Nepal - Integrating gender in climate risk assessment and adaptation planning

27 October 2017, Nepal - A three-day workshop on integrating gender in climate risk assessment and adaptation planning at the local level was held in Kathmandu, Nepal this October as part of the activities of the UNDP-FAO Integrating Agriculture in National Adaptation Plans Programme (NAP-Ag). The NAP-Ag Programme is funded by the International Climate Initiative (IKI) of the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU). The event was organized by FAO-Nepal, in collaboration with UNDP and FAO NAP-Ag global team members.

The training sought to strengthen the capacity of the Nepal’s NAP-Ag Project Technical Task-force (PTT) and contractors to integrate gender analysis methods and tools in climate risk assessment and adaptation planning in the agriculture sector. It also sought to strengthen the gender and adaptation capacity of participating government officials in terms of monitoring and evaluating the NAP-Ag project, and more importantly in terms of their adaptation work over the longer term.

The case-study based training used interactive exercises supported by presentations to guide participants through different gender-related concepts and issues, risk assessment frameworks and tools, and the adaptation planning cycle.

Over 25 participants attended from ministries of Agricultural Development, Livestock Development, Forestry and Soil Conservation, Population and Environment, Information, Federal Affairs and Local Development, and Home Affairs as well as the National Agricultural Research Council, Nepal Academy of Science and Technology, National Planning Commission, Department of Food Technology and Quality Control, Department of Agriculture, Department of Livestock Services, Department of Hydrology and Meteorology, FAO Nepal, and UNDP Nepal. Association for Development of Environment and People in Transition-Nepal (ADAPT-Nepal) and PricewaterhouseCoopers Limited, the service providers engaged to undertake the climate risk assessment and adaptation planning initiative at the local level also participated.

The first day started by establishing a common understanding of key gender concepts and linkages between gender and climate risk assessment and adaptation planning.  It then moved to strengthening participants’ understanding of the broader gender and climate change context in which Nepal is engaged (e.g. Paris Agreement, Nationally Determined Contributions or NDCs) as well as national Gender and Social Inclusion (GESI) commitments, policies and strategies. The latter part of the day found participants working together to strengthen their capacity to conduct gender-sensitive risk assessments. This included working through a gender-sensitive situation analysis using tools such as the Capacity and Vulnerability Assessment (CVA) framework and Problem Tree. The CVA framework helped participants to identify women’s and men’s strengths (capacities) and weaknesses (vulnerabilities) that determine the impact of a crisis on them as well as their ability to respond.

The second and third days focused on using the findings of the risk assessment to inform adaptation planning. Building from the case study and the findings from their situation analysis (i.e. capacities and vulnerabilities), participants continued to work in small groups to identify goals, activities, inputs, indicators for monitoring and evaluation (M&E), assumptions, and risks for adaptation planning.

The workshop closed with participants’ assessing their own learning and identifying their further capacity needs followed by closing remarks and the presentation of certificates.

This training is linked to other workshops on gender and adaptation held under the auspices of the NAP-Ag programme in Uganda, Kenya and Zambia in 2016 and 2017. The training was facilitated by Barun Gurung (WOCAN) with additional facilitation and logistical support by Nisha Onta (WOCAN).  Catherine Hill, Gender Advisor, NAP-GSP provided technical support to the training.

‘’Following the session, I feel that the workshop has enabled me to strengthen my previous concept of gender integration in programme planning, and monitoring and evaluation’’ said Mr. Suresh Babu Tiwri, Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture and National Focal Person of the project.

Following the training, service providers, ADAPT and PWC, revisited their frameworks for an upcoming study on climate change vulnerability/risk assessment and adaptation planning at local level. They used their learning from the training to refine the gender perspective in their frameworks. 

In Nepal, the NAP-Ag Programme seeks to enhance the understanding of climate change impacts on the agriculture sector. It also works to integrate climate change risk management into the planning and budgeting processes within the agriculture sector at all levels. In addition, the project aims to build the technical capacities of Ministry of Agriculture Development (MoAD) and other relevant ministries to integrate climate change concerns into relevant national and sectoral plans and budgets. One of the work streams of the programme focuses on training MoAD officers on a Risk Assessment approach, based on a methodology developed by the Ministry of Population and Environment (NAP-Process), for use in monitoring, management and selection of adaptation practices. Nepal recognized the importance of integrating gender issues into risk assessment to understand and respond to the different vulnerabilities to risk that women and men experience and their capacity to respond.

View Photo Album of the workshop. 

For more information on Nepal, visit http://adaptation-undp.org/naps-agriculture/partner-countries/nepal  and  www.fao.org/in-action/naps/partner-countries/nepal/en/.