About this handbook

Since the inception of the 9 minimum characteristics of a disaster resilient community in Nepal, there have been many questions by Government, implementing agencies, researchers, and community members on how to operationalise these characteristics. These questions have led to the formation of this handbook which contains more information about each characteristic and examples of how they can be applied in interventions.

CLICK HERE for a copy of the handbook

Many organisations have contributed to the development of this handbook and we would like to firstly thank the Ministry of Federal Affairs and Local Development, as the Flagship 4 Government Lead, for their leadership and support of the program, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), along with, but not limited to the following implementing agencies: ActionAID; ADRA Nepal; British Red Cross; CARE Nepal; Danish Red Cross; Handicap International; Lutheran World Federation; Mercy Corps; Merlin; Mission East; Nepal Red Cross Society; the Nepal Society for Earthquake Technology; Oxfam; Plan Nepal; Practical Action; Save the Children; UNDP; and UNICEF.

Target audience

The handbook is targeted primarily at implementing agencies and local Government, of not just Community Based Disaster Risk Reduction interventions, but those working in other sectors who are interested to include disaster management into their intervention strategies.

Handbook contents

Case studies

One attempt to provide guidance on operationalising the characteristics has been to collect a number of case studies from implementing agencies in Nepal. Each case study corresponds to a specific characteristic and outlines how the implementing agency has incorporated the characteristic, its impact on resilience and challenges that have been encountered.

25 case studies are documented in the handbook and Flagship 4 would like to thank implementing agencies for sharing their experience with us. However,  more examples may be out there and could be available in future.

Example indicators

The example indicators attempt to show what disaster resilience in Nepal ‘looks like’ in practice, providing direction to interventions on how to include the minimum characteristics and outlines avenues on how to connect with Government structures, processes and budgets.

Additional resources

In order to highlight documents and resources that provide further information on a characteristic, including information that is specific to the context of Nepal, resources have been highlighted throughout the document.