Strengthening Local Risk Governance in Nepal

A case study on strengthening community and institutional resilience to floods and other hazards in Nepal through effective municipal laws and policies. Nepal is one of the most disaster-prone countries in the world. In 2015, constitutional and governance reforms moved Nepal from a unitary to a federal state resulting in the formation of 753 municipalities across seven new provinces. As a consequence, the country’s climate and disaster risk management (DRM) legal frameworks and institutional arrangements had to be adjusted to reflect the new federalized structure. A challenge under these new arrangements was how to devolve responsibility for local DRM to the 753 municipalities systematically and coherently as the majority of these municipalities lacked the resources, knowledge and guidance on how to meet these new responsibilities. Nepal Red Cross Society, supported by the IFRC and Zurich Flood Resilience Alliance, worked with the Ministry of Federal Affairs and General Administration to support municipalities in this process. This led to the development of the Municipal Disaster Risk Governance Assessment Tool. Learn more about the development and goal of the tool in the case study.