilience of the community by increasing food availability, accessibility, and income diversification while strengthening climate adaptive capacity through gender-sensitive project actions. We are working with local partner PRAYAS Nepal. The project is funded by the Canadian Foodgrains Bank and ADRA Canada and will run from January 2024 to December 2026, spanning three years focusing on remote Rural Municipalities in Dhading district.

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Samvardhan

women planting

Project Samvardhan is a 4-year project aimed at conserving the ecosystem and biodiversity of key forest areas in Banke and Bardiya districts, while enhancing the livelihoods of the poor marginalized Dalit and Janjati forest-dwelling communities who rely on forest resources for their daily living.  The project will work with forest user groups, farmer groups, civil society organizations, and public and private stakeholders in the conservation, sustainable utilization, and restoration of biodiversity and ecosystems.  Project Samvardhan is funded by the European Union, Austrian Development Cooperation via ADRA Austria and implemented by ADRA Nepal and partners ANSAB Nepal, BEE GROUP and FECOFUN.

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TERAI

IMG_20211205_135340

The Enhanced Rural AI (TERAI) Project for Smallholder Dairy Farmers in Nepal will run from 2022 – 2026 and will work with smallholder farmers  in four local governments of Rupendehi and Kapilvastu districts. It is funded by Jersey Overseas Aid and implemented by ADRA Nepal in partnership with Forum for Rural Welfare and Agricultural Reform for Development (FORWARD Nepal) and Indreni Rural Development Centre. 

It aims to reduce poverty and improve the livelihoods of smallholder farmers through increased income and resilience dairy farming. The project will directly benefit 3,600 farmers and over 17000 people indirectly by enhancing farming practices (health care, breed, nutrition and housing management of animals) and techniques to improve milk output, collection and processing as well as improving business and connecting them to the actors of milk value chain and markets. 

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GOAL II

Goal 2 -Nama

The “Generating Opportunities in Agriculture and Livelihoods (GOAL-II)” project will run from July 2019 to July 2024 working with 4100 households in Rolpa district.  GOAL II is funded by DFAT and ADRA Australia with a total budget of USD 1,430,063.

GOAL II aims to empower women and increase the incomes of poor and vulnerable households.  Activities include a solar irrigation scheme being installed to provide the community with water for irrigation, 120 Farmer Groups formed and facilitated to start a savings and credit group fund, business literacy and education provided and technical skills of vegetable and goat rearing provided.
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PAST PROJECTS

FOSTER II

Food Security Enhancement and Agricultural Resilience of the Earthquake-Affected Rural Nepalese Farmers-Phase II

Canadian Foodgrains Bank and ADRA Canada

The ‘Food Security Enhancement and Agricultural Resilience of the Earthquake-Affected Rural Nepalese Farmers-Phase II" (FOSTER-II) project will run from May 2020 to June 2023 working with 85 farmer groups (1720 participants) in rural areas of Dhading. Foster II is funded by Canadian Foodgrains Band and ADRA Canada with a total budget of CA$899,796. The project goal is to enhance resilience to food security shocks. This is achieved through teaching of innovative farming practises (Farmers Field School), construction of water systems, access to farming assets, strengthening of community savings and credit schemes and Farmers Market School.  Through project activities it is expected that livelihood options are diversified, farmer incomes increased, average food provisioning increased and food security is increased.

LIRIC

Local Initiatives to Reduce Impacts of Climate Change (LIRIC)

European Union and the Austrian Development Cooperation

This project is set in the Mahottaru and Dhanusha districts of Provience 2 in the Terai which are categorised as highly vulnerable to the effects of climate change.  The goal of this project is to enhance the resilience of poor and vulnerable populations to the impacts of climate change leading to secure livelihoods and reduced poverty.  LIRIC will promote community awareness and advocacy, support communities to work with local governments to both hold them accountable for climate actions and develop climate resilient plans and policies.  It will also support the development and implementation of climate change adaptation and mitigation practises.

FOSTER

Food Security Enhancement Agricultural Resilience of the Earthquake-Affected Rural Nepalese Farmers

Canadian Foodgrains Bank and ADRA Canada

The Food Security Enhancement Agricultural Resilience of the Earthquake-Affected Rural Nepalese Farmers (Foster) project aimed to increase the well being and resilience of the agriculture-based communities in the Dhading district of Nepal after the 2015 earthquake disrupted agricultural production and destroyed food storage and supply networks. FOSTER project ran over 3 years with a total budget of CAD 1,050,859. With enhanced knowledge of agricultural technologies and improved access to water the average income from agricultural produce increased from NRs. 34392 in 2017 to 79142 in 2020.

AREA

Agricultural Recovery of Earthquake Affected Families in Dhading District – AREA Project

Swiss Solidarity and ADRA Switzerland

The Agricultural Recovery of Earthquake Affected Families in Dhading District (AREA) project aimed to support earthquake affected vulnerable and marginal communities of Dhading district to recover their livelihoods. AREA project ran for 1 year with a total budget of CHF 230,849. The primary activities included rehabilitation of 4 small scale irrigation schemes, construction of 3 multiple use water systems and 5 water ponds, rebuilding of 90 animal shelters, rehabilitation of 2 collection centres, support to restock 630 house holds with vegetable kits and agricultural tools and 91 vulnerable house holds with goats, Formation of 27 farmer groups educated on new technologies and savings and credit schemes.

ELIVES

Enhancing the Livelihoods of Smallholder Farmers in Central Terai districts of Nepal

UKAID and ADRA UK

Project budget: GBP 1,848,584 Project time-frame: April 2015 - March 2018. Area: Central Terai. The goal of this project was to improve the livelihoods and income of poor and marginalised smallholder farmers with a focus on women and socially excluded groups. >13 000 core households reached as well as > 18 000 indirect beneficiaries of this project.

GOAL

Good Governance and Livelihood Project

DFAT and ADRA Australia

Budget: AUD 1,657,158. Project timeframe: Feb 2014 - June 2019 Area: Dhading district. Improving the livelihoods of vulnerable communities by micro-enterprise and entrepreneurship, capacity development of local civil society organisations and enhanced resiliency through environmental planning and management. This project increased the average annual income of participants by 4-5 times. It also worked with communities and local government to strengthen community leadership and develop local action plans for climate change adaptation and mitigation.

IPAC

Initiative for Agriculture Productivity and Commercialisation (IAPAC)

Austrian Development Cooperation and ADRA Austria

Budget: Euro 933,333 Project Timeframe: March 2012 - Feb 2017. Location: Banke, Dang and Rolpa districts. This project worked with 190 farmer groups and reached 4088 households in order to increase agriculture productivity, increase the commercialisation of agricultural outputs and to improve nutrition. 72% of direct participants were women.

LERC

Livelihood & Economic Recovery of Corona Crisis Affected Families (LERC)

Livelihood & Economic Recovery of Corona Crisis Affected Families (LERC)

Budget: 374,923 CHF Project Timeframe: 15th March 2021 to 30th October 2021. Location: Dhading, Mahottari ,Dhanusha districts. The severity of the impact of COVID-19 on women is high due to their inability to find an alternative source of income which is followed by the incapacity to pay loans, psychological problems, and inadequacy to purchase food. Consequently, affected families have resorted to several strategies such as reducing meals, sold assets and borrowings to cope with the lockdown due to constrained financial resources and opportunities that further cause the issue on nutritional status of children, women, persons with disabilities, senior citizen, etc.

SERC

Socio-Economic Recovery of Corona Crisis Affected Families (SERC)

Swiss Solidarity & ADRA Switzerland

The “Socio-Economic Recovery of Corona Crisis Affected Families (SERC)” project will run from 1st Nov 2021 To 30th April 2022 SERC is funded by Swiss Solidarity & ADRA Switzerland with a total budget of 3,65,002.00 CHF. The triggered crisis of COVID-19 raised along with the second wave from April 2021 with exponential rise in the cases. The country was swift to mandate complete lockdown from April to June 2021 in different districts and to implement restrictive measures to tackle the crisis. Large number of laborers/wage earners, migrant workers, farmers, or business entrepreneurs in the proposed district have suffered from the chaos of the crisis.

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