​Focal person in Nepal: Neha Koirala, nehakoirala2@gmail.com

2016: RAP3 Midline Impact Assessment Report

This Midline report presents the findings from a panel survey of 3,600 households in eight districts in the Mid and Far West of Nepal and incorporates qualitative findings from a complementary Reality Check Approach (RCA) study. This mixed-methods approach was conducted in mid-2016, precisely two years after the baseline, to provide a longitudinal analysis of socio-economic changes in this region as well as an objective assessment of the impact of the third phase of the DFID’s Rural Access Programme 3 (RAP3). The analysis within the report is probably one of the most comprehensive assessments of change in the region undertaken in recent times. Read in conjunction with the separate Midline RCA study report (whose findings are integrated into this report), the Midline provides a rich analysis of a vastly understudied region of the country. The report should be of use to a wide range of stakeholders interested not only in the impact of RAP3, but also in understanding regional drivers of change that impact on poverty and vulnerability.

2016: People's Experiences and Perspectives on Recovery from the 2015 Earthquakes in Nepal

Summary: 

At 11:56am on 25 April 2015, a 7.9 magnitude earthquake hit central Nepal, with its epicentre in Barpak, Gorkha. In 45 seconds the earthquake is estimated to have killed over 8,600 people, injured more than 23,000 and damaged nearly 1 million homes. On 12 May 2015 a second earthquake measuring 7.3 with its epicentre near the border with China shook an already traumatised Nepal, killing a further 200 people. Hundreds of aftershocks followed both events, some of which were quite large, compounding the damage wrought through further landslides. 

This Reality Check Approach (RCA) Study was undertaken over November and December, 2015. The Nepal RCA team was by the Department for International Development (DFID) through Palladium to provide insights into people’s experiences of the earthquakes and their consequences in order to contribute to learning lessons for the future. Specifically, it seeks to understand the perspectives of those directly affected by the earthquakes themselves – especially families living in poverty, and presents their perspectives as they continue to make sense of what has occurred. 
Key findings:
  • People remembered the shaking, rumbling noises, dust, darkness and were overcome with feelings of panic as the first earthquake hit. People discussed knowing that Nepal is earthquake prone, but were still ill prepared.  
  • People across locations were critical of the rescue efforts, although the remote Upper Gorkha location had helicopters offering assistance on the same afternoon as the earthquake. Searching for people under rubble was left to neighbours who were scared and ill-equipped. 
  • People told us across all locations that their immediate concerns after the earthquake were for family members. The fact that mobile phone networks were down for many hours compounded their anxieties.  
  • People said that very little aid arrived until after the second earthquake (mid-May). People said they found the Government cash transfer the most consistently useful aid but they did not get this until June. Mostly, people told us it was used to make improvements to their temporary shelters.  
  • In all study locations, people shared that the distribution process was not clear. Members of the all-party relief committees shared that distribution was ‘haphazard’. Information was either unavailable locally or purposely withheld. 
  • Cost of labour increased soon after the earthquakes. People said this was because people were unwilling to work in demolition or transport where risks of injury were considered too high. 
  • Nine months on, people had mostly resumed their livelihoods, although some working in construction and tourism told us they continue to struggle. 
  • Some youth say they have benefitted in that their ambitions to go abroad to work as their families view this as a better investment than they did before quakes. 

2016: Rural Access Programme (RAP3) Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Component - Midline Report

Summary:

​This report presents the main findings of the Midline Reality Check Approach (RCA) study conducted in April 2016, two years after the baseline study was conducted in 2014. The RCA contributes to the Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning component of the Rural Access Programme 3 (RAP3) as the main qualitative element of the mixed methods approach to impact assessment, which also includes a quantitative household survey. The midline RCA study involved researchers returning to the same households and communities with which they had lived in the baseline: Humla (1 location), Bajura (2 locations), Accham (1 location) and Doti (2 locations). 
Key findings:

In RAP maintenance areas, people noted:
  • Shopkeepers and drivers are the main beneficiaries of better road maintenance while people say they like that there is more choice of goods to buy in local markets.
  • Timetables and fixed fares for passenger transport would enhance usability
  • Disappointment that there are no ambulances stationed at their local health centres
  • They have no influence on the nature, timing or quality of road maintenance efforts as they feel it is all decided in the District.

People in road-construction areas noted
  • That men do not need the road work as they have alternative and more lucrative work opportunities.
  • That women benefit from having access to regular cash through RAP employment especially as they increasingly need cash for food, utilities and education costs rather than relying on irregular and unpredictable remittances but women with young children would also like to have opportunities to work with RBGs or RMGs
  • More clarity on the calculation of wage payments and insurance procedures for RBGs and SBGs is needed.​

2015: Perspective of People Living in Poverty in Nepal: a background paper for the Mid-term review of Swiss Country Strategy

Summary:

The Reality Check Study (RCA) was commissioned by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) in April 2015. This is one component of the larger self-evaluated mid-term review being conducted by the SDC of its Swiss Country Strategy (2013-2017).
The main objective of the study is to provide insights into people’s perspectives of change in rural areas and discuss whether SDC project activities are relevant and appropriate to the current context and aspirations of people living in poverty in rural Nepal.
Key findings:

Conversations around poverty revealed that people unanimously regard the ‘elderly left on their own’, either because they have no children (or they have already died) or have been abandoned and families singularly dependent on agriculture as being the poorest in villages. Other determinants voiced, though less strongly, were indebtedness and lack of food security. 

The main drivers of change as identified and ranked in order of significance by people themselves include:
1) Migration (to Kathmandu and abroad)
​2) Roads
3) Personal networks, initiatives and investments
4) Modern communication (Mobile phones)
5) Scarcity of Water.

Importantly, the RCA findings indicate that a ‘long lens, beyond project support’ is needed when porjects are being planned and implemented. Development planners need to know what is ‘meaningful’ and relevant for peope, and under what context, for development interventions to truly have an impact on the lives of people living in poverty. 

2015: Experiences and Perspectives of Direct Beneficiaries

Undertaken for the Rural Access Programme 3 Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Component
Summary

This Reality Check Approach (RCA) Study was commissioned by the UK Department for International Development (DFID) as part of the Monitoring Evaluation and Learning (MEL) component of the third phase of the Rural Access Programme (RAP 3). It complements a ‘baseline’ RCA that was undertaken for RAP in May 2014. 


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Key findings:


People said they depended on remittances from migrant workers as the main source of cash income in all study locations and families farm mostly for their own consumption. Some households sold surplus produce but on a very small scale within their village. We were told that migrant workers were predominantly men who migrate to India seasonally or in some cases for longer periods and secure these jobs through personal and community networks. Overseas migration, for example, to the Middle East and Malaysia, while increasing, is currently limited to a few households in all locations.

Most young men indicated that they did not want to stay back in the village and farm the family land. They saw education as a way to better their life chances and find job opportunities. People told us that moving to the district headquarters, Terai or Kathmandu for education was an option for ‘school-minded’ children, while migration to India was an alternative for boys who had no interest to study further.

Significant NGO activities were ubiquitous across all locations with as many as 7-8 NGOs working in each area and people noted duplication in interventions as multiple donor programmes were focused on agricultural assistance through asset transfer and vegetable farming inputs. There was at least one other organisation/programme working on similar issues and with a similar modality as RAP 3 in all locations and people said they could not differentiate between one NGO and the next as they ‘all gave the same things’.

People in all study areas thought that roads were a significant development. In road construction districts, people saw the road in terms of improving the villages’ accessibility in the future by bringing vehicles to their doorstep. In Dailekh and Doti, where road maintenance was on-going, people felt the roads were in poor condition and to them, road usage was mainly related to improved comfort, affordability and availability of public transport. 

2015: People's Experiences of Security and Justice

Summary

The RCA study was designed to find out how people experience and understand security and justice, with particular reference to poor and marginalised groups. It responds to the gap in knowledge on how people experience violence and insecurity on a daily basis, seeks insights into people’s perspectives of ‘violence’ and ‘crime’ and into access and experience of systems of justice. The study involved in-depth engagement with future intended beneficiaries of the programme so that their perspectives can help shape the design of the programme theory of change (ToC) and baseline data collection.
Key findings:

  • No tensions, prejudice or disrespect was apparent in any location between Muslims and Hindus. On the contrary people talked about ‘all being brothers’ and ‘we are all the same poor people’. Concerns were only expressed to our team in terms of unwillingness to give offence around norms of custom and were not manifestations of prejudice. There was no discernible difference in economic status or asset ownership between Muslim and Hindu families. There were, however, often deep resentments and prejudice expressed between the hill people and those from the Terai with the former regarding themselves as superior and Terai people resenting this domination.
  • People mostly indicated that they felt safe and lived in safe communities and all said that the situation was much better than before. They compared the current situation with earlier times such as the insurgency period which they felt was one of high insecurity and fear and, more recently, to cross border armed banditry which has since declined. The traumas experienced from the insurgency period are still raw in some locations and in some places perpetuates, at least an initial fear of unknown outsiders. At first the study team was concerned that the universal claim that communities were safe was an effort to portray their communities in a positive light. However, further exploration and observation over the period of staying with them indicated that they genuinely experience low levels of crime and violence.
  • Migration for work was often viewed as a positive influence in relation to feelings of insecurity, Young unemployed idle men were blamed for much of the alcohol fuelled petty crime and abuse of the past. Their absence has led to less of these kinds of problems and during their short home visits relations remain good. In addition, the increase in cash incomes has, according to people, reduced the motivation for theft. Migration for work was also discussed in terms of additional concerns. For example, many families left behind comprise only elderly, women and children and people said this has led to an increased sense of vulnerability. The increase in dog ownership testifies to this. As well as this increased sense of insecurity some women shared that they felt they had become more isolated in the community and the quality of their relationship with their in-laws was sometimes compromised by the absence of their husbands’ intermediation. Furthermore, men and women talked about the strains resulting from long term separation and the increase in extra marital affairs on both sides and resultant increasing divorce rates.
  • Conversations around safety in the hills generally centred around concerns with wild animals and precipitous and dangerous trails whereas in the Terai the concerns were mostly linked to floods. Crime was not a major concern in any area and the study team had to actively probe these topics. Even then, the concerns discussed were mostly considered minor and related to petty theft or livestock theft. There was little knowledge of anyone ever experiencing trafficking and this was consequently not a concern. 

2014: Contribution to the Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Component Supporting RAP3, Mid and Far West Nepal

Summary

This Reality Check currently being undertaken by ITAD focuses on the impact of the DFID funded rural access program for households living in poverty, the process monitoring of road, trail and trail bridge labor based construction, maintenance and associated socio-economic programs and understanding change resulting from improved access from people’s perspectives. It also seeks to support the design of the broader evaluations HH survey, through a scoping RCA. The Scoping RCA has been used to inform the design of the broader household survey and helped in developing appropriate training for the household survey enumerators.

2013: Research into the Long Term Impact of Development Interventions in the Koshi Hills of Nepal

Summary

This Reality Check undertaken by the Effective Development Group and the Foundation for Development Management (FDM) on behalf of the National Planning Commission (NPC) of Nepal in association with UK Government’s Department for International Development (DFID) was part of a larger mixed Methods study to assess the impact of development interventions in the Koshi Hills area of Nepal over forty years from the 1970s to 2013.

The goals of the study were to understand the dynamics of economic and social change, to assess the role of development interventions and draw conclusions that may help shape future development policy-making and, more broadly, assess the approach taken to development by providing key insights into what has, and has not, impacted on the socio-economic development of this region.

Girl ploughs field in Num

Woman on stretcher taken to the Health Post and then on-referred to Jirikhimti; another four hours walk
Key findings:
  • Overall improvements: All study families said that they were better off now than they had been in the past. They pointed specifically to improved eating habits, that their life involved less hard work, more leisure time and increased disposable incomes. The most significant developments for the study families were perceived as roads, increased remittances, production and marketing of high value crops (notably cardamom) and access to water for drinking and irrigation.
  • Driving forces of development: major roads were attributed to the government and British Aid but local roads were regarded largely as community efforts. Increasing migration is a result of new employment opportunities emerging (particularly in the Gulf and S.E Asia) and the (mostly) positive experiences reported by migrants. The growth of the cardamom industry, the major high value crop which has created considerable wealth in areas of the Koshi Hills in recent years, was attributed by study families to enterprising migrant workers who brought back cuttings from the cardamom gardens in Sikkim and buyers searching for new sources to meet growing demand. Water programmes (drinking and irrigation) comprise a mix of attribution by study families to development aid, to charities such as the Gurkha Welfare Trust and school alumni associations, to small grant provision through local government and self-help initiatives.
  • Education: study families noted education had changed significantly in the space of three generations and this was perceived to be largely due to the government provision of primary schools at ward- level in the 60s (these schools were often referred to as community schools).
  • Healthcare: The RCA noted a growing trend over the last 5-7 years for people to ‘vote with their feet’ by using private pharmacies rather than Government health posts for health problems, not addressed through traditional means Study families noted an increase in numbers of privately owned pharmacies catering to this demand.
  • Credit and Finance: Early programmes of micro-credit and Agricultural extension were perceived as useful as an alternative to the traditional sources of loans but were more lauded for the accompanying education/information programmes (income generation, health, hygiene, immunization, family planning etc.) and opportunities for social capital accumulation than the loan per se. Now, these group-based arrangements are said to have been reduced to loan management only and people miss opportunities to access information and advice.
  • Broader Narratives: It is significant that neither migration nor the production and marketing of high value crops received much attention from either development partners or Government until very recently. The fact that people in Koshi Hills have been highly mobile for generations is an important element noted by the study participants contributing to the diffusion of ideas and innovations and the development of aspirations beyond agriculture. Study families often attributed the innovations they had made to ‘word of mouth’ from experiences gathered from experience abroad or in market centres or from individual ‘entrepreneurs’ within their communities whose self- propelled experiments led to uptake by others.