Capacity Building of Rural Communities in Post-Earthquake Reconstruction in Nepal

Abstract

The devastating earthquake of April 25, 2015 and its aftershocks caused widespread destruction of houses, school buildings, health clinics, and heritage structures in hilly regions of central Nepal. The disaster impacts were unprecedented and the scale of need for the recovery was not experienced in the recent past. On the other side, the opportunities the disaster created to build better for the future would only be materialized when essential components of sustainable development are well integrated into the reconstruction process. The post-earthquake reconstruction required a massive scale training of engineers, technologists, masons, and social mobilisers. This was met with urgency of the reconstruction process where several hundred thousands of houses belonging to individuals in villages needed to be constructed within a short time with direct involvement of state. This paper looks into the aspects of capacity building in the reconstruction process and examines the factors that had significant influences. Factors accounted for are the socio-cultural context of the country, availability and distribution of resources, pre-disaster status of community capacity building efforts, and subsequent transition for reconstruction. Elements of end-user training for reconstruction, which served as a community capacity-building measure, were presented and discussed in their role in reconstruction progress.