Located in the northwest corner of Karnali zone, Humla is most remotely located district of Nepal. Situated at an altitude of 3000 m, Simikot is the district headquarters in Nepal located at highest altitude. It is also “gateway” to Mt. Kailash and Mansarovar – very sacred mountain and lake respectively for both Hindus and Buddhists. Humla is very rich in high value Himalayan herbs. Despite rich in natural resources and cultural diversity, Humla remains one of poorest districts of Nepal in terms of Human Development Index.

Development Fund Norway (DF Norway), in collaboration with local partner Nepal Institute of Development Studies (NIDS) started Humla Development Initiative (HDI) as a “pilot project” from 2006 with main goal of improving the livelihood of Humli people. During the four year pilot project, Local Initiative for Bio-diversity, Research and Development (LI-BIRD) joined as a partner of HDI consortium from 2008. From July 2011, NIDS handed over its activities to Simikot based local partner named Self Help Initiative Promotion Centre Nepal (SHIP-Nepal). HDI is operating its programmes in the eight Village Development Committees (VDCs) namely Muchu, Khagalgaun, Syanda, Dandafaya, Simikot, Chhipra, Saya, and Gothi. From 2014, HDI programmes are expanded to 3 more VDCs namely Hepka, Melchham and Darma. With the goal of improving the livelihood of Humli people, HDI has been working in improving food and nutrition security, income generation, health and sanitation, rural appropriate technologies, good governance and gender mainstreaming. HDI closely works with DDC and other relevant government institutions in the district. HDI programmes are implemented in joint collaboration and cooperation with relevant stakeholders and the communities. Changed living standards and access to green vegetables throughout the year to Majority of farmers in programme VDCs are some of the significant achievements of HDI.