1. The context

Right across the world, natural disasters and climate change are concerns which alarm governments and threaten populations. These phenomena pose a dire threat to the sustainability of local and regional ecologies and have a devastating impact on the existing socio-economic patterns of human existence. Recurrent natural disasters already have a large hand in undermining the ability of communities, regions, nations, and the global community itself to meet basic development goals and their intensity, and possibly frequency, are likely to be exacerbated by climate change. In light of these threats, disaster risk reduction (DRR) efforts are central to meeting local and global development objectives and to promoting adaptation to climate change.

Areas within the Banganga River Basin experience floods on an annual basis; in fact, for many reasons, the impacts

of such floods have grown in severity and regularity in recent years. Climate change, however, is the most oft-cited reason for the growing vulnerability of the plains. Although disaster and climate change are bound to affect all Nepalis in one way or another, not everyone is equally vulnerable to its consequences. Poverty, caste, origin, education, age, and gender are among the factors that may decrease people’s resilience to disaster and climate change. To build the resilience of the most vulnerable, who include women, children, the disabled, Dalits, indigenous ethnics groups, and migrants, DRR and climate change adaptation (CCA) initiatives must be included in development plans and programmes.

A study carried out in Banganga River Basin by National Disaster Risk Reduction Centre (NDRC Nepal) in 2007-8 with grant support from ActionAid Nepal) demonstrated that this basin is highly impacted by climatic variability

Learning to Lead: an experience of “BuiLding resiLience to disaster and cLimate change impact on Women and chiLdren project,” Banganga river Basin in KapiLvastu district, nepaL

and frequent disasters and that the impacts of these two phenomena on people’s livelihoods and the environment have grown increasingly substantial. To address the DRR and CCA issues the basin faces, a six-month project called Building Resilience to Disaster and Climate Change Impact on Women and Children [38/10/N/419 (2011-12)] was launched in July 2011 with grant support from Canadian Cooperation Office Nepal. Its objective was to build the resilience of women and children, helping them to understand the adverse impact of climate change and protecting them from future disasters. The project’s key interventions were based on the research findings of the 2007-08 NDRC study and the major learning of the river basin and DIPECHO projects which Oxfam Nepal had conducted during the fiscal year 2005-07 in neighbouring communities adjacent. The Building Resilience Project contributed toward achieving the five key priorities of the Hyogo Framework of Action1 (HFA) and the five flagship areas of the National Strategy for Disaster Risk Management (NSDRM)2. This report summarises the key results of and learning from this project and suggests the path ahead.

Box 1: Socio-economic profile of the project area

Banganga River Basin

28 VDCs of Arghakhanchi, Kapilvastu and Palpa districts

Project VDCs Motipur, Banganga, Kopuwa and Niglihawa Total population 67,927 people in10,956 households Major target groups

4500 people in 800 households in the Tharu, Madhesi and hill migrant communities

Major livelihood Agriculture (70.6%), seasonal labour (15.3%), services (7.3%), business (6.6%)

Land tenure 73% cultivate their own land, 18% families cultivate their own land and sharecrop, and 8% rent land

Months of food sufficiency

23% year-round, 52% 6-9 months, 25% families 2-4 months

Source: CBS (2001) and NDRC (2009)

2. Key results

2.1 Increased the capacity of local communities, including children and women, to develop DRR plansTraining, DRR-based extracurricular activities, drills and simulations filled the gaps in people’s knowledge about DRR and translated skills and knowledge into practice, thereby enhancing the self-confidence and resilience of the participating

communities. The school-level awareness campaigns and safety drills and the integration of DRR into life skills education programmes have, without question, taught students, school officials and communities how to reduce risks. As a result, students and parents reacted to the earthquake of September 2011 calmly, without panicking, in marked contrast to their reaction to the August 1988 earthquake, which had resulted in chaos and terror. They ascribed their composure to the ‘duck, cover and hold’ drill 3200 students had practiced just a month before the quake struck.

Various capacity-building initiatives enabled children to speak up about issues that affect their wellbeing and adults started to see children as active players in DRR. Informants claimed and observation confirmed that children who are aware, involved, and empowered are effective agents of change and excellent communicators within communities. A survey administered to 240 respondents towards the end of the project revealed that knowledge about and the practice of community risk assessment has increased significantly compared to the baseline situation and that attitudes toward the endeavour are more positive. After communities had carried out participatory vulnerability analyses (PVAs), they drafted DRR Contingency Plans, which they shared with local government bodies and VDC-level stakeholders in order to leverage internal resources. VDCs and political parties are now familiar with DRR and climate change and have started to address these issues in their local plans.

Following a school-based PVA exercise, the students of Shree Secondary School in Niglihawa-2, Kushma VDC, pressured the school management committees to trim the tall (and therefore unsafe) trees in the school compound and have requested that a fence be built in order to prevent cattle from wandering in. Students also initiated sanitation campaigns at the school. The most apparent change, however, is that students’ ideas are starting to be heard.

School-based Contingency Plans (which are closely aligned with school improvement plans) have been drafted to designate areas as high-

1 The five priority actions of the HFA are to (i) ensure that DRR is a national and local priority with a strong institutional basis for implementation, (ii) identify, assess and monitor disaster risks and enhance early warning, (iii) use knowledge, innovation, and education to build a culture of safety and resilience at all levels, (iv) reduce underlying risk factors, and (v) strengthen disaster preparedness for effective response.

2 The five flagships area are (i) school and hospital safety, (ii) emergency preparedness and response capacity; (iii) flood management in the Koshi River Basin; (iv) integrated community-based disaster risk reduction and management; (v) policy and institutional support for disaster risk management.

VDC by Indreni, in Tilaurkot VDC by SAGUN, and in Saljhandi VDC of Rupandehi by FEALPEC.

2.3 Increased agricultural production by adopting climate-adapted techniques The project invested time and energy in introducing climate-smart cropping practices. People learned why crops had failed in recent years and, after consulting agriculture technicians and agro-vets, adopted more suitable seed varieties and new practices in order to increase productivity. In coordination with the District Agriculture Development Office, the project promoted agroforestry-based horticulture and demonstrated drought-friendly technology, including a system of wheat intensification. With project support, people started to cultivate peanuts, watermelon, and vegetables on the degraded land along the banks of the Banganga River. Also along the riverbank, they planted fodder and forage species that have excellent soil-holding capacities and extended the practice of green fencing with Jatropha species plants. Farmers planted Indian ginseng (aswagandha), snakeroot (sarpagandha), and asparagus (kurilo) for the first time and increased the area of ginger, turmeric, onion, and garlic under cultivation. Though the project ran just six months, each of the participating families was able to generate NRs. 18,000 to NRs. 32,000 by selling farm products, and farm productivity increased 40-55%. After participating in trainings and seeing various techniques demonstrated, many began organic farming, applying green manure and bio-pesticides, planting local seeds, and adopting eco-friendly preservation practices and proper seed storage techniques. Demonstration plots of mustard and vegetables were planted in Kushma and Khuteni VDCs respectively to ensure a practical way of disseminating knowledge about seasonal crop calendars, techniques of land and seed bed preparation, nursery management, transplantation, weeding and harvesting.

A meteorological station the project established in Shree Secondary School in Kushma VDC recorded maximum and minimum temperatures, wind pressure, and rainfall using project-supplied apparatuses—a thermometer, a barometer, and a rain gauge. The station targeted students, with the objective of making them aware of changing climatic pattern, but farmers, too, benefited from increase information.

, medium- or low-risk and to lay out evacuation routes to safe shelters. Schools have started renovating and improving toilets, organising sanitation campaigns, and and fencing school grounds, as is provided for in these contingency plans. Another positive change is that, under the joint Indreni/DCA programme, community-based early warning systems have been established by exchanging telephone numbers of upstream and downstream DMCs. Financial institutions are more willing to provide loans to farmers to initiate climate-smart cropping patterns. Delegations of DMC members persuaded Kapilvastu DDC to ban the extraction of soil, stones, and boulders from riverbanks and people have begun to practice farming along riverbanks. Besides conserving riverbanks, locals have re-started traditional irrigation systems, safeguarded the bridge over the Banganga River at the Mahendra Highway, and indirectly contributed to supplying clean water to the Jagadishpur wetlands.

2.2 Retrofitted one school building and carried out bio-engineering work in two sites in order to demonstrate a disaster-resilient approach to developmentTo increase safety and to demonstrate earthquake-resistant construction techniques, two rooms in one block of Shree Secondary School (870 sq. ft.) were retrofitted in a first-of-its-kind effort in Kapilvastu. Though this particular initiative will currently secure more than 900 student who attend this school, thousands of students in schools across Kapilvastu will benefit from replicating the learning it generated. Many organisations have already visited the school to learn about the retrofitting technology and the use of environmentally-appropriate construction materials. The contribution of the National Society for Earthquake Technologies (NSET) in making design and estimating building costs was commendable. Before the project was launched, sediment deposition and riverbank erosion turned thousands of hectares of cultivated land into desert, rendered hundreds of families landless, and forced many to migrate to other villages. To mitigate this devastating problem, the project constructed two bio-engineering spurs, each 35 feet long and 15 feet wide, at Motipur-5, Dhaneshpur VDC, drawing upon indigenous knowledge. The spurs used a low-cost technology which drew upon the traditional skill of weaving bhakari/tati (bamboo large basket) and comprised bamboo, jute sacks, sand, boulders and the plantation of fast-growing fodder and grass. Together, the spurs will conserve about 610 hectares of cultivated land of 213 families. Bamboo spur technology has already replicated in three places by three different organisations: in Sauraha

2.4 Formed and strengthened eight inclusive, active and well-coordinated DMCs The inclusiveness of the eight DMCs formed under the programme and, indeed, of the project’s approach as a whole has reduced discrimination and increased harmony among people. This inclusive approach has also helped formalise local networks, enabled children to be better monitored and protected in a disaster, and made it easier to mobilise children and their families to respond to disasters. School based DMCs successfully addressed psycho-social distress, including the trauma, anxiety, and fear induced by disasters.

Each DMC at project communities established an emergency fund through small initiatives like encouraging nominal monthly savings and running a “fistful of rice” campaign. They also raised money by collecting levies from sand and boulders extractors, charging fees to watch street dramas, and encouraging donations to cultural programmes.

2.5 Motivated the government to allocate funding for and to support disaster response activities in four VDCsThe activities of DMCs are not limited within their communities; they have started to form and strengthen DMC networks for advocacy, lobbying and campaigning. DMC members visited VDCs and the Kapilvastu DDC to mobilise external resource and got a green signal from them. DMCs are increasingly able to mobilise internal resources as well. For example, they approached community forest users groups and the Kapilvastu district forest and district soil conservation offices to get the seedlings and technical advice they needed to bioengineer a spur; Kapilvastu District Agriculture Office to select climate-

resilient crops; the media to disseminate information; and local cooperatives to

investing more money in climate-smart cropping patterns. Persuaded

by the recommendations of the Kapilvastu DDRC, a USAID high-level mission visited the project’s sites to gather ideas and exchange learning regarding

community-based DRR and CCA initiatives.

All the results discussed above contribute to flagship areas 1, 2, 4 and 5 of

the NSDRM as well as to priorities 1, 3, 4 and 5 of the HFA.

3. Major learning

Efforts in social mobilisation and community empowerment are excellent because NDRC Nepal coordinated with local NGOs like SAGUN and Indreni, which coordinate well with irrigation and forestry federations. As a result, a strong synergy was created and the project was able to leverage additional resources. The project succeeded in empowering communities because it used effective means of disseminating DRR messages, including street dramas, drills and DRR-based extra-curricular activities. Plays are especially good at teaching: because of their emotional appeal, they are very popular and their messages are remembered for long periods. Grievances were few and apprehension minimal because the project adopted an appreciative inquiry approach. PVA exercises helped people realise the nature of and reasons for their vulnerability and sustainable livelihood and small-scale mitigation initiatives helped build trust.

4. The path ahead

The inclusive DMCs formed do, in fact, execute DRR and climate change activities, but they are still nascent and need more capacity-building and backstopping in order to be able to address the most contemporary of DRR and CCA issues. There also needs to be support for the institutionalisation of their emergency funds.More emphasis needs to be placed on programmes rather than projects, and DRR and CCA initiatives should be linked with integrated watershed management plans in upstream areas, particularly the President of Nepal's Churia Programme. As this relatively small initiative had a great impact, some funding should be channelled into piloting the local adaptation plan of action (LAPA) process at the local level. The project’s good practices need to be replicated in other VDCs of Banganga River Basin and its learning disseminated, and follow-up activities must be conducted in the project communities. More rights-based advocacy and campaigning should be designed and executed to make Banganga River Basin a learning centre for DRR and CCA.

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Dhruba Gautam, Ph.D.Executive DirectorNational Disaster Risk Reduction Centre (NDRC Nepal)New Baneshwor-34, GPO Box 19532, Kathmandu, Nepal • Tel/Fax: +977-01-4115619, 98510-95808 Email: mail@ndrc.org.np, drrgautam@gmail.com • URL: www.ndrc.org.np

Before retrofiting After retrofiting