Mitigating Flood Risks Through Women’s Leadership in EbA Interventions

Nepal is one of the most vulnerable countries to climate change threats and natural hazards such floods and hazards. It has been actively striving to adapt to the challenges posed by climate change. Recognizing the importance of adaptation measures, Nepal has developed a National Adaptation Programme of Action (NAPA), and it has made a promising start in developing Local Adaptation Plan of Action (LAPA) to implement the national adaptation priorities. But the consideration of Ecosystem based Adaptation (EbA) measures into LAPAs are limited despite of notable success of such measures in Nepal. In addition, role of women in climate change adaptation are often restricted to participation in events while their leadership role is suppressed.

Most often, site specific interventions are used to reduce flood risk while the major driver of the problem lies in the upper catchment. This project is particularly designed with the aim of integrating watershed wide EbA into policies and programs. It seeks to capture evidence of gender-responsive EbA measures from Nepal’s experience, identify the hotspots for climate adaptation interventions, and identify and prioritize EbA responses through a co-creation process with women and indigenous communities. A watershed restoration plan, an integration of EbA measures in the six LAPAs, will be a key output. An accompanying Gender Equality, Disability and Social Inclusion (GEDSI) action plan for the watershed will be co-created to promote the role of women in EbA design, construction, monitoring and maintenance. The distillation of lessons learnt and recommendations can then inform and be an input to the next NAPA and the LAPAs. The project will also facilitate capacity building of local government and communities to adopt EbA approaches to mitigate flood risks at the watershed level.

Project Status

The project is in its preliminary stage. Over the first two months of the project, introductory meetings with pertinent government stakeholders at the local level and provincial levels have been carried out. The meetings primarily focused on understanding the climate induced hazards in their areas, as well as the disaster risk reduction and management approaches undertaken. In addition, project objectives and next steps were shared with government stakeholders and their engagement at different stages of the project. The review of literature and documents pertaining to EbA interventions for flood risk reduction across Nepal, and the development of case studies are underway. The immediate next step is to conduct an inception workshop at the watershed level, carrying out a baseline study and a vulnerability and capacity assessment.