Fiscal Year 5, Quarter 1 Report (Oct-Dec 2018)

The program is a Development Food Assistance Project under the Bureau for Democracy, Conflict and Humanitarian Assistance/Office of Food for Peace that takes a multi-dimensional, systems approach to address the underlying socio-political, economic, and ecological constraints, and the related shock and stress exposures, that drive food insecurity in Nepal. PAHAL's sub-purposes form the resilience pathways which would enable people of vulnerable communities to better cope with and absorb shocks and stresses, adapt to better health and livelihood strategies in order to effectively reduce exposure to and impact of shocks and stresses, and recover quickly and 'bounce back better' through transformed systems in the face of shocks and stresses. The program's intermediate outcomes are classified under key systems as follows: Ecological, Economic, Social, and Transformative. During the first quarter of FY19, PAHAL continued to implement its interventions in 46 Rural/Municipalities throughout the program's 14 targeted districts. The program directly benefited over 22,917 unique beneficiaries during this quarterly reporting period. The numbers of registered individuals who participated in PAHAL activities during the first quarter are outlined in Table 1 by district. The total number of people who participated in project activities is presented by sector in Table 2. PAHAL's interventions in the Ecological System aim to achieve three major results that map to the sub-systems: Women, men, and community groups apply DRR measures and climate information to prepare for, and respond to, ecological shocks and make on-and-off farm investments; Improved water and water technology access; and Improved access to productive natural resources and natural resource management systems. The Ecological System is comprised of three major subsystems: Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR), water access and management, and natural resource management. The program's interventions in the Economic System aim to achieve two major results: Improved access to dynamic and responsive agricultural and non-agricultural markets, and Improved access to appropriate and diverse financial services and products. PAHAL's interventions in the Social System aim to achieve two major results: Better access to improved nutrition, water, sanitation, and hygiene services, strategies, and technologies, and Increased participation, agency, and voice of vulnerable groups in governance processes. PAHAL's Transformative Systems aim to achieve three major results: Enabling rules and regulations applied; Enabling knowledge systems, attitudes, and perceptions across community, private sector, and government institutions; and Social capital across diverse community groups, private sector stakeholders, and government institutions. The program's Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) framework is designed to track progress towards these outcomes and identify areas for improvement. The program's sustainability and exit strategy for each sector's associated community groups was developed using Tufts University's sustainability framework around sustained knowledge, resources, motivation, and capacity. These strategies were used to identify FY19 activities to ensure that community groups will continue to apply food security and resilience capacities beyond PAHAL's presence in each community.