As per the 2011 census, Nepal has 126 castes and ethnic groups speaking as many as 123 languages. And 90 percent of these languages are spoken by Indigenous Peoples. Indigenous Peoples in Nepal comprises of 59 different indigenous nationalities. They make up for 35.81 per cent of the country's total population. There is a diverse composition of ethnic communities in Nepal living across the country. Indigenous Peoples in Nepal have distinct cultures, languages and belief systems. They live across the country ? the mountains, the hills and the plains. Most of indigenous people live in remote and rural areas and make a living out of subsistence farming.
Despite constituting such a significant section of the population, indigenous peoples have been marginalized in terms of equitable access to resources and political as well as economic opportunities. Majority of indigenous peoples have less access to opportunities regarding education and health facilities.
SGP has either fully or partially been supporting indigenous peoples of Nepal ever since 1998. Out of a total of 225 SGP projects to date, 29 are exclusively IP related ones and 58 projects do have partial IP beneficiaries. SGP has been working with different IP communities like Chepang, Sherpa, Tamang, Magar, nomadic Raute, Chhantyal, Gurung, Kami, Tharu, and Danuwar. SGP Nepal also implemented COMDEKS project (Community Development and Knowledge Management for Satoyama Initiatives) that was exclusively in Tamang and Chepang habitats. Some of the IP related projects are - Conserving Indigenous Himalayan Amchi, Engaging Tharu Community in Medicinal and Aromatic Plant Conservation and Conservation of Raute Culture through Livelihood Improvement with Participatory Video Reporting.

IP Fellowship grant was provided to strengthen the capacity local IP fellow with the three main objectives:

1. To explore portfolio of projects led by different institutions working for Indigenous Peoples in Nepal.
2. To support IP organizations to access additional resources.
3. To build and share with IPs skills by participating in the national and international events (training/ seminar/ workshops) and to collaborate with SGP?s overall engagement with IPs in Nepal