Saving lives and building resilient livelihoods of the urban vulnerable population in Mahakali River Basin

DanChurchAid Nepal

The Issue

Kanchanpur and Dadeldhura districts along the Mahakali River in Nepal suffer from recurrent floods and landslides. These districts are highly dependent on agriculture but due to climate change, agricultural productivity is sharply declining. The 2021 post-monsoon flood in Mahakali caused huge loss, especially on rice farms, and over 1,500 houses were directly affected. Under the new federal structure, the local governments are primarily responsible for delivering inclusive and disaster-resilient development. However, they lack the resources and tools to fulfil this mandate.

Consequently, the targeted districts face major challenges to deal with multidimensional risks associated with climate change and disaster risk management; and need systematic planning and interventions to improve disaster preparedness and build communities’ resilience.

The Project

The project seeks to protect people’s livelihoods from shocks and strengthen their capacity to absorb the impacts of and recover from disruptive climate induced risks. The project focuses on three areas: Climate Change, Disaster Risk Reduction and Livelihood and has targeted three municipalities of the Mahakali River basin, namely Bhimdatt and Dodhara Chandani in Kanchanpur district and Prashuram Municipality in Dadeldhura. This project aims to integrate its interventions to build a climate-resilient community with enhanced livelihood options and forecast-based anticipatory actions.

The Change

This ongoing project is increasing the capacities of targeted municipalities to manage climate-induced disaster risks in line with national policies and frameworks. It is working to create an enabling environment through policy analysis, identifying gaps, strengthening institutional frameworks, and building the capacity of targeted municipalities, groups, and communities. Similarly, it is supporting local government and communities to prepare for effective response by imparting knowledge and awareness on climate change and DRRM; mapping high risk areas; piloting/scaling up forecast-based early actions; conducting simulation exercise; establishing funds for early actions; and providing technical assistance to develop/update cash and voucher assistance.

It is also supporting to strengthen local structures such as community and district level disaster management committees to manage DRR. Climate-vulnerable women, youth, and smallholder farmers are also being supported to adopt sustainable livelihood practices and green enterprises, integrating market system approach.

Further, it is creating evidence and learnings to scale up policy advocacy.

Partners

Nepal National Social Welfare Association (NNSWA): The organisation works in partnership with the government, donors, INGOs, local NGOs and CBOs. It is committed to empower and ensure the social rights of vulnerable people and strives towards an equitable society. It works to provide help services to those in the target areas, advocates rights for women and children, creates leaders through skill development and supports to enhance the livelihood of vulnerable people.

To learn more about NNSWA click here.

Our Work

The project has been designed with two intersecting strategic priorities -Save Lives and Build Resilient Communities. Under these themes, DCA strengthens and capacitates institutions, communities, local government, and CSOs/CBOs for risk-informed preparedness. It supports partner organisations to develop capacity by enhancing their skills on humanitarian assistance for rapid response. DCA and partners support the development of women and youth leadership and their agencies on disaster risk reduction (DRR) and climate change (CC); so that the communities have better understanding on risk transfer mechanism and that the vulnerable communities are protected through social protection schemes. DCA with partners work closely with LGs and stakeholders for enabling risk-informed decision approach for resilient and sustainable development.