Climatic Hazard Mitigation Through Risk and Resilience Committees in Nepal

Nepal lies in an ecologically fragile and seismic region with a history of devastating Glacier Lake Outburst Flood (GLOF), landslides and earthquakes. Increases in temperature could increase the frequency and magnitude of climatic disaster occurrences. Winter snow in Kathmandu in 2007 after nearly 65 years absence, frequent flood events since 2000, and an increased number of glacier lakes in the upper Himalayas indicates that climate change may already be having a significant impact. Disaster events in Nepal are known to impact disproportionately on poor and marginalised people who live in more exposed environments during risky times and without adequate forms of protection. With increasing climatic drivers of disaster events this trend is predicted to increase. The challenge of achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in Nepal is therefore also a function of mitigating potentially disastrous effects of climatic change. One small initiative to establish local level Risk and Resilience Committees (RRC) has begun with support from the Department for International Development (DFID) and British Council (DelPHE programme) and may exemplify ways in which increasing hazards can be offset by the community. Its institutionalisation is emerging as one of the strategies for building disaster resilient communities in Nepal.
Increased realisation of the frequency and severity of epidemic, fire, storm, landslide, flood, and earthquake risks in Nepal underpins demand for community capacity to prepare, avoid, mitigate and respond to disaster. The RRC institutional framework embraces government structures, traditions and customs, political practices and public awareness to identify best ways of enhancing local disaster resilience. They currently sit within a wider strategy for “People Centred Hazard and Vulnerability Mitigation for Disaster Risk Reduction in Bangladesh and Nepal”. The aim is to enhance disaster resilience by the communities’ self directed establishment of the RRC involving local knowledge sharing and capacity building to assess and manage risk. Two RRC were established in Pachkhal Valley, Kavre District, and Dhankuta Municipality in 2007. Individuals from local government, NGOs, political parties, academics and other bodies were introduced to the fundamentals of disaster reduction through participatory training workshops. Localised risk records in which localised hazards, risks and vulnerabilities are detailed were designed by the RRCs. At Dhankuta participants worked in four heterogeneous groups, each ultimately drafting a risk record based on their previous experiences and needs.
Community based risk records are the beginning of a process whereby local people take the lead in building their capacity to manage their own disaster risk reduction processes. It is expected that the risk records will form the basis of producing municipality level disaster risk reduction policies and plans. The overall project experience of establishing risk and resilience groups in the community has to date demonstrated that participatory initiatives in communities with a wide-range of stakeholders can produce highlevel acceptance, involvement and local knowledge building. This was also found with groups established by members of this team in central Mozambique. Whilst community based development or disaster reduction groups are not new, concerted examples of people centred risk and resilience building remains largely under-utilized to its full potential, awaiting more in depth analysis and a wider set of experiences from around the world. The potential impact of climate change and failure of macro level policy making to address interests of civil society as a whole, suggests risk and resilience community approaches as a way forward in linking basic needs for human rights, representation, and disaster risk reduction.