Water-induced disasters (WID) in Nepal are becoming more frequent and severe in recent years due to environmental, climatic, developmental, and social factors. Women, children, and the elderly are usually the most adversely affected. Although disaster risk management plans exist, the focus is largely on rescue and relief, rather than strengthening pre-disaster preparations and planning. A number of legal, institutional, and policy frameworks have been established, such as the newly promulgated constitution, which has made provisions for disaster management at all levels of government. However, there is a gap between policy and practice. Moreover, measures to deal with climate change and disasters continue to operate in separate silos.
This project attempts to address these concerns by undertaking applied research on the drivers of WID to better understand the various vulnerabilities, and by examining linkages between WID, climate change, and variables that affect vulnerabilities such as gender and migration. The project will use the knowledge generated to inform WID and climate change adaptation policies and programs and develop, prioritize, and test pilot interventions through a multi-stage participatory planning approach with local communities. It will also collaborate with sub-national bodies to develop strategies to help scale up gender-transformative adaptation plans to increase local communities’ resilience to climate change and water-induced hazards. Finally, it will build the capacity of local stakeholders from communities, government agencies, and local academic institutions to mainstream gender in WID and climate change plans and policies, particularly for younger and early-career researchers and policymakers.
Research outputs include peer-reviewed publications, technical reports, disaster risk management and climate change adaptation plans, and policy briefs. A variety of communications products will be developed to communicate research findings to policymakers and other relevant stakeholders. In order to achieve the intended outcomes of the project, these outputs will be institutionalized through collaborative engagements with local governments to help them develop gender-transformative planning and implementation for WID and climate change adaptation.
