Government of Nepal

Ministry of Finance

AID MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEM FOR NEPAL

CRS has already presented the PA to the sub-committee of SWC and is in the process of getting approval from the facilitation committe of the concerned ministries. 

• Initiate outreach to communities immediately to address high rates of non-compliance and provide basic information about construction standards that will need to be met.
• Similarly, initial outreach to communities will look to address reasons related with HHs not starting reconstruction in close collaboration with CRCs.
• Identify and contract technical resource organization(s), institutes or technical persons to deliver technical support in project activities like both the skilled and unskilled mason trainings, construction of low cost model houses, IEC material development etc and involve local contractors (who oversee and direct gangs of laborers and masons in the construction of homes).
• Provide top-up support and targeted technical assistance to extremely vulnerable households who need in kick-starting the construction or rehabilitation of their homes. This may be applied as financial support (cash transfer) and/or material transport or at one of the five construction stages including, for example, demolishing their damaged homes and removing rubble.
• Build low cost model houses (one per ward and 65 in total) through vocation and on-the-job mason training. The low-cost model houses will be built for the most vulnerable household in the ward. CRS will adopt the vulnerability criteria developed by NRA for the selection of model house beneficiary. Series of consultation meetings will be held with communities, ward citizen forums and Gaon Palika leadership to ensure that most eligible model house beneficiary is selected through a very transparent process. Upon completion of the model house, the property will be handed over to the beneficiary.
• CRS will use Central Level Project Implementation Unit (CLPIU) approved model house designs including Stone Masonry Mud Mortar (SMM), SMM with attic roof and RCC for CRS Gorkha Program approved on 09 August 2017. CRS will positively adopt any other models that have been approved by NRA or CLPIU by the time implementation is started.
• CRS will engage a technical agency to ensure that the low-cost model houses are constructed in a short span of time considering the housing needs of the most vulnerable households. Strong technical oversight from the technical agency through experienced human resources will help in high quality structures. The construction firm will also be engaged in conducting trainings for masons. CRS implementing partners and the construction firm will work in close coordination to ensure that the social mobilization aspects of model house construction and mason training is adequately integrated.
• CRS will adopt “mobile masons” approach to ensure that house owners and workers involved in construction get adequate on-site technical support through direct supervision. Such support will ensure that the houses built are in compliant with NRA norms. Through this mechanism CRS will engage skilled and unskilled masons to support families and labor working at the household level.  Each mason will be expected to visit every household at each of the 5 key stages of construction:  layout, foundation, wall, roof and fixations (doors and windows) to verify that the house meets guidelines for earthquake resistance.
• Work closely with its key implementing partners on all community mobilization activities, including outreach to individual families with key information about the GoN processes and EQ-safety measures; animation and capacity development of pre-existing community management structures (whether the CRC or other); identification of extremely vulnerable households in need of specialized assistance; as well as monitoring of all key project activities. To facilitate this process in the field, CRS will depute 11 social mobilization officers through the project.
• Coordinate with key stakeholders at the district and VDC levels with a concern for working closely with NRA engineers who oversee, review and approve household construction.
• While starting the project, CRS will conduct a quick assessment to understand the most updated needs and trends in the communities around capacity building of households in general and masons in specific regarding reconstruction of their houses. If majority of the masons has already received training and supply for the skilled labor has increased through Unskilled Labor Training (Vocational training masonry) by other NGOs, CRS will focus on the information, promotion and capacity building for retrofitting techniques. This may require changing some of the key activities and indicators in the Objective 1 for which detailed amendment with scale and scope of the activity targets will be shared with NRA accordingly. The refresher trainings will also include correction manual/retrofitting which will help masons adhere to EQ resistant construction techniques in case of already constructed houses.
• On-the-job training on retrofitting will include demonstration of such techniques in existing houses. CRS will conduct detailed technical assessments for identifying appropriate retrofitting techniques for different conditions in coordination with local NRA engineers.
• For the skilled and unskilled mason trainings CRS will prioritize identification of participants from local communities. However, recognizing the fact that significant number of masons/construction workers from terai and other regions of the country are engaged in reconstruction work, CRS will facilitate their participation in mason trainings wherever possible. Series of orientation meetings will be held at the community level for selection of training beneficiaries. In order to encourage participation of needy and motivated women members, CRS will hold orientation meetings with existing women savings/mothers’ groups to ensure that accurate information about the mason trainings is available to women members for them to take an informed decision about participating in trainings.

• Earthquake-safe household construction techniques for Skilled Workers
• Earthquake-safe household construction techniques for Unskilled Workers
• Earthquake-safe household construction techniques for affected households
• Earthquake-safe household retrofitting techniques for affected households
• Latrine construction techniques for Unskilled Workers
• Developing Operation and Maintenance Plans for restored Water Supply Systems
• Developing Operation and Maintenance Plans for restored productive community assets
• Improved Seed Production and Storage
• Improved techniques for rehabilitated livestock shelter

• Targeted earthquake-affected households reside in a safe and sanitary environment by end-of-project
• : Targeted earthquake-affected households recover and improve their livelihoods by end-of-project.

Earthquake affected households 

• reside in a safe, sustainable and sanitary enviroment, and
• have resilient livelihood