April 27: The National Reconstruction Authority (NRA) on Thursday, April 26, organized a seminar “From Build Back Better to Disaster Risk Reduction: Government Responsibilities and the Role of Mutual Help” to commemorate the third anniversary of the devastating earthquake in Nepal with support from JICA. According to JICA, about 150 participants representing the government, development partners, civil society, academia and media actively took part in the discussions.

The seminar highlighted the last three years of progress and achievements in reconstruction and recovery based on the principle of Build Back Better (BBB). Yuba Raj Bhusal, Chief Executive Officer of the NRA, in his keynote speech, explained that the Government of Nepal has been making utmost efforts to expedite the reconstruction process and shared that the government is setting the target to complete all housing reconstruction by July 2019. The same optimism was echoed by two JICA officials from Tokyo, who compared the case of Nepal with some other countries’ recent experiences and commended Nepal for making steady progress despite many challenges.

Issuing a press statement, JICA said that the NRA also shared two successful cases of accelerating the pace of housing reconstruction and bringing out positive changes in rural livelihoods.

“A common approach underlying both of these examples was the mechanism of mutual help which seems to effectively complement the public support provided by the government,” reads the statement.

According to JICA, one of the examples shared at the seminar is the ‘Community Mobilization Program’ for housing reconstruction supported by JICA. This group-based, collective approach to housing reconstruction seems to be yielding visible acceleration impact in the JICA supported areas in Gorkha and Sindhupalchowk where the reconstruction start rate is 83 percent and completion rate is 40 percent as of March 2018.

It was also emphasized that creating a platform of mutual help would be an effective way of reaching out with livelihood support to the vulnerable groups who are the hardest hit by the disaster but often tend to be left behind. The speakers unanimously agreed that as clearly outlined in the Post Disaster Recovery Framework, Nepal’s recovery is not just concerning physical reconstruction, but it is also about making sure cultural, economic, social and even psychological well-being of the people are taken care of.

Moreover, the seminar discussion brought out the urgent need for the government to take concrete measures for enhancing urban resilience and investment in long-term disaster risk reduction in the country by operationalizing the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (2015-2030).