CAFOD

In the light of food shortages and loss of local incomes arising from the continuation of Covid-19 outbreaks in Nepal, mountain communities in areas like the Tsum Nubri are highly vulnerable, given that it is deemed to be a highly food insecure area. With external support from funding bodies like CAFOD scheduled to taper off in October 2020, local communities in the Tsum Valley have asked CAN to consolidate these agricultural and livelihoods interventions for a further year. Subject to continued funding the extended project will work 15 CBOs/mothers’ groups across the Chumchet and Chekamparo wards in the Tsum Nubri Rural Municipality and will seek to target local subsistence farmers, mother’s groups, vulnerable groups and local monks. There will be 277 direct beneficiaries including 227 female householders, 10 subsistence farmers and 40 monks with indirect beneficiaries in the region of 1,600+ villagers. To extend the project, funding is requested from CAFOD to maintain the deployment of two JTAs to help 15 target communities improve the sustainability of locally produced food in the face of the Covid-19 outbreak and to minimise food shortages.

As the number of COVID-19 cases in Nepal rapidly increased in April and early May, the nation’s public health system quickly reached its limits. Hospital beds are currently in short or supply in health facilities across the country, and facilities are facing critical shortages of life-saving oxygen, other critical medical supplies, and personal protective equipment (PPE). Prospects for rapidly increasing supply have been hampered by the India’s moratorium on exports of critical medical supplies and lockdown measures imposed by the Government of Nepal in the face of the country’s second wave, including a nearly full moratorium on international flights, which has reduced options for transporting medical supplies into the country. In addition to driving a spike in morbidity, the rise in COVID-19 cases in Nepal and in neighboring India, is also expected to have a strong negative impact on the ability of Nepali’s ability to address their basic needs. Within Nepal, GoN lockdown measures imposed on April 29 and currently in force have severally limited the function of markets and transportation of agricultural production and other goods, and disrupted informal economic activities on which a large portion of the population depends. At the same time, migrant workers are returning to Nepal from India having lost their primary source—and in many cases, only source—of income. Caritas Nepal (CN) and Catholic Relief Services (CRS) Nepal expect to support 1-2 under-resourced government or community-funded hospitals in several districts. As supplies are procured, CN/CRS will apply a targeting criteria based on bed occupancy, stock-out of supplies and municipal caseload to target activities to areas most in-need. With the majority of arriving aid currently being focused in the Kathmandu Valley, CN/CRS expects to initially prioritize districts outside the valley. CN/CRS will also distribute home isolation kits and provide awareness raising messages.

The mountain communities of Nepal and across the Hindu Kush Himalaya region face specific challenges due to the remoteness from road networks, accelerated climate change, food scarcity and malnutrition, poor sanitation and health, low levels of literacy, with little opportunity to generate incomes and develop livelihoods beyond subsistence farming. These challenges are likely to be exacerbated with the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic in Nepal, with assessments by our Trustees in Nepal suggesting that mountain communities based on subsistence farming are likely to experience food shortages, interrupted access to seeds and agricultural inputs and the danger of famine and malnutrition. This project builds on a post-earthquake livelihoods programme in North Gorkha (2016-2021), which piloted micro-agricultural development, by modeling kitchen gardens in Tsum Nubri and the provision of monthly agricultural development training workshops to mothers’ groups in North Gorkha.

PATRA, in consortium with Parivartan, has been working in 2 VDCs of Lahrepauwa and Daibung in Rasuwa district since right after the devastating earthquakes of April and May 2015. Parivartan PATRA provided livelihoods and WASH support to the population of 2800 families as part of the Cordaid project. The earthquake project activities were in two phases: 1) emergency response May-November 2015 and 2) reconstruction phase 1 December 2015 to 31 December 2017. This project is phasing out project. This project aims to extend WASH and livelihoods activities in these 2 communities for 1 year to ensure sustainability of the positive impacts achieved in NEO017 and responsible handover, as Cordaid is phasing out. Additional support will also be provided to vulnerable families on agriculture/livestock to increase their income and sustainability. About 540 household from the current resilient project will be technically backstopped in the livelihood sector to ensure they will have quality products, out of which 45 new families (from the Dalit community, women headed household and disadvantaged people) will be added and supported with goat/chicken production and Tunnel farming to support direct economic upliftment for them. An 100 additional households will also be provided with waste water collection and management support to encourage the clean house. These HHs will be used as volunteers to reach to further 400 HHs with the clean house concept. Planned activities include: - Strengthen market linkages and equipping the collection centres with necessary inputs. - Continue increasing goat production and nutrients - Enhance rural poultry - Continue seed production and coordinate demand for local seed - Support to farmer cooperatives - Technical support on tunnel farming and drip irrigation - Promote household Waste Water management and hygiene promotion - Operations and maintenance training for Water User Committees - Water source protection - Maintenance of the training centre

This project continues Caritas Nepal's work enabling earthquake-affected communities in 4 earthquake-affected Districts of Nepal - Dolakha, Sindhupalchowk, Sindhuli and Kavrepalanchowk - to rebuild safer and dignified lives. Caritas Nepal will support the families and individuals most affected by the earthquake to rebuild their houses, restore access to safe water and sanitation facilities, restore livelihoods and enhance their resilience to future disasters. Caritas Nepal will use a holistic recovery approach that integrates permanent Shelter, Livelihood, WASH, Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR), school construction support and Protection solutions. Their holistic approach will apply community-driven, people-centred, participatory methods for recovery and reconstruction. Caritas Nepal is working with 5 local partners to implement WASH and Livelihoods components in some districts, and is directly implementing the other activities with communities. The project will continue work implemented in 8 locations (VDCs) during the first year of the project. 6 VDCs (Orang, Bulung, Thokarpa, Kalika, Chandenimandan and Balthali) will continue to receive the full package of Shelter support (including housing grants and technical assistance) and WASH, Livelihood, DRR, School Reconstruction and Protection and Psychosocial interventions. In Baseswar and Hariharpurgadhi VDCs all sectors except for shelter will be supported. In 6 new locations to be covered from mid-2017 onwards, Caritas Nepal will provide shelter technical assistance and limited livelihoods support.

This 2 year project aims to support the earthquake affected households in 5 VDCs in Sindupalchowk district of Nepal. The 5 VDCs include Bhimtar, Shipapokhare, Bandegaun, Nawalpur and Bhotshipa. The project will target 1350 families for the overall project intervention and out of these families, 780 most vulnerable households will be identified. They will work in Self-Help Groups (SHGs) for Income Generating Activities (IGAs) through entrepreneurship support. The project will apply integrated approach to recover the affected people's livelihoods. The major activities of the project involve rehabilitation of the drinking water supplies, irrigation systems, construction of domestic animal sheds, training farmers on improved practices in crop cultivation, fish farming and livestock management. The interventions will include both on-farm agriculture-based IGAs and off-farm IGAs such as small business entrepreneurship development. The project also plans to introduce innovative techniques in agriculture like tunnel gardening and organic agriculture farming. Agriculture is one of major components of the project which will undertake tasks such as strengthening farmers’ field school management, distributing quality seed, transferring vermi-compost and crop and vegetable intensification technologies, exploring and facilitating marketing of organic products to home-stays and tourist hub or other market places, promoting plantation of economically profitable plants, and encouraging intercropping practices. The project also include skills enhancement and income generating activities and encouraging women's micro-credit groups to link to local cooperatives is also part of the project activities. Households will also be encouraged through hygiene promotion activities to learn and apply improve hygiene practices in water and sanitation and in the use of animal sheds to help improve communities health.

Five UK development and Humanitarian agencies: Action Aid, Christian Aid, CAFOD, Oxfam GB and Tearfund have been collaborating since 2012 to research our experiences of Partnership working in humanitarian responses and to develop policy and advocacy positions to promote partnerships approaches throughout international and humanitarian systems. This fourth piece of research will build on the previous body of evidence and contribute towards the drive towards localisation by: Conducting an in-depth study of the Nepal earthquake response to explore how the humanitarian system can move towards a more collaborative approach between national and international humanitarian organisations in an acute fast-onset crisis. This is based on the assumption that the expectations of national governments will increasingly be to ensure that the humanitarian response is locally-led and of high quality, as it was in Nepal; this is indicative of the new norm within the humanitarian sector. This research will also consider how best to contribute to the development of preparedness measures (potentially through a preparedness agreement, or other framework) with an increased role for national and local organisations in Nepal and other countries.

In the aftermath of the 2015 earthquakes, CAN is seeking to respond to a request from communities in the GaunKharka VDC of Nuwakot District near Kutumsang in the Helambu region of Nepal to replace and rebuild the Shree Himalayan Primary School and the Birendra Secondary School, which were destroyed in April 2015. Our ambition is to work in partnership with local communities to rebuild new sustainable schools, providing high quality school learning facilities with sound earthquake resistant features. The project is closely working with the School Management Committees (SMCs) to strengthen their capacity in financial and school management and O&M of schools and water supplies. Along with the construction of the school buildings the Project is also supporting to rehabilitate water supply systems to both the schools, construction of latrines for boys, girls and teachers; increasing awareness on improved hygiene practices around water and sanitation and increasing schools and communities resilience to future disasters through DRR.

One of the planned Nepal Programme Outcomes is that partners have improved capacity to manage humanitarian programmes. CAFOD has committed to provide technical expertise and support to partners in the areas of WASH, as part of our commitment to capacity strengthening and ensuring programme quality. We will provide this technical through deployment of WASH Emergency Response Officers who can work with our partners to improve WASH programme quality.

One of the planned Nepal Programme Outcomes is that partners have improved capacity to manage safe and dignified humanitarian programmes. CAFOD/Trocaire has committed to provide technical expertise and support to partners in the areas of Protection Mainstreaming/Accountability (and others if needed), as part of our commitment to capacity strengthening and ensuring programme quality.

As a result of the devastating earthquakes in 2015, many families in Gorkha District are still living in temporary shelters, such as tents, whilst their homes are being rebuilt. A sudden change in weather conditions since the evening of 8th January has affected life in the earthquake-affected villages of the Gorkha Region. Temperatures dropped to around -10°C at night. People there have witnessed snowfall and hailstorms since that evening due to a rain producing weather system from the Arabian Sea. This additional emergency has been called after recent snowfall, hailstorm and intensive cold. Government called us to help in providing additional warm clothes and blankets, to families who have already received the standard winterisation package being provided in all high-altitude areas. The project’s main goal is to protect peoples’ health and to keep them safe by distributing warm clothing and blankets to 3000 earthquake-affected families who are living in temporary shelters in Barpak, Gumda and Laprak VDCs.

The DEC phase 2a project in Nepal is running from November 2015 to April 2017, with two partners, CRS and Caritas Switzerland. As part of the project planning CAFOD has committed to provide technical expertise in the areas of DRR and Protection Mainstreaming/Accountability (and others if needed), in order to ensure programme quality. The Protection Mainstreaming/Accountability support is planned, budgeted and captured under OA project NEP021. The commitments to date are for CAFOD's DRR Technical Adviser to lead the project planning workshop with CACH and its local partner CEDCF on the DRR components, to provide input on the project design, help recruit a national DRR consultant, and to help capture lessons from the pilot phase, and recommendations to take forward into the later stages of the work.

CAFOD will be supporting partners CRS and Caritas with strengthening the protection mainstreaming components of the project (through training workshops and mentoring), and in reviewing lessons and recommendations from the winterisation and shelter training project activities.

This is the second phase of Cordaid's earthquake response activities in Lahrepauwa and Daibung VDCs, in Rasuwa District. Phase 2 focuses on broader recovery and the full use of the resilience methodology as a learning, planning and implementation tool. The objective is to build on existing capacities and strengthen resilience. Both phases built on Cordaid’s strategy that in disaster prone areas an integrated approach is needed to strengthen resilience in order to reduce risks and build response capacities of local communities and authorities for future disasters. The integrated strategy uses a multi- stakeholder approach involving affected communities, local and international civil society organizations, local and international authorities, private sector and research institutes. The approach focuses on hazard and local risk conditions, in this case the earthquake, landslides and its impact on the target communities. The resilience building process assumes that all men and women in the community are equally vulnerable to the hazard, what differentiates within the community are capacities to respond. The community identify their capacity gaps and priorities have been given to those sections of society where resilience is weakest and their ability to bounce back is restricted. The resilient community action plan will define longer term plans with priorities disaggregated to what can be funded by Cordaid and the rest are to be added in VDC/District plans and plans for other agencies on integrated approach. The key outputs for this project will be construction of permanent shelters and latrines, rehabilitation of water systems, livelihoods development, DRR and protection mainstreaming.

EA31/2015 is year 1 of a 3-5 year recovery programme planned by Caritas Nepal. CAFOD plans to support years 1-3 through CAFOD and Trocaire Appeal funds, and Vastenkatie contributions. Caritas Nepal will use a holistic recovery approach that integrates permanent Shelter, Livelihood, WASH, Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR), and Protection solutions for earthquake affected households and communities. This holistic approach will apply community driven and people centred recovery and reconstruction methods. They will work in 8 VDCs in 4 Districts, and aim to support around 6226 families. For Shelter interventions C Nepal is focussing on three districts excluding Sinduli district. The sector specific strategic objectives are: • Shelter: Households live in safe and adequate earthquake resistant houses • WASH: Target households have increased availability to, and make safe use of, water and sanitation facilities, and take action to protect themselves against threats to public health • Livelihoods and DRR: Earthquake-affected households have enhanced income and livelihood security, and the capacity of communities and Caritas Nepal to prepare for and respond to disasters is improved • Protection and Psycho-social Support: Communities affected by the earthquake are able to access safe, dignified and accessible programming that enhances their physical and mental well-being

This is the DEC phase 2a shelter project with CRS in Gorkha, was initially running for 18 months from November 2015 to April 2017 but was extended to phase 2b and will run until the end of April 2018. In the first three months of the project it was planned that 3100 earthquake affected families in Gorkha will receive material to winterize their homes which is achieved. Project is aiming that by the end of the project the earthquake affected communities in Gorkha district have incorporated build back safer and healthier techniques into their shelter. The project will include the following components: 1. Provision of winterized kits to 3100 earthquake affected families in 5 VDCs of Gorkha District. 2. Training for skilled and unskilled labour on earthquake resilient structures construction. 3. Establishment of demo shelters. 4. Key messages to target HHs on Build Back Safer (BBS) techniques.

CAFOD is supporting Caritas Switzerland in the reconstruction of schools destroyed or badly damaged in Sindupalchowk by the 2015 earthquake. The project will provide safe access to schools for students and teachers. It will support students, teachers and School Management Committees (SMCs) members in improved hygiene practices and hygienic use of the schools’ sanitation facilities. It will also support the SMCs with operation and maintenance of the school buildings and water systems, and with disaster risk reduction techniques and planning. The following will be the main components of the project: 1. Construction of classrooms. 2. Connecting schools with water sources and provision of safe drinking water. 3. Construction of latrines and hand washing places. 4. Training on improved hygiene practices. 5. Training for SMCs on O&M and DRR.

The project will support 3,000 families in 4-6 Village Development Committee (VDC) areas to winterize their homes by the end of November 2015. The priority VDCs are those above 1,500m; additional VDCs may be added depending on the government’s final winterization policy. Delivery mechanisms may include in-kind distribution, conditional cash transfers, and/or vouchers, depending on local context and market conditions. Although not finalized the winterization package ($130/HH) under consideration is composed of: 4 blankets (regular and fleece), 2 tarps, 20m rope, tie wire, 1.5m of 12mm foam, solar lamp, and a cash supplement (meant for clothes, fuel/firewood, hiring labourers, and/or timber). To meet the high demand for labour during the reconstruction phase, CRS/Caritas will also provide technical training to approximately 162 unskilled and 81 skilled labourers in the target VDCs by the end of April 2016. Training on improved shelter construction techniques will be provided through village-level demonstration models that showcase appropriate types of construction methods to labourers, households and field staff.

The project has been implemented since July 2015 to address the livelihoods and WASH needs of the families living in the IDPs Camps in 2 VDCs (Lahrepauwa and Daibang) in Rasuwa district. The project aims to reach above 500 families in 4 different camps (camp B=Lahrepauwa-Dandagaun 163 HHs, Camp D=Lahrepauwa-Haku 200 HHs, Camp A=Lahrepauwa-Haku camp 65 HHs and Camp C=Daibang-Haku camp 63 HHs). there has been minor changes in the total number of the households as there is still people moving. Cordaid and its two partners Parivartan Patra and Lumanti) has established vocational centres for short term trade courses including carpentry, masonry, handicrafts (bamboo baskets in particular). Individuals from the IDPs and host communities have been/are being selected on set criteria to provide them the skills. some of the trades were outsourced to local providers like mobile repairs, computer skills and driving lessons. As envisaged the carpenters' and masons' skills as reported are being utilized in the reconstruction of the damaged houses in their local communities. The products prepared during these trainings/vocational centres were exhibited in local mela (exhibition festival) near Lahrepauwa VDC to attract market for the products. An agro-farm has also been established for the IDPs to grow innovative agri-products including seasonal and off season vegetable and mushrooms to support their livelihoods in the local markets. In continuation of applying the learning from the agro-farm Cordaid and parivartan has further supported the leading farmers from the IDPs communities to establish their own afro-farming tunnels to grow different seasonal vegetables like tomatoes, cauliflower, garlic, beans etc. 3 afro-farms have been established. Another major component of the project is to ensure for the safe drinking water and sanitation facilities both for men and women meeting the minimum humanitarian standards, and improved hygiene messages are being delivered to the camps dwellers through Child clubs organized in camps. project has also constructed child friendly spaces in some camps where the residents agreed on their construction to help the camps children in their recreational activities and continuous hygiene messages to reach to their parents and households living in the camps. In the context of these IDPs the project has been a great success in engaging them for learning different vocational skills as the there are still no clear plans from the government side for their resettlement. they have been supported with learning innovative vegetable growing techniques, establishing their own poultry farms, clothes sewing skills etc. Cordaid in Nepal and its partner Parivartan Patra, is successful in wining part of the Ockenden International Award with CAFOD's support and will continue the activities with the IDPs as CAFOD's funding deadline will finish in the end of April 2017.

This project, led by CAFOD’s partner Catholic Relief Services, aims to meet the immediate needs of vulnerable families and communities affected by the 2015 earthquake in Nepal. It addresses the first, six month, phase of DEC funding, to be followed by a further 30 months of recovery programming. It aims to: • assist families to prepare for the monsoons, and help mitigate risks associated with aftershocks, through the provision of appropriate transitional shelter solutions, including: shelter kits, toolkits, material transport, debris clearance, and appropriate training; • assist families to obtain essential household items such as clothes, blankets, kitchen utensils, and water buckets through the provision of unconditional cash grants; • support market recovery in the main market areas north of Gorkha district centre, in particular Hansapur and Simjung markets which service the most vulnerable households, through the provision of materials or cash to rebuild store fronts and/or storage facilities.

A magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck Nepal in between Kathmandu and Pokhra. The epicenter was 30 km east-south-east of Lamjung district. The earthquake has caused a number of landslides and avalanches. Strong aftershocks, including a 6.7 magnitude quake on 26 April, continued to threaten the lives of thousands of people and to further damage buildings and infrastructure. Many people are afraid and have slept outside for several consecutive nights, in spite of the falling rain. According to UN, it is estimated that over 8 million people are affected in 39 of Nepal’s 75 districts. Over 2 million people live in the 11 most critically hit districts. CRS has committed resources to relief efforts and has requested Caritas to begin procuring emergency relief materials such as tarpaulins/shelter kits and water, sanitation and hygiene materials. CRS is also looking at transporting materials from India to Nepal and has contacted the UN Hub in Dubai to request options for humanitarian supply flights from Dubai. Caritas Nepal launched a response in the immediate aftermath of the disaster. Distribution of supplies, including food packages, tarpaulins, have already occurred. Through grassroots organisations and partner CBOs, and the ability to mobilise a high number of volunteers, Caritas Nepal is well placed to deliver an immediate relief and subsequent recovery programme. The scale of the disaster and the willingness of Caritas organisations to respond necessitates a rapid response through this appeal. This response will meet urgent needs in shelter, WASH, and non-food items. A follow up full Emergency Appeal will be prepared to include a comprehensive recovery strategy. The funding from this appeal will ensure Caritas Nepal can continue relief operations- focused primarily on immediate shelter needs non-food items, with a focus on provision of water and hygiene kits in 7 of the worst affected districts. 4 new district offices and warehouses will be established to coordinate and manage the response. CAFOD has since responded to the relief efforts and has deployed a number of staff to the country. Our response will focus on WASH, shelter and protection components.