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Nepal baseline vulnerability assessment and social indices

Nepal baseline vulnerability assessment and social indices
Multiple Authors
Credit: Riccardo Pravettoni, UNEP/GRID-Arendal; http://www.grida.no/graphicslib/detail/climate-change-vulnerability_7c99

Project Information

This pilot action is part of the larger ACCCA project to increase capacity to adapt to climate change, which is managed by UNITAR. weADAPT provides technical support to various ACCCA pilot action teams through its different partners. Details of other pilot actions being undertaken through the ACCCA project can be found in the ACCCA knowledge base

Title:Application of community based adaptation measures to increased weather and climate related disasters (WCDs) in Putalibazaar Municipality of Western Nepal: Preparation for the potential climate change signal

Region:Syangja District in Western mountainous region of Nepal

Target Population:Livlehood groups: Vulnerability community of Putalibazaar Municipality and suburbs, Syangja district of Western Nepal

Targeted sector:Disaster management and insurance

Project leader and Institutional Partners: Dr. Sharad P. Adhikary, Himalayan Climate Centre, Department of Hydrology and Meteorology, CBDP Unit through Nepal Red Cross Society

Contact: Archana Shrestha, Department of Hydrology and Meteorology, Kathmandu (Nepal)

Description

Recovery from weather-related disasters is a great challenge for the Nepalese Government and any future increase in these disasters from enhanced climate variability and change will certainly add to this challenge. As is the case in most developing countries, disaster insurance has not been applied in Nepal as an adaptation mechanism to reduce disasters-related vulnerability. However, community-based microinsurance schemes in the livestock and cash crop sectors have been successfully established in some villages. Furthermore, studies indicate that collective or community-based disaster insurance could be one of the options for post-disaster loss sharing measures in Nepal and has the potential to contributing to poverty alleviation through distributing the impacts of disasters more evenly.

This project has the twin goals of initiating a collective disaster insurance scheme in Western Nepal and establishing communication between the National Meteorological Service of Nepal and the Community Based Disaster Preparedness (CBDP) Units. CBDP units exist in many communities throughout Nepal and are organized by the Nepalese Red Cross Society, the leading Nepalese disaster management organization. This organizational structure is based on the philosophy that initial emergency assistance will always come from within the community.

Implementing a community disaster insurance scheme will be an important measure to reduce disaster impacts by increasing the economic resilience of the community, while enhanced communication between national weather forecast systems and local community CBDP units will reduce the overall vulnerability to and ultimate loss from disasters. These adaptive measures will assist in achieving some of the development goals of the Nepalese government, including establishing early warning systems throughout the country by 2017, significantly reducing social and economic losses from disasters by 2027 and alleviating poverty.

For more information on the project please navigate through the related pages below.

Further Reading

Further sources of vulnerability, spatial information and climate change information are:

DEVELOPMENT AND CLIMATE CHANGE IN NEPAL: FOCUS ON WATER RESOURCES AND HYDROPOWER by Shardul Agrawala, Vivian Raksakulthai, Maarten van Aalst,Peter Larsen, Joel Smith and John Reynolds (OECD, 2003). http://www.oecd.org/env/cc/19742202.pdf

Nepal: Comprehensive Food Security and Vulnerability Analysis (CFSVA) 2005. © World Food Programme, Vulnerability Analysis and Mapping Branch (ODAV). http://documents.wfp.org/stellent/groups/public/documents/ena/wfp085654.pdf

Nepal: Food Security and vulnerability profile, VAM Unit, WFP, Nepal (May, 2001). Also Food Insecurity and Vulnerability in Nepal: an Issue Paper. P.B. Shakya and P.B. Singh. April, 2000, Nepal. Both are available at: https://www.wfp.org/food-security/assessments/comprehensive-food-security-vulnerability-analysis

UNFCCC First National Communication http://unfccc.int/resource/docs/natc/nepnc1.pdf – this has information on trends in solar radiation,temperature and precipitation (1981-1998) and the onset of the monsoon, plus impacts of climate change on crops, water resources and health.

Special Report FAO/WFP FOOD SECURITY ASSESSMENT MISSION TO NEPAL, July 2007. This document holds a lot of specific information about the 2006-7 cropping season, food shortages, household vulnerability, food security. see: ftp://ftp.fao.org/docrep/fao/010/ah869e/ah869e00.pdf

Related Pages

Background on Disasters in Nepal

Nepal Vulnerability Assessment

Nepal Conditions and Trends

Identifying Climatic Hazards in Nepal

Understanding trends in climate in Nepal

Adaptation options for Nepal

Other work on Adaptation in Nepal:

Practical Action: Promoting Adaptation in Nepal

Related resources

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