24 May 2017 | Himalica

Himalica Action Research – The Journey: From Disaster to Preparedness

In Udayapur district of Nepal, women generally haven’t had the same access to information, extension services, or opportunities to participate in government programmes and markets as men. However, rising outmigration of men demands that women acquire new skills, capacities, and knowledge to deal with new challenges related to disaster preparedness, food security, and farm management.

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Women from flood-prone villages in southeastern Nepal are leading changes to better prepare their families and communities to deal with the impacts of floods and other disasters with support from an action research project focused on financial literacy, flood preparedness, and livelihood diversification. Photo credit: Jitendra Bajracharya

Women from migrant-sending households are increasingly responsible for managing disaster risks as well as household resources. Raising their awareness, improving their ability to plan for the future (for example, identifying short-, medium-, and long-term goals), and supporting the adoption of low-cost and no-regret measures are likely to enhance adaptive capacity of their household. These capacities – knowledge, planning, savings, and no-regret measures – are building blocks for long-term climate change adaptation and resilience building.

Over 200 women from migrant-sending households participated in training and village-level extension services on financial literacy, flood preparedness, and livelihood diversification as part of action research by ICIMOD’s Support to Rural Livelihoods and Climate Change Adaptation in the Himalaya (Himalica) Initiative together with the Nepal Institute of Development Studies (NIDS). This action research supplemented traditional knowledge of female participants from migrant-sending households with tailored inputs from a wide array of experts.