ICLEI South Asia and the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) jointly organised a virtual training programme on “Planning of Climate Resilient Strategy” under the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) and the Royal Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs (DGIS)-supported CDKN Knowledge Accelerator Project.

The training, which was designed for planners, engineers and technical and administrative officials from Nepal’s urban and rural municipalities, aimed to build their capacity for climate-resilient planning. Twenty-one men and women from eight municipalities participated in the four-day training programme, organised from the 20^th to the 24^th of September 2021.

Climate uncertainty and extreme weather conditions are posing serious threats to lives, livelihoods and productivity in the Hindu Kush Himalayan region. Nepal, being a party to global agreements such as the Paris Agreement and the Sendai Framework, has been tackling such challenges through its nationally determined contributions, National Adaptation Plan and Local Adaptation Plan of Actions.

Both urban and rural municipalities are playing an important role in strengthening adaptive capacities and building resilience of the country’s socio-ecological systems. Any development process, which does not  take climate risk into account, can result in loss and damage to infrastructure, interrupt the flow of ecosystem services, disrupt market supply and demand chains, and cause loss of property and human lives. Therefore, it is necessary to strengthen proactive action, to build resilience at the local level through inclusive and participatory climate resilience planning that can help local governments to better plan for and effectively deal with climate change-related challenges.

The Nepal training programme was based on the learnings from ICLEI South Asia’s Climate Resilient Cities Action Plan (CRCAP) and ICIMOD’s Resilient Mountain Solutions (RMS) initiatives. It helped the participating local government officials to better understand climate change and resilience building, and enabled them to identify adaptation and mitigation measures in an inclusive manner by collaborating with relevant stakeholders, with particular emphasis on gender inclusion. It also enhanced their capacity to design climate resilience planning through climate risk and vulnerability assessments, conduct fragility analysis of socio-ecological and environmental systems, prioritise climate actions and conduct monitoring and evaluation, besides providing a brief guide to various financial resources for climate-resilient initiatives. The sessions consisted of Nepal-specific training modules, including presentations, online polls, group discussions and peer exchanges among the participating municipalities.