Within reported dates· Climate· Health

ROAP/NEP02 CITIES 4 WOMEN: INCLUSIVE AND CLIMATE RESILIENT URBANIZATION IN NEPAL - USAID

Nepal is one of the most vulnerable countries to climate change, facing an increasing number of landslides, flash floods, extreme heat events, and droughts. Its rapid urbanization rate, one of the highest in the world, coupled with unplanned municipal infrastructure development, exacerbates these issues which disproportionately affect disadvantaged groups, particularly women and girls. However, amidst these challenges, the concentration of people in dense urban settings promotes the development of better public services, fosters interactions, and offers diverse social and cultural experiences. The devolution of power and resources to local authorities mandated by the 2015 Constitution, has created a unique window to maximize the benefits of Nepal's rapid urbanization process, where women have a key role in shaping ‘Cities for All’, especially the most vulnerable citizens. Access to basic services and public spaces is crucial for inclusive, healthy, and productive cities. However, many Nepali women feel unsafe in public spaces, hindering their ability to pursue education, work, and exercise their rights. Despite existing policy and legislative frameworks in Nepal already including provisions for citizen participation, climate resilience, and gender sensitivity, these are not consistently and adequately integrated into the design, construction and maintenance of public space. In practice, the development of municipal public infrastructure follows ad-hoc approaches and short-term planning timeframes, which is further compounded by limited implementation capacity within the municipal engineering units. Following the existing participatory processes of the Government of Nepal, the Cities 4 Women project aims to enhance the deliberative process for the development of local infrastructure, in order to generate inclusive and resilient public spaces. The project will mobilize communities, academia, knowledge institutions, and policymakers to institutionalize and disseminate the best practices and learnings of the actions contributing to a long-term solution. The Cities 4 Women is one project funded by two donors, the European Union (EU) and USAID. The EU has allocated Euro 3.5 million for 5 municipalities, with UNOPS as the lead implementing partner, where UN-Habitat is collaborating to implement Outcome 1 and Cities Alliance is leading a component in Outcome 2. Building on the funds from the EU, USAID has contributed USD 1 million for one additional municipality, Lamki Chuha, with UN-Habitat as the lead. Hence, the USAID fund is added as a child project to the entire Cities 4 Women project. Efforts have been in place to integrate the approaches, a single log-frame guiding, building synergy and coherence in process and outputs in all 6 municipalities, where USAID funds will be further utilized to strengthen the process and expand impact to additional municipality and stakeholders.

Source-reported status: active. Timeline labels use reported dates and do not verify current activity.