29 years · Bharatpur, Chitwan
Lasting rural livelihoods across Nepal.
We work with smallholders, landless households and marginalized communities across Nepal to strengthen food security, opportunity, and lasting support.
Kapilvastu · Improved Food System
Home gardens for landless families.
Seeds, tools and training reached landless Muslim households so food can be grown even without a plot of their own.
Rupandehi & Kapilvastu · TERAI
Stronger dairy incomes for 3,600 farmers.
Breeding support, cooperative equipment and livestock systems are raising milk, nutrition and resilience in the western Terai.
Lumbini · Food rights
Three municipalities locked food rights into law.
Yashodhara, Suddhodhan and Mayadevi endorsed five-year Food Rights and Food System Strategic Plans with FORWARD Nepal.
Lumbini · YUVA
Youth building horticulture enterprises.
Lean-season vegetables, net houses and youth-friendly local policy — a 40-month research programme across Dang, Arghakhanchi and Kapilvastu.
About FORWARD Nepal
Rural welfare and
agricultural reform.
Forum for Rural Welfare and Agricultural Reform for Development (FORWARD Nepal) is a non-profit, service-oriented national non-governmental organization established in 1997 to help disadvantaged groups and the rural poor. It is registered at the District Administration Office, Chitwan, and affiliated to the Social Welfare Council, Nepal. The organization aims at reducing poverty of marginalized communities through integrated and sustainable development interventions. FORWARD Nepal’s program activities are focused towards improving food and nutrition security, household incomes and resource conservation to contribute to sustainable livelihoods.
More about our organization
Forum for Rural Welfare and Agricultural Reform for Development (FORWARD Nepal) is a non-profit, service-oriented national non-governmental organization established in 1997 to help disadvantaged groups and the rural poor. It is registered at the District Administration Office, Chitwan, and affiliated to the Social Welfare Council, Nepal.
The organization aims at reducing poverty of marginalized communities through integrated and sustainable development interventions. Programme activities focus on food and nutrition security, household incomes and resource conservation for sustainable livelihoods. FORWARD integrates social mobilization, agriculture, livestock, fisheries and aquaculture, farm forestry, biodiversity conservation, and value-chain and market development with government, non-government and private-sector partners at national and local levels.
- Legal standing
- Registered at the District Administration Office, Chitwan. Affiliated to the Social Welfare Council, Nepal.
- Who we serve
- Poor households, women, Dalits, Janajatis, landless families and children.
- How we work
- Value chains, technology generation, advocacy and social transformation.
- Offices
- Head office in Bharatpur-2, Kshetrapur; liaison office in Banasthali, Kathmandu; field offices in project districts.
Empowering rural communities for food security and lasting livelihoods.
28Years of Service
64District Covered
0.6Households (millions)
114Total Projects
Thematic areas
Our areas of expertise
Practical solutions for the people, livelihoods and landscapes at the heart of our work. Five areas of expertise for a stronger rural Nepal.
Explore programmesRural development programmes
Projects across rural Nepal
Kapilvastu · Lumbini Province
Improved Food System and Equitable Livelihoods
Grassroots civil society organisations are helping 5,000 smallholder and landless households claim food rights, adopt good agricultural practices and build local food-system plans in Suddhodhan, Yashodhara and Mayadevi.
View project details
Rupandehi and Kapilvastu
TERAI: dairy livelihoods for smallholders
The Enhanced Rural AI project is raising incomes for 3,600 dairy farmers through breeding support, cooperative equipment, extension and a livestock management system — with Jersey genetics introduced in partnership with ADRA and Jersey Overseas Aid.
View project details
Dang, Arghakhanchi and Kapilvastu
YUVA: youth horticulture enterprises
A 40-month research-for-development programme to identify profitable lean-season vegetables, test net houses and rain shelters, and help local governments write youth-friendly agriculture policy. Funded through the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Horticulture.
View project detailsDonors & partners
Partners in rural development
MFA Finland
Plan International
MSFP
SNV Nepal
World Bank
Winrock
Practical Action
ADRA Nepal
NUBL
IOM
iDE Nepal
ILRI
USAID
HARP
SAMARTH Nepal
CSISA
Helvetas Nepal
Concern Worldwide
CGIAR
IPNI
CARIAD
NRN
Asian Development Bank
BMZ
Nepal Government
World Food Programme
Hiroshima University
JSPS
UNWOMEN
Home gardening materials for landless Muslim families
Improved Food System Project, Kapilvastu — seeds, tools and training for households with no land of their own.
WHH Nepal visits the head office and FTF HIL sites
Mr. Shakeb Nabi, Country Director of WHH Nepal, reviewed FORWARD Nepal’s Bharatpur office and horticulture innovation sites.
GenderUp training by Feed the Future Horticulture Innovation Lab
Kathmandu session on making horticulture research and enterprise work more gender-responsive.
390-hour TVET-certified beautician training
Underway for landless families as a non-farm livelihood alongside food-system support.
Three rural municipalities endorse food-rights plans
Yashodhara, Suddhodhan and Mayadevi adopted five-year Food Rights and Food System Strategic Plans under NPL-1083/22.
YUVA closeout and social audit
Events held in three municipalities of Lumbini Province to account for youth horticulture work in public.
Training and musical instruments for the Natuwa community
Kapilvastu support that links livelihood work with cultural identity.
News and publications
Latest News & Stories
FORWARD Nepal marks 29 years of service with celebration in Bharatpur
Staff, board members and partners gathered at the Chitwan head office to mark 29 years of rural development work.
Two-day MEAL strategic workshop at Sauraha
Senior staff and board members strengthened monitoring, evaluation, accountability and learning.
TERAI joint monitoring, annual review and planning
Partners reviewed livestock-based livelihoods and planned the next season of dairy support.
Local governments advance food-rights planning
Strategic support from the Improved Food System Project in Yashodhara, Suddhodhan and Mayadevi.
Four-day capacity building on programme management, leadership and data
Staff training to keep implementation, reporting and learning at the same standard as the field work.
Annual Report 2023/24 published
Read the full year’s programmes, finances and case studies from the current publications section.
Together, we can create change
Join FORWARD Nepal in strengthening food systems, rural livelihoods and climate-smart agriculture for marginalized communities across Nepal.