Nepal Urban Resilience Assessment

As part of a project to improve resilience and disaster response capacity across Nepal, Zite was used to conduct an urban resilience assessment of 9 municipalities throughout the country. A team consisting of Utopia Nepal, Naxa, and GeoAdaptive, used Zite to conduct a series of assessments with disaster response, public finance, and local government representatives in each of the municipalities. The assessment was part of the Nepal Municipal Covid-19 Recovery and Disaster Preparedness Assessment and Investment Plan project supported by the World Bank. 

The assessment was conducted to better understand what municipalities needed in order to design and implement a cohesive DRM policy in line with local goals, international best practices, and national legislative obligations. Teams used Zite to collect data during field visits, site assessments, and interviews with local experts. Zite was used to develop baseline data and identify gaps across local governments within the country, in order to be able to measure advancements over time. 

The project was aimed at helping municipalities think strategically about investment priorities in the short, medium, and long-term and how to integrate disaster risk reduction and management into municipal budgeting and planning. Strategic recommendations and plans produced from this study will be implemented by the selected municipalities with support from the national government and partners to build resilience towards natural hazards and pandemics. Results from this study will also inform future World Bank activities in the sector.