Using mobile phones to reduce the adversities of climate change in rural Nepal

This paper describes an initiative aiming to build resilience by improving the livelihood assets of vulnerable communities. The work reported here focuses on the rural communities around Kirtipur in Nawalparasi District in SouthCentral Nepal. The initiative is part of a disaster risk reduction project implemented by Practical Action in Nepal, financially supported by the UK's Department for International Development.

The initiative sought ways to use the growing number of mobile phones coming into the area to reduce vulnerabilities, including the vulnerability to climate-related disasters, and more generally to improve agricultural livelihoods. It did this by developing a phone-based early warning system allowing upstream and downstream communities to exchange information on flood signs and occurrences. It also developed a list of service providers and traders with whom the farmers could communicate or agricultural and value chain information.