Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland

Cities 4 women aims to create inclusive and climate sustainable urban planning with a particular focus on public spaces and improving the safety of women and marginalised groups. Many Nepalese women experience insecurity in public spaces, making it more difficult for them to study, work and exercise their rights. Although participation, climate sustainability and gender sensitivity are included in the current policy and legislative frameworks in Nepal, they have not been sufficiently integrated into the design and implementation of public spaces. In practice, the development of municipal public infrastructure follows a case-by-case approach and short-term planning. In addition, the capacity to implement municipal engineering units is limited. The project aims to respond to the challenges of climate change and promote the rights of girls and women in a sustainable manner. The project seeks a change that increases the capacity of local governments to respond to the needs of their communities, thus improving their living environments. The project will activate communities, academia, information institutions and political decision-makers to establish best practices and learn from measures promoting long-term solutions. Women, girls and other marginalised groups as well as local municipalities that receive support and resources for their development projects (challenge Fund) benefit directly from the project. Cooperation takes place with UNOPS, UN-habitat and cities Alliance, all of which are experienced partners in the context of Nepal. UNOPS is responsible for the implementation of the project, which ensures expert and efficient project management. Particular attention has been paid to risk management in planning. Finnish special expertise has been planned for the project, for example through the participation of SYKE or Luke, who have extensive experience of Nepal's operating environment while also bringing Finnish added value to the project. Links between rural and urban areas in the Climate change in municipalities project, which will start in December 2024, especially in connection with agricultural value chains, have also been planned for the part of the project funded by Finland. Finland's funding period is 2024/5-2027. Funding of EUR 2 million is proposed, which will help the two new cities to get involved in the project, but will also involve increasing the impact in other municipalities.

Finnpartnership: Long term partnership with a local company / organisation (e.g. joint venture; subcontractor, import or other contract agreement )

UNICEF's Education Program in the Nepal Country Program Action Plan (CPAP, 2023-2027) supports the Finnish Development Policy to improve inclusive and high-quality education and brings added value and synergy in the implementation of the Finnish Country Program in Nepal. The overall outcome of the Education Program is that the Nepali education system provides an equitable, inclusive, and good quality education from pre-primary to grade 12, in a safe and supportive environment to all girls and boys, especially from the most disadvantaged communities. The second result area of Finland's Nepal Country Program aims at supporting an inclusive education system that enables students to acquire the necessary skills to support Nepal's economic and democratic development. The target is that the inclusive education system provides students with knowledge and skills that contribute to Nepal's economic and democratic development and is in line with Agenda 2030 Sustainable Development Goals 4. With the help of Unicef's Education Program, the quality and results of early childhood education, primary and secondary education, as well as access to education are made easier, inclusion and equality are strengthened, and the special needs of the students are taken into consideration. Finland's support to Nepal's School Education Sector Plan (SESP), bilateral technical support (TECSES) and support to UNICEF's Education Program form a comprehensive and long-term support package in the education sector in Nepal.

Local Adaptation to Climate Change Project is considered as a new intervention, but it builds on the work of Rural Village Water Resources Management Project (RVWRMP), which has supported local authorities in water resources management since 2006. The Project will assist the local and provincial governments assume their role in management of natural resources to increase climate resilience. The principal assets of rural municipalities are their natural resources; water, land and forests, which could provide them both direct and indirect income through collection of revenues. In their first five years of existence, the municipalities have focused to improve service delivery in education and health sectors. With the assistance of RVWRMP, municipalities have been engaged in water resource management. The Project will widen the scope to include also the management and conservation of terrestrial natural resources. LACC Project will continue working with the RVWRMP municipalities in Karnali Province and the hills and mountains of Sudurpashchim Province in the Western Nepal. The Project´s impact statement is: Sudurpashchim and Karnali Provinces improve climate resilience through sustainable management and conservation of their natural resources. The first results area focuses on management and conservation of terrestrial ecosystems. The second results area focuses on integrated water resource management (IWRM) and conservation and the third one on institutional development of provincial and municipal governments and dignified menstruation. The total budget of the Project is estimated at MEUR 74, comprising MEUR 18 from the EU, MEUR 13 from GOF, MEUR 25 from GON (tbc), estimated MEUR 9 from municipalities, and estimated MEUR 9 from users in cash and kind.

The principal impact of the project is poverty reduction and improved well-being in communities via enhanced democratic capacity to maintain sanitation and manage water. This translates to capacitating local governance levels (municipality, ward, community) of Devchuli Municipality, Nepal, in WASH (Outcome 1). The main goal is to achieve 100% coverage of national Total Sanitation standards in selected communities (Outcome 2). Furthermore, the project supports smart water use and climate change adaptation (Outcome 3). All project activities are implemented through a participatory Human Rights-Based Approach aimed at improving Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI) (Outcome 4). Special emphasis is put on assisting Persons with Disabilities and disadvantaged groups, including ethnic minorities, women and girls and the elderly. Communities that achieve all above outcomes will be declared WASH Model Villages. The background is that work towards improved sanitation in Nepal was accelerated in 2010s via the Open Defecation Free (ODF) movement, including nation-wide toilet construction for all, and related hygienic behaviour changes. Nepal was declared ODF in 2018, after which focus has shifted towards achieving more advanced standards, titled Total Sanitation. Currently, Nepal is struggling with Total Sanitation, and in some areas maintaining ODF has proven challenging. The project works in the least developed hilly area (wards 5 and 6) of Devchuli Municipality in Nawalpur district of Western Nepal. The local partner CATN has identified several technical and societal issues in the wards, such as a lack of basic water and sanitation infrastructure and training as well as under-representation of women, Persons with Disabilities (PwD) and ethnic minorities. The population of the working area is 95% Janajati and 4% Dalit, both being ethnic minorities. Project activities include behaviour change, capacity development and infrastructure support. The local partner CATN implements the project under the supervision of WaterFinns. Activities are planned and implemented in close collaboration with Devchuli municipality, project wards, communities and civil society groups.

‘Climate Resilient Farming System for Smallholder Farmers in Nepal’ project aims to build climate and disaster resilient farming communities in the context of climate change in Nepal. The project will work with 2400 SHFs in 8 wards of 4 rural municipalities (local governance units) in Nawalpur district of Nepal from January 2023 to December 2025. The project will follow the smallholder farmers collective (SHFC) led approach and multi-stakeholder engagement as major strategies to achieve the envisaged results. Other learnings and successful approaches derived from the SAFBIN project co-financed by the European Union, will be used for strengthening the local CSOs like SHFCs, Water User Groups, Forest Management Groups etc. The project will directly address the issues of climate change and its impact on the smallholder farming communities. It will collectivize and engage communities to generate environment friendly local solutions to the problems caused by climate change. It will promote eco-friendly pathways to achieve sustainability in farming systems through regenerative agriculture and nature based solutions such as farm diversification, low external inputs, maximum use of locally available resources, conservation of local ecosystem, on-farm adaptive research (OFAR) etc. The project will also focus on value addition activities on locally available traditional and high value crops and livestock products to increase the income of these SHFs. At system level, the project will work in collaboration with the local government to strengthen their response to climate and disaster resilience by generating scalable samples. The project will work in 2 wards of each rural municipality and will cover the most vulnerable and marginalized 300 SHFs in each ward. The successful models and practices will be replicated in other wards of the rural municipalities. The project will concentrate particularly on five cross-cutting matters of sovereignty, justice, gender, equality and sustainability. These core principles are followed throughout the project strategy. In addition, the project will align with the national and local plans and policies on climate change.