Disaster/urban preparedness is an important agenda in Nepal, as country is highly prone to multiple hazards. Government and development partners have been implementing projects to improve preparedness and mitigate disaster impact. UNDP together with UNICEF and UN Women, supported by the European Union Humanitarian Aid, has been implementing the Urban, earthquake preparedness and response (SUPER) project, since 2021, in Western Region of Nepal with the aim to enhance municipal and provincial preparedness for impending urban and earthquake risks. The project helped in building  capacity on urban/earthquake preparedness at municipal and province levels, which included development of policy, plans, procedures and guidelines, creation of trained volunteers and first responders, community level mitigation measures such as retrofitting of houses, awareness generation on risk and do’s and don’ts related to different hazards,  development and dissemination of disability friendly IEC materials and improved cluster mechanism at province levels. SUPER and its subsequent phase I-SUPER project has come to end on 31st July 2024. It is important to institutionalize and upscale the project interventions in federal, provincial and local levels.

SUPER-II project (August 2024-July 2026), supported by ECHO, aims to institutionalize operational urban and earthquake preparedness and response in targeted provinces and municipalities and link it with federal mechanism. Inclusion is at the heart of the project and aims to address specific needs of vulnerable groups especially women, children and persons with disabilities. The project intends to upscale interventions in project area and beyond.

The key result areas of the project are: i) Government-led operational system for urban and earthquake preparedness institutionalized at provincial and local level for effective response ii) Coordination and information management strengthened at provincial and municipal levels, aligned with national framework, for disaster risk governance; iii) Enhanced policy engagement for scalability of disaster preparedness and response mechanism at federal, provincial, and local levels. The project province and local government include Sudurpaschim province capital, Karnali province capital, Lumbini province capital, Dhangadhi sub-metropolitan city, Birendranagar municipality and Nepalgunj sub-metropolitan city.