At this moment, it is difficult to predict how the Coronavirus pandemic will unfold in Britain, Nepal and around the world. We are providing updates on the situation in Nepal on our dedicated news page as they come into to us from our partners.
Given what is happening both in the UK and Nepal, it is not possible to say with any great certainty what our programme of activity will look like in 2020. We can however update you on where things currently stand:
Higher Education programme: Two students, Dylan and Rhiannon, had been selected to visit Nepal in June to conduct field research alongside students from Tribhuvan University. This trip has now been cancelled. We are working with Dylan, Rhiannon and Prof. Craig Hutton (TGT trustee) their dissertation tutor at Univeristy of Southampton, to work out a way for research to be conducted remotely using mobile technologies to carry out interviews and focus groups.
Climate change adaptation programmes: At present, the project work we enable across four communities in Nepal is continuing, but we have encouraged our partner NGOs to deploy staff as they see fit as they try to prevent an outbreak of COVID-19. If the virus does reach the villages, we may need to raise a short-term emergency response fund to help communities to cope. Whilst recognising that it may need to be a lower priority for a short period, we will do everything we can to keep our vital climate change adaptation work on track – whatever happens, Nepal is going to need climate change resilient, organic agriculture.
Monitoring visits: I had planned to visit Nepal in May this year and combine that visit with a trip to New Dehli to attend the annual Adaptation Futures conference. The conference has been postponed to late September; as has my monitoring visit. September may still be too early to travel; I will assess this over the coming months.
Short book on climate change adaptation: Our biggest ‘desk’ project for 2020 is the production and launch of a book on climate change adaptation. I am currently writing this and have recruited two illustrators and a book designer to support what we hope will be an eye-catching short book that makes the case for mindful adaptation to climate change. We plan to run a crowdfunding campaign in September to raise funds to self-publish and will deliver copies to key influencers at the UNFCCC COP26 in Glasgow this November.
Levison Wood: At the end of last month I sat down to record an interview our ambassador Levison Wood, it was a really interesting chat; I’ll be uploading that to our website soon for you all to listen to. Levison also did a short bit of filming for us in Nepal in February; which we will release at an appropriate moment.
We Need To Talk About Adaptation: We released our second annual report on the presence (or not) of climate change adaptation in the discourses of the UK’s leading environmental organisations. The results were very interesting, it hopefully makes for a thought-provoking read.
Working arrangements: Our UK Co-Director, Morgan, has moved out of London temporarily and is ‘working from home’ in west Wales.
For the latest updates on the Coronavirus situation in Nepal, please visit our dedicated news page