Strengthening Local Governance for Disaster-Resilient Communities (SAKSHAM) Semi-Annual Progress Report

The project targets 12,545 individuals directly and supports 297,836 residents of communities indirectly in these two flood-prone districts. The goal of the project is to strengthen community resilience through an integrated approach to disaster risk reduction and management (DRRM) planning, capacity strengthening, and resilient livelihoods. The project has been engaging the municipality and ward representatives, communities, and stakeholders in planning, implementation, resource leveraging, and monitoring of the project activities to ensure DRRM is localized at the local level. This has helped establish trust with local government and stakeholders and increase their enthusiasm to participate in planning and decision-making. To support local government to implement a risk-informed planning process, SAKSHAM has engaged the Youth Innovation Lab (YI-Lab) to update and localize Nepal's Building Information Platform Against Disaster (BIPAD) portal for project-supported municipalities. Forty-eight Community Disaster Management Committees (CDMCs) and four emergency response task forces per community have been formed in each of the target communities. A total of 1,200 people (58% are women) are members of the CDMCs and 1,333 people are members of emergency response task forces (57% women). Capacity building trainings for the CDMC members, such as community-based DRR (CBDRR) orientations, gender orientations, and Community Action for Disaster Response (CADRE) training, have been organized in this semester. The project has also formed its 48 targeted CDMCs (30 in Saptari and 18 in Siraha) and mobilized them for community awareness, coordination, and leadership for project implementation at the community level. The CDMCs are conducting monthly meetings to discuss linkages with government and non-government agencies, selection of beneficiaries, community hazards, assessments of current risks and vulnerabilities, and awareness raising on COVID-19 risk and safety measures. SAKSHAM is supporting the CDMCs in organizational development in areas such as running and documenting meetings and establishing linkages with municipality and ward offices. Under each CDMC, SAKSHAM formed four emergency response task forces: early warning, first aid, search and rescue, and relief and recovery. There are at least four members in each task force, totaling 1,333 members (57% women). Activities to strengthen early warning systems will begin in April 2021, and capacity building of duty bearers will also begin in April 2021. Community-based disaster risk reduction (CBDRR) orientations have been conducted for the leadership of the CDMCs, and Community Action for Disaster Response (CADRE) training has been organized for the emergency response task force members. The project has made significant progress in the first semi-annual reporting period, with the formation of CDMCs and emergency response task forces, capacity building trainings, and mobilization of community awareness and coordination. The project is expected to continue its progress in the coming months, with activities such as strengthening early warning systems, capacity building of duty bearers, and community-based disaster risk reduction (CBDRR) orientations.