In August, IHS Academics Charmae Nercua, Elena Enseñado and Bahar Sakizlioglu organised a 3-week tailor-made training that took place in Nepal with the topic Nature-based Solutions for Climate Mitigation and Adaptation: Building Resilience in Nepalese Municipalities. We interviewed two of the participants, Yugdip Luitel and Nisha Koirala, and asked them about their experience from the training, the skills they have acquired, and how they can use them to help Nepal deal with climate change impacts.
About the participants
Yugdip Luitel works as an Environmental Engineer at Itahari Sub-Metropolitan City, Province No.1, Nepal, after receiving a Master of Technology in Environmental Engineering at Kathmandu University. His major responsibilities at the municipality are effectively managing municipal waste, air, water, and noise pollution and promoting greenery and climate change mitigation.
Nisha Koirala is an Environment Engineer at the Kathmandu Metropolitan City Office and is responsible for overall solid waste management and other environmental issues. She obtained a Master’s degree in Technology in Environmental Engineering.
Key takeaways
Before joining the training, both Yugdip and Nisha have been familiar with the topic of climate change mitigation and adaptation due to their work. However, both agreed that Climate Adaptation Action Planning is one of the most important skills they have learned from the training.
“In Nepal, there is no such planning system, it is haphazard, and programs are formulated without any planning. I hope this skill in the planning process can be transferred to another sector in the municipality as well.”, says Yugdip
Besides Action Planning, Nisha has also acquired some other expertise:
“I also learned about social inclusion and gender importance in the planning and implementation process.”
According to Yugdip, Nepal is impacted on a large scale and in all sectors. Both he and Nisha believe that with the skills acquired, they can take the lead to help formulate climate mitigation and adaptation-related action plans. This would be how the municipalities can benefit from their participation in the training.
The long-awaited in-person training
Regarding what he enjoyed most about those three weeks, Yugdip appreciates the opportunity to have in-person training again after the 3-year pandemic.
“The field observation of Nagdaha Pond allowed me to communicate with local people to thoroughly understand the issues from different sectors.”
Nisha immensely enjoyed the energy created by the trainers and the hard work they put in to help everyone understand the topic.
