Recent Accomplishments
Humanitarian assistance - response and preparedness
Pregnant women at health camp
in Saptari
A significant component of UNFPA's work in Nepal is humanitarian response. In 2008, the floods in western and eastern Nepal affected more than 240,000 people. Reproductive health (RH) needs, gender based violence (GBV), and HIV/AIDS were largely left unaddressed in the first phases of response to this emergency, endangering many lives. UNFPA responded to the floods by providing life saving services through local governments and NGO partners in Sunsari, Saptari, Kanchanpur and Kailali. These services included emergency obstetric care and prevention of gender based violence as well as HIV transmissions.
UNFPA's first response was to supply basic necessities, such as 10,000 reproductive health kits which were distributed in Saptari in August through the District Public Health Office. Three thousand such kits were distributed in September to Sagarmatha Zonal Hospital and 90,000 in October to Saptari, Sunsari, Kilali, Kanchanpur and Dadeldhura. Thanks to UNFPA's efforts, basic items like shawls, saris, sanitary cloths, torchlights, batteries, mats, and undergarments were distributed in Saptari and Sunsari. More than 4,000 women in Kanchanpur and Kailali received clothing and towels and about 1,000 got torches with batteries, along with mattresses, blankets and hygiene kits. UNFPA gave USD 7,000, through local government agencies, to the main hospital in Rajbiraj. UNFPA also supported local line agencies so that they could hire additional medical staff and set up temporary health facilities to ensure proper care and nutrition for pregnant and lactating mothers.
UNFPA also invested in capacity building of local agencies to address the ongoing humanitarian crisis as well as future ones. The agency supported activities like training 150 women police officers in Sunsari and Saptari on sexual and gender based violence. UNFPA also lobbied for deployment of female police officers in the displaced persons camps.
Peer educators in IDP camp
in Saptari
UNFPA has been strengthening the capacity of local government officers and health workers so that they can respond in a more systematic way to prevent natural hazards from becoming natural disasters. A similar goal is to address the special needs of women, girls and youth as part of the national response to disasters. The overall goal of joint efforts by UNFPA and its partners is to address the immediate needs of the survivors of disasters and to promote the recovery of the affected area as soon as possible.
UNFPA is an active member of the health and protection
clusters . It also chairs the recently established sub-clusters on gender based violence and reproductive health. The resources UNFPA devotes to humanitarian activities have increased significantly from approximately USD 30,000 last year to approximately USD 800,000 this year.
In an effort to move from reactive interventions to proactive preparedness and response, UNFPA Nepal hosted a number of technical assistance missions in March 2009. Ms. Selenge Lkhagva and Ms. Pam Steele from UNFPA Procurement Services Branch in Copenhagen, a study team from Columbia University along with Ms. Priya Marwah and Ms. Cecile Mazzacurati from the Humanitarian Response Branch at UNFPA HQ, New York, assessed procurement and logistics systems in Nepal. They also assessed UNFPA effectiveness in humanitarian assistance and how to address the existing gaps and challenges in this assistance. UNFPA's internal Humanitarian Assistance Working Group is implementing the recommendations of these missions within the context of comprehensive contingency planning.
For more information on the work UNFPA does in emergencies, see the following websites:
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