Four years since killer quake, Nepal building homes and skills
By Many Gupta
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A unique multi-pronged partnership has been helping families in the Gorkha region rebuild their homes and their lives. This brings together the governments of India and Nepal, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), the Owner Driven Reconstruction Collaborative which includes non-profit SEEDS and affected families themselves.
The partnership works on an owner-driven philosophy, supporting the families with the designs, tools, resources, skills and quality monitoring to rebuild themselves. In remote communities with no formal engineers or architects, this is giving individual homeowners access to high-quality socio-technical input. Through an escalation mechanism (similar to a hospital), all challenges — from getting the paperwork right to on-site technical advice to design tweaks — are being addressed.
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Ayshanie Labe, UNDP’s Resident Representative in Nepal also looks at a future perspective. “Looking beyond the ongoing reconstruction, what is also crucial is to put in place strong institutions with specific skills needed to effectively handle disasters in the hours of need. While a major breakthrough has been made with the adoption of the National Policy and Strategic Action Plan for Disaster Risk Reduction and Management, we need to rally our efforts to put the policy into practice. UNDP is privileged to continue to work alongside the Government of Nepal, India and all other partners in building a more resilient Nepal.”
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