Resilient Communities
In a challenging geographic place
Nepal sits in one of the world's most disaster-prone regions — vulnerable to earthquakes, floods, landslides, and the deepening consequences of climate change. For communities already living close to the edge, a single event can undo years of progress.
INF works alongside these communities before disaster strikes and after it does. That means building the preparedness that reduces harm, providing relief when it's needed, and supporting the longer recovery that rarely makes the news but determines whether families can stay in their homes, keep their children in school, and rebuild what they've lost.
This is slow work. It is also the most important kind.
Two-thirds of Nepal’s population depend on agriculture and the monsoon rains for life and livelihoods. Climate change and disasters are having a huge impact on poor farmers and vulnerable communities, pushing many people deeper into poverty.
What we do
Livelihoods
Last year, 1,829 people increased their income through INF-supported livelihood programmes. A further 8,033 individuals were reached with livelihood support, and 6,395 benefited from climate-resilient agriculture practices designed to protect harvests against increasingly unpredictable weather.
Disability-inclusive livelihoods
People with disabilities are frequently excluded from livelihood programmes, because training venues aren't accessible, or because the assumption has already been made that they cannot participate. INF designs livelihood programmes to include people with disabilities from the outset: accessible venues, adapted training methods, and the expectation that participation is the standard, not the exception.
Climate adaptation
Nepal's farming communities are on the frontline of climate change, facing erratic rainfall, shorter growing seasons, and more frequent extreme weather events. Rainwater harvesting systems now benefit 500 households, protecting crops across approximately 345 hectares of agricultural land. Alongside this, adaptive farming practices are being introduced that work with changing conditions rather than against them.
Skills and vocational training
INF's vocational training is designed specifically for people who have been excluded from mainstream economic life: women with limited mobility outside the home, people with disabilities, and communities carrying the long weight of caste-based discrimination and historical stigma.
Training is practical, local, and focused on income sources that are genuinely viable: vegetable farming, animal husbandry, small enterprise, craft production.
Our Disaster Response Emergency and Long Term
Building on what we know
A disaster draws attention for a season, but the response that follows rarely does. INF has been working in Nepal since 1952, and that history shapes the way we think about disaster response, as a commitment that continues for as long as recovery takes.
Each of the responses listed here has drawn on the same principles of accessibility, community leadership, and long-term recovery, adapted to each context. That experience is what INF now brings to the 2026 Bhotekoshi flash flood recovery, a continuation of work we've been doing, and learning from, for a long time.
Gorkha Earthquake, 2015–2019
The April 2015 earthquake was one of the deadliest in Nepal's history, and Gorkha District — close to the epicentre — was among the hardest hit. Homes, schools, and public infrastructure were destroyed across the region, and the disaster left many people with long-term injuries and disabilities on top of the loss of homes and livelihoods. For people with disabilities and their families, already among the most vulnerable, recovery was slower and harder to reach.
INF's GRACE project ran for four years, working alongside communities in Gorkha District to rebuild homes, restore livelihoods, and support people with disabilities through recovery and beyond. We reconstructed 105 accessible homes, rebuilt five schools, and helped establish 67 self-help groups that continued operating well after the project itself had ended. An independent evaluation in 2019 found lasting improvements in housing, income, and community participation. The aim was never simply to restore what the earthquake destroyed, but to leave communities in a stronger position to face what comes next.
Nepal pandemic, 2020–2022
The COVID-19 pandemic reached Nepal in early 2020, bringing lockdowns, border closures, and a prolonged disruption to daily life and livelihoods. Informal workers, daily wage earners, and returning migrant workers were hit particularly hard by the loss of income. The second wave in 2021 put severe pressure on Nepal's health system, with shortages of oxygen, medicine, and testing capacity; the UN estimated that 4.9 million people needed humanitarian assistance during that surge.
Over two years, INF expanded treatment and oxygen capacity across three hospitals, supported twenty local health institutions, and reached over two thousand households with relief as incomes and food security came under pressure. We also cared for our own staff through the pandemic, recognising that a response depends on the people carrying it out.
Jajarkot, 2023–2028
On 3 November 2023, a magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck western Nepal, centred near Ramidanda in Jajarkot District, followed by numerous aftershocks. Jajarkot and neighbouring Rukum West were the worst affected, with significant loss of life, injuries, and damage to homes and infrastructure. An estimated 62,000 households — around 250,000 people — were affected. Many families in remote areas were left in temporary shelters through the following winter, with disrupted access to water, sanitation, health, and education services.
INF's response is now in its second phase and is planned to run through 2028 — a five-year commitment to relief, reconstruction, and livelihood recovery. Water systems are being restored, farmers are being supported to rebuild their livelihoods, and local volunteers are being trained in disaster response, so that communities are better prepared for whatever comes next.
Nepal faces a wide range of natural disasters: earthquakes, floods, landslides, and droughts. In Rolpa, in the western hills, and Kapilvastu, on the southern plains, INF has worked with local government and communities to prepare for these events before they happen. That means helping communities plan ahead, take steps to reduce the damage disasters cause, and build the skills to respond as first responders when disaster strikes.