Start date (month/year): March 2011
Completion date (month/year): October 2011
Narrative description of Project:
A serious concern next to the climate change has been the impending disasters. Extreme climate events affect multiple sectors including agriculture, food security, water resources and health. Climatic variability can trigger crop failures, shortages of water for irrigation, food insecurity and hunger. Impacts of extreme events such as droughts, floods, and cyclones frequently accumulate into setbacks of development gains and towards achieving the MDGs related to poverty, hunger and human health. Therefore, managing climate risks have been a major challenge today. The concept of Climate Risk Management (CRM) has emerged to address vulnerabilities climate variability in the context of sustainable development.
The CRM intends to promote proactive, demand driven interventions to achieve positive outcomes for communities and societies in climate-sensitive sectors such as agriculture, forestry, fisheries, water resources, environment, and ultimately food security. It is felt the urgency that a pragmatic toolkit and educational materials are prepared for the Nepali communities, the rural in particular. The Nepal Academy of Science and Technology (NAST) initiated to develop and disseminate Climate Risk Management (CRM) Toolkits and IEC Materials for sub-national level Stakeholders, media, communities, and students.
Description of actual services provided in the assignment:
- Developed tool kit for general people including decision makers at district and community level, students at higher secondary school and undergraduate level, and mass-media outlets at national and sub national level.
- Organized a consultative meeting of experts to have a broader discussion on the content of the tool kits.
- Pre-tested of the tool kit at community levels of three districts covering high-mountain, mid-hills, and lowland Tarai.
- Organized national and regional level workshops for media persons.
- Organized educational workshop in the headquarters of three districts of Nepal.
- Organized interaction workshop among CRM/DRM focal points of Governmental institutions.
- Disseminated the prepared IEC materials on CRM to various stakeholders and user institutions in the country.
- Established a network of CRM stakeholders in districts proposed for this project.