The original article was published by The Himalayan Times in Nepal on 18 March, 2021. Click here to read the article on its original platform.

Illustration by Ratna Sagar Shrestha/THT

Innovative projects should be implemented through collective effort in South Asia, including Nepal, to cope with the rapid increase in challenges resulting from climate change.

This was highlighted by speakers of the 'Innovations for Climate Adaptation and Resilience in South Asia - Needs Assessment Consultation in Nepal', programme organised by Asian Disaster Preparedness Centre here.

The speakers stressed that such innovations should be grounded at the local, national and regional levels.

It was also shared on the occasion that in the past 30 years, climate induced disasters have affected 1.68 billion people and caused over US$ 127 billion in economic losses in South Asia.

ADPC Deputy Executive Director Aslam Perwaiz said a five-year model project on climate adaptation and resilience has been executed in Nepal, Bangladesh and Pakistan with support of the World Bank. He shared that seven key sectors have been selected for the pilot interventions.

These sectors include climate-smart agriculture, integrated water resources management, resilient infrastructure (transport), finance, and policy and planning.

According to ADPC Deputy Executive Director, the experience of Nepal in climate adaptation and resilience will be useful for South Asia.

Chief Executive Officer of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority, Anil Pokhrel said it was necessary to implement the projects of innovations by building up the capacity of all the local levels and private sectors in Nepal.

Care-ADPC Nepal's Country Project Lead Purna Chandra Lal Rajbhandari and Avani Mani Dixit, DRM Specialist, World Bank Nepal, said the Climate Adaptation and Resilience for South Asia project is supporting the region in building resilience to climate change by improving the availability of regional data and knowledge, developing guidelines, tools and capacities, and promoting climate resilient decisions, policies and investments across key sectors.

The needs assessment consultation programme also came up with suggestions for promoting knowledge, skills and experiences on climate adaptation that are in practice among the various communities.