Strengthening community-based disaster managementinstitutions to tackle COVID–19 and local disasters

The effects of the Coronavirus or COVID-19 have been very apparent as people, politics, and economics of the world have been brought down to a grinding halt. Almost all of the governments around the globe are grappling to contain the spread of the virus, and the government of Nepal is not an exception. A glimmer of hope in this lockdown is on the skills of global medical science. We all believe that sooner or later medical science will guide us back to a post-pandemic society. However, while dealing with it at present, it has laid bare the capacity of our government and other institutions which are involved in risk management

Gender Dimensions of Food Security, the Right to Food and Food Sovereignty in Nepal

The right to food is the right to life. Ensuring food security for all the citizens and their food sovereignty is the responsibility of the State. Currently, the need for food security, especially for marginalized and oppressed sections of society, including women in Nepal, is inadequately addressed. In this context, the main objective of this paper is to examine the gender dimensions in food policies and programs in Nepal. The paper explores five dimensions of food security, the right to food and food sovereignty, and analyzes gender inclusivity in food policies and governance in particular, since the advent of the sixth periodic plan (1980-1984) that included gender issues for the first time in the planning history. The paper, employing qualitative methods, recognizes that ensuring food governance is not only essential for equitable food security and the right to food, but also to the process of transforming discriminatory cultural norms and values into equitable ones and strengthening the psychological well-being of women. This paper argues that exclusion of women from decision-making processes leads to their psychological disempowerment. Women’s participation in socio-cultural, economic, and political spheres directly impacts processes to identify and recognize their needs, preferences and priorities in food policies and programs. The article concludes, that since food security and the right to food impact women and men differently, a transformational process must respond to gender-differentiated interests, choices, preferences and entitlements. This paper proposes a framework to promote gender responsive food systems and concludes that gender responsive food policies, programs, institutional arrangements and behavioral change of individuals, families and communities are crucial to ensure the right to food for all

Political economy of urban change: contestations and contradictions in urban development in Kathmandu Valley focusing on a case of Southern Part of Lalitpur Metropolitan City

Being one of the top ten fastest urbanizing countries in the world with almost 60% urban areas, Nepal and mostly Kathmandu valley (KV), is undergoing rapid urban transition of spatial, demographic and economic changes, especially after the restoration of democracy in 1990 and subsequent political turmoil and changes. As a capital city with opportunities like access to education, jobs, health facilities and others, KV has been constantly pulling people from different parts of the country that led to densification of the city cores and uncontrolled urban sprawl, leading to unplanned growth of the built-up areas in the peri-urban landscape. This working paper, taking a case from a southern settlement of KV called Khokana, analyses the current trend of urbanization in KV with a reference of land use in general, and examines the responses from the local Newar communities as part of the tension and contradictions brought by the urbanization process and development interventions there in. Based on ethnographic fieldwork and review of literature, this study found that there is increasing demand of land creating speculative rise in land prices espoused by the infrastructure development projects being implemented by the federal government. Ultimately, the traditional place and culture are threatened so is the alienation of local people from their land, impacting their livelihood. Also, these development projects do not have resilient plans for their negative impacts in case of natural hazards, risking the achievement of resilient development in tomorrow's cities

Political economy of forest resource use and management An analysis of stakeholders' interests and actions in Nepal's community forest management

Available from British Library Document Supply Centre- DSC:DXN058004 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreSIGLEGBUnited Kingdo

Trend of urban growth in Nepal with a focus in Kathmandu Valley: A review of processes and drivers of change

This report documents and discusses the urbanization trend, spatial transition, major drivers of urban change, and existing institutional mechanisms of urban development in Nepal , one of the top ten fastest urbanizing countries in the world. Particularly, it reflects on the gaps and challenges for urban governance in Nepal and focuses on Kathmandu Valley, the “hub” of urbanization in Nepal. The urban population growth rate in Nepal almost doubled from 3.6% in 1991 to 6.5% in 2001, and the number of urban centers increased from 58 in 2013 to 293 in 2017. The review shows the transition of Nepal from predominantly rural to an emerging urban economy is primarily the result of the governmental decisions that merged rural administrative units and designated them as municipalities, administratively the urban units of Nepal. Rural to urban migration is another important factor driving urban growth in Nepal. Unplanned land use, shrinking open spaces, haphazard construction, and poor services have become major urban features of Nepal, which resemble the growth of Kathmandu Valley. Kathmandu Valley, with an estimated population of 2.54 million, is growing at 6.5% per year, indicating one of the fastest-growing metropolitan areas in South Asia. Haphazard and unplanned urbanization of the valley have degraded the urban environment, increased urban poverty, and exposed the growing urban population to multi-hazard risk. Aiming to balance urban development, develop disaster-resilient cities and enhance urban resilience, the government has formulated the urban development strategy and declared new programs for the development of emerging urban centers and “smart” cities in the valley. However, such centrallyplanned infrastructure development activities lack coordination and contradict the formal policy intentions, and are facing resistances in some places, rendering their implementation uncertain. The majority of the urban population lacks resiliency and the government lacks institutional and financial capacities and coordination crucial for undertaking inclusive, equitable, and resilient urban development. The current constitutional provision that restrains the government from imposing any kind of restriction on the use of private property has come up as an additional impediment to urban governance in Nepal and thus making urban areas increasingly disasterprone and the urban population, primarily the urban poor, vulnerable to multiple hazards. Kathmandu Valley has become an evidence of these processes and their ramifications. The report has concluded by providing key insights that can be useful in making tomorrow’s cities inclusive, equitable, and resilient

The urban political ecology of ‘haphazard urbanisation’ and disaster risk creation in the Kathmandu valley, Nepal

This paper examines the impact of rapid urbanisation on the production of unequal disaster risk in Khokana, peri-urban town in the Kathmandu Valley, Nepal. It brings together scholarships in disaster risk creation and urban political ecology, asking: (1) what are the roots of Khokana’s specific urbanisation trajectory; (2) how is this trajectory altering geographies of hazard risks in Khokana; and (3) how is this risk unevenly distributed between social groups. The data reveal overlapping forms of risk and precarity affecting residents’ (long-standing and migrants) everyday lives, in ways that disproportionately impact already-disadvantaged and marginalised groups. These unequal risk geographies are related to the specific forms and processes of urban growth occurring in Khokana, fuelled by three powerful, interconnected pressures: neoliberal capitalist expansion, internal migration, and a strong developmental state. We characterise the resulting form of urbanisation as ‘haphazard’: a patchwork of planned and unplanned developments, with inadequate attention to hazard risk, livelihood stability and essential services. The paper advances understanding of the place- and historically-specific ways that hazard risk intersects with social, political and economic forces to produce disaster risk in rapidly-urbanising centres. We extend calls for more situated UPE analysis and call for greater, more granular attention to forms of haphazard urbanisation and their uneven risk-producing qualities. We conclude an urgent need to reimagine urban development as a political and economic project, and for future urban planning to pay deliberate and deliberative attention to risk factors, both in KV and in other rapidly urbanising areas of the global South

Policies for tomorrow’s risk-resilient and equitable cities

Key policy messages 1. Haphazard urbanisation and construction activities and rapid migration create and trigger hazards such as inundation, landslides, fires, and encroachment in traditional settlements and farming land. 2. (Local) municipal governments urgently need to extrapolate emerging and future risks of hazards considering existing risks triggered by haphazard urbanisation. 3. Since disasters caused by vulnerabilities and hazards affect human society, culture, identity and livelihood practices, the engagement of social scientists to foresee the social aspects of risks from the inception of urban planning is quintessential. 4. Urban planning should not be portrayed solely as an infrastructure development project (e.g. high-rise buildings, wide roads, etc) but also conservation of local culture and environment, and inclusion of traditional knowledge and practices. 5. A deliberative and iterative engagement with disaggregated communities (e.g. caste/ethnicity, migrants, marginalised, informal settlers, women) is crucial to envisioning inclusive and resilient future/tomorrow’s cities. 6. All kinds of municipal development endeavours should be informed, embraced and institutionalised accounting for emerging and potential risks reduction and management aspects urgently

Peasant´s agriculture in Asia

To raise the question of peasant agriculture in a seminar organized in China is a real challenge, because of its long tradition in this country. However it has also today a new perspective, because of the rapid urbanization and industrialization process, even if the context is quite different here and in other Asia countries as in the rest of the world. There are three main reasons for the importance of the topic. First is the necessity of feeding humankind. In the middle of the century, we will have between 9 and 10 billion human beings to feed in an increasing urban proportion, which means that food production will have to be multiplied by two or three. The second reason is to save the planet. This is not only a quantitative question. It means the necessity of developing a type of production respectful of the regenerating capacity of the earth. Every year this capacity is reduced and agriculture, as it is performed today, is part of the problem. Finally the promotion of welfare for about 3 billion people living on agriculture is also at stake. All this is a task for everyone in the planet. (...