Building community resilience through climate change adaptation and mitigation measures

About the country

We are again building on our previous experiences with an NGO with which we have a positive track record, therefore carrying out our 4th project in Nepal. You can see, here, here and here for more details.

The 2022 UN Dev. Prgm Report puts the country in the Medium human development category, Nepal ranks 143 (on 191) and has largely maintained a stable position despite the Covid-19 pandemic and natural disasters. The country nevertheless continues to incur a substantive loss in human development due to persisting inequalities across gender or caste.

Nepal is in addition highly vulnerable to climate change and experiences rises in temperature and precipitation at a faster rate than the global average. It is exposed to a range of climate risks and water-related hazards triggered by rapid snow- and ice-melt in the mountains and torrential rainfall episodes during the monsoon season. The obvious impacts (reductions in agricultural production, food insecurity, strained water resources, loss of forests and biodiversity, as well as damaged infrastructure) essentially affect the least favored populations.

Main objectives

The project supports the most impoverished communities affected by annual floods. It aims at strengthening their resilience by providing support regarding disaster preparedness, through working on related issues such as floods, as well as issues related to lack of sustainable options for livelihood. The project further works to combat the problem of fire and droughts in the summer season to improve food security, and to address the issues of decreasing underground water tables.

Key principles

The project will consist in:

1

Developing safe housing and disaster management plans.

2

Promoting a climate-resilient water management systems through the installation of pump and bio-sand filters for safe drinking water, with renovation of community ponds.

3

Reducing carbon emissions and improving carbon capture by tree plantations (also to reduce soil erosion), also distributing household improved cook stoves and installing biogas plants.

4

Increasing and diversifying households’ income by adopting climate-smart agricultural and livestock practices targeted at women.

In cooperation with Aide à l’Enfance de l’Inde et du Népal: https://www.aein.lu