Recovery Programme Nepal

Project description

Project title: Recovery programme in Nepal
Commissioned by: German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ)
Country: Nepal
Lead executing agency: Ministry of Health (MoH) (June 2015 – Feb 2017)
Ministry of Federal Affairs and Local Development (MoFALD) (March 2017 - August 2018)
Overall term: June 2015 to August 2018

Context

The two earthquakes that struck Nepal in April and May 2015 caused nearly 9,000 deaths, over 22,000 injuries and enormous devastation to public and private infrastructure across large parts of the region. Many people’s homes were destroyed or severely damaged. Around 1.4 million people were left with no access to food or clean water. Their hygiene situation was precarious, and basic medical care catastrophic. Hundreds of health facilities were destroyed or damaged.

Reconstruction of private housing in rural and urban areas accounts for some 45% of the total funding earmarked by the Government of Nepal for its Post-Disaster Recovery Framework (PDRF). In figures, this is equivalent to around USD 3.5 billion of an estimated total of USD 7.8 billion.

In response to these large-scale losses and damage, Germany agreed to a request by the Government of Nepal to provide acute emergency assistance to the local population in three affected districts. Support was initially scheduled to last for one year starting in June 2015 but was later extended through to August 2018.

Objective

Communities affected by the earthquake have better access to basic support services and demonstrate greater resilience.

Approach

In the immediate aftermath of the earthquake, GIZ rolled out an emergency intervention programme to secure acute basic medical care. In contrast, the recovery programme provides a support platform for the medium to longer-term rehabilitation of communities affected by the earthquake.

Over the course of twelve months, the programme assisted the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Federal Affairs and Local Development to respond to the national crisis in the districts of Rasuwa, Nuwakot and Dhading. Specifically, its interventions targeted the following areas:

  1. essential health services
  2. construction of temporary housing and the supply of basic household equipment
  3. timely responses to the needs of specific target groups (e.g. single women/widows, marginalised ethnic groups)
  4. reconstruction of schools

Furthermore, the project contributed to the restoration of historical buildings in Bhaktapur and strengthened the assessment and coordination capacity of the District Disaster Relief Committees.

The extended project currently prioritises four areas of action:

  • Improve local people’s lives by rebuilding social and productive infrastructure
  • Strengthen district and community capacity for disaster risk management
  • Support efforts to reinforce particularly vulnerable small-scale infrastructure
  • Promote access to safe schools by repairing and reconstructing schools that have been destroyed

Results

  • Up to 6,000 households were given help to prepare for the onset of winter and to cope with earthquake-related problems. For example, the project supplied energy-efficient stoves, household utensils, blankets, mattresses, materials and tools to build short-term emergency shelters.
  • Reinstating the 37 health facilities (34 new and 3 retrofit) in the districts concerned has led to improved access to basic medical care and strengthened local community resilience.
  • Supporting 5,700 households to resume their agriculture-related activities e.g. through seed and tool provision, and assisting up to 650 farmers with new agro based technologies, has improved agricultural production and enhanced levels of food security.
  • Vocational training for over 650 people on earthquake resistant construction techniques has resulted in earthquake resistant housing and community infrastructures, thus directly helping to render communities less vulnerable to disasters in future.
  • The reconstruction of community infrastructure created income-generating opportunities for the affected population through cash for work programmes and employment. It also gave up to 4,000 households access to the rehabilitated facilities.
  • Women have accounted for around 33% of participants in the construction-related training measures conducted so far. This figure is high for Nepal and is regarded as a new way forward in terms of the targeted promotion of girls and women, a target group that has been particularly badly affected by the indirect consequences of the earthquake (increased human trafficking, child marriages, prostitution).
  • By assisting the Government of Nepal (GoN) to develop district-level disaster response and management plans, the project has expanded its capacity to cope with future disasters and mitigate their impact.
  • The interlinking of training and support for women’s cooperatives – e.g. in connection with income-generating measures, such as agro based processing techniques, low cost sanitary pad production and earthquake resilient masonry – has led to good results.
  • With the support of the District Disaster Response Committee, the project was able to considerably strengthen the coordination and response capabilities of the authorities charged with managing activities in the aftermath of a disaster.