As the year of 2018 came to an end, the Project Steering Committee scheduled every quarter, brought together members on 31 December 2018 to review past activities, evaluate their effectiveness and decide on a future action plan. 8 NPP members representing MoHA, Center of Resilience Development (CoRD), Federation of Nepalese Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI), ADPC, Local Initiatives for Biodiversity, Research and Development (LI-BIRD) and Tribhuvan University attended.
Nepal Preparedness Partnership (NPP) was formed as the national chapter of APP under the “Strengthening Capacity of Government and Local Humanitarian Organizations on Preparedness for Response” program, which is implemented by Asian Disaster Preparedness Center (ADPC) and supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF). A National Steering Committee was formed under the Chairmanship of the Joint Secretary of Ministry of Home Affairs (MoHa), Nepal.
Mr. Man Thapa, Country Representative ADPC, Nepal welcomed all members and provided an overview of 2018’s activities and accomplishments. He noted the success of conducting pilot trainings on Preparedness for Emergency Response (PER) and Business Continuity Management (BCM) which had been replicated across several districts and how the Protection against Lightning (PaL) programs have been increasing community awareness and capacity-building.
Members also expressed their satisfaction with Nepal hosting regional events such as APP’s Innovations Forum for Safer Asia (1st December), Consultative meeting on APP’s Way Forward, 3rd APP Regional Steering Committee meeting (2nd December) in addition to the 14th Regional Consultative Committee (RCC) meeting from 3-5 December 2018, resulting in improved relationships and coordination opportunities among DRM stakeholders.
With reference to activities being planned for 2019, members agreed to focus efforts towards crystalizing action plans in implementing NPP activities along with key interventions of the Building Resilience through inclusive and climate-adaptive Disaster Risk Reduction in Asia Pacific (BRDR) program. Supported by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), BRDR is a five-year program that aims to protect development gains and to enhance regional cooperation on inclusive and gender-equal risk reduction approaches. Members also suggested efforts to collaborate with FNCCI (the private sector partner) to familiarize the business community with the recently enacted Disaster Risk and Management Act (2017), National DRM Policy, and National Strategic Action Plan on DRM (2018-2030) across all provinces in the country.
Closing the meeting, Ms. Indu Ghimire, Joint Secretary and Chief, Disaster and Conflict Management Division, MoHa and Chair of the Project Steering Committee meeting thanked all members for their valuable contributions and geared up for another fruitful year of the APP collaboration.
