Reducing Poverty in Nepal by Reducing Disaster Risks

Seismic natural occurrences are often portrayed as disastrous, livelihood-destructing, hazardous events. However, natural cataclysms only become dangerous and have longlasting consequences when they affect a highly vulnerable community of people. Poverty is therefore a major factor in increasing disaster risk, especially for developing countries. Because the poor have few options regarding where to live and how to survive, they are the most exposed and most vulnerable to disasters.

The impoverished are also often not adequately prepared to anticipate, deal with and recover from disasters.

Inversely, increased dicaster risk can increase pover se poverty in a region. Countries affected by these inevitable events, are caught up in a never ending cycle of poverty, and are pushed deeper below the poverty line. Only by addressing the two interlinked issues of disaster risk and poverty can any progress be made towards the Millennium Development Goals of 2000.

Nepal, being a landlocked developing country (LLDC), has endured many destructive events, the most recent being the two earthquakes that hit in April and May of 2015.

Although, Nepal has previously set in place a strategy for action with regards to disaster risk reduction, there is still much room for improvement in the sector. NGO’s have been readily shoveling resources into the reconstruction and post-disaster effort, but poverty still remains in many of the rural Nepalese communities. Much progress has been made in the efforts of reconstruction, but there still remains about 600 Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps 2 and 2.8 million people in need of assistance. Having received a total of about 5 million dollars in funding so far, our country evidently has far to go.

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The agricultural sector of Nepal’s income has also been heavily affected by the recent quakes. According to the Agricultural Livelihood Impact Appraisal, (ALIA) stored crops have been destroyed, as well as shelter for livestock, agricultural tools, fertilizer and seed, and labor availability has decreased enormously. Nepal’s Disaster Risk Reduction Consortium also flags areas where our country requires improvement in order to mitigate disaster effects. The document outlines several key flagships, and identifies ways in which each one can be improved upon.

Nepal believes that the main focus of disaster risk reduction in order to alleviate poverty should be at the local level. The direct involvement of individual citizens at the community level will directly aid in the process of mitigation. Institutional and legislative strategies should be more efficiently communicated to local sectors to mainstream risk reduction policies. An increase in communication between national and international resources would also allow legislation passed at the higher levels to be better enforced.

A monitoring of building progress should also be established to keep tabs on the development more stable infrastructure. Education should also be encouraged throughout communities, especially rural. Infrastructure, which is easily the most important factor in disaster mitigation efforts, should be disaster-resistant, notably for public service buildings such as schools, hospitals and water and sanitation facilities. Resilient building codes should be instituted into legislation and planning efforts, and audits made periodically. In developing countries, it is important for the national government to ensure that settlement in hazardous, disaster-prone zones is limited or restricted. Agricultural approaches to disaster mitigation is also a main concern as when nation is troubled with a national disaster, it often loses it’s capacity to produce a source of income.

This strengthens the need for disaster-resilient agricultural practices and low-cost irrigation techniques, which could contribute heavily to the uplifting of a community out of poverty. That being said, agriculture should not be the only source of income if the vulnerability of a country is to be diminished. The national government should enforce legislation and work to promote the diversifying of income sources and trade. Nepal also strongly urges countries to draft a document such as Nepal’s Consortium to aid in regionspecific provision. The road to the alleviation of poverty will be long and difficult, but Nepal believes that disaster risk reduction is one of the key ingredients in its collapse. Nepal looks forward to working with other countries in order to reduce poverty and increase livelihoods and condition of life in our and other countries.

Works Cited

1. United Nations Nepal Information Platform. “Nepal Risk Reduction Consortium” UN Nepal Information Platform. Coordination Mechanisms. 2012. Web. 27 October 2015.
2. International Organization of Migration. “Nepal Displacement Tracking Matrix” Humanitarian Data Exchange. Datasets. 15 September 2015. Web. 27 October 2015.
3. Humanitarian Data Exchange. “Nepal Earthquake Topline Figures” Humanitarian Data Exchange. Datasets. 1 June 2015. Web. 28 October 2015.
4. Humanitarian Data Exchange. “Response Plan Coverage – Nepal Earthquake” Humanitarian Data Exchange. Datasets. 30 June 2015. Web. 28 October 2015.
5. Nepal Food Security Cluster. “Nepal Earthquake: Agricultural Livelihood Impact Appraisal in Six Most Affected Districts” Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Resources, Documents. June 2015. Web. 30 October 2015.
6. United Nations Nepal Information Platform. “Nepal Risk Reduction Consortium” UN Nepal Information Platform. Coordination Mechanisms. 2012. Web. 27 October 2015.