Disaster Management and Policy Advocacy

The legislative parliament endorsed new Disaster Management Bill 2074 on September 24, 2017. Later, the President of Nepal certified the Disaster Risk Reduction and Management (DRRM) Act 2074. The new DRRM Act replaced the old Natural Calamity (Rescue) Act 1982, which did not cover the comprehensive disaster risk management. The Act encompasses both Disaster Risk Reduction and Disaster Management and fixed the role of all the 3 tiers of government (Local, Provincial and National) as guided by Constitution of Nepal 2015. AAN had continued to advocate for the Act since 2007 during the process of tabling it in the Parliament. It provided technical inputs and supported on providing analysis and recommendation.

Further, AAN was also engaged in the policy formulation process of ‘National DRR Policy and Strategic Action Plan’. Several consultation processes were carried out in the district and national level with the participation of wider stakeholders. The Action Plan was also endorsed in the first half of 2018.

The responsibility of District Support Lead Agency for Bardiya has been taken up by AAN since 2015. With AAN’s technical support, DDRC, Bardiya has updated its District Preparedness and Response Plan (DPRP). The revised version covers demographic information based on the new local governance structure including SOPs of weather based early warning mechanism at district level. In the process of updating DPRP, AAN also supported for the capacity build-up of district level stakeholders and local government representatives. The capacity build-up initiatives were also carried out with the local government of Shankhuwasabha and Terhathum districts to widen their understanding on DRR.