Forum Good Practice: Nepal

16 March 2018     Nepal

Related to humanitarian, development and advocacy work of ACT Alliance

The ACT Nepal Forum has been a testimony to the strength of the collective. Starting from the immediate aftermath of the devastating Nepal earthquake, the forum galvanized into a firm platform of coordination, commitment and collective sharing geared towards providing high quality relief, psychosocial support and care to the affected communities as well remain a constant proponent on accountability, inclusion and meaningful participation for the wider humanitarian community.

ACT Nepal has assisted almost 2 million individuals (400,000 Households) covering progressively actions on Food Aid, Shelter (Temporary, Transitional & Permanent), Water Sanitation and Hygiene (Hygiene kits, Toilets, Water Supply Schemes) Psychosocial support (Care, Counselling), Education (Schools reconstruction), Livelihoods (Seeds, Agri equipment’s & Trainings), Inclusive Protection (Feedback & Accountability) and Resilience. ACT Alliance is considered second to UN in terms of strength, resource leveraging, visibility, geographical coverage and communications.

A series of interesting achievements reaffirm the faith of coming together and working together:

  1. Common ACT Base: a place to exchange ideas, have food and work
  2. Sharing un-earmarked funds: a very transparent, well documented and inclusive process of allocating funds to neglected sectors
  3. ‘One’ sitrep reporting: covering all response actions of ACT appeal as well as non-ACT appeal funded actions displaying a larger canvas of ACT operations in country,
  4. ACT model village: a shining example of unifying activities and working as a collective
  5. Continual engagement: every day morning Forum meetings (first 3 months) followed by monthly meetings helping maintain continuity in thoughts and actions.
  6. Welcoming new members: CA, DKH, Amity Foundation added to with open arms
  7. ACT Representation: members focused on respective clusters to enhance reach & implement responses simultaneously
  8. Common Appeal: NPL 151, 161 &171
  9. Terrai flood responses: common assessment and appeal action for response
  10. Joint Monitoring Visits: successful conduct of the JMV and appeal evaluation1
  11. Staff sharing: a common security focal for 9 ACT Agencies
  12. High profile visits: ACT general secretary and Dutch minister
  13. Digital Data Gathering: mobile based apps AKVO (ICCO), MAGPI (DCA), KoBo (CAID)
  14. Preparedness: updated EPRP, Common Contingency Stocks – assessment formats (JRNA)
  15. Accountability: CHS Audit, ACT certification & Nepali translation with trainings
  16. Learning Event & local capacity building: 24 trainings for mutual learning sharing
  17. Website: a unified information platform made for ACT Nepal
  18. Inter Faith Dialogues: exploratory Works on Disaster Response planning
  19. Policy Advocacy: speedy reconstruction clearances and NGO guidelines

The ACT Nepal Forum has been a safe and open space for sharing, learning and debating on key issues of country and member’s operations. The actions are continually characterized by a common visibility approach, common messaging on key response actions and collective agreements of focus areas and complementarity in reach amongst ACT members. These actions have worked very well with all of us able to focus on our core strengths and keep the ACT flag flying high and making others take note of the collective.

Documents:

Annex 1- Emergency Preparedness and Response Plan

Annex 2- Joint Monitoring Visit

Annex 3- General Secretary Visit

Annex 4 – Lessons Learn-ACT response to gorkha EQ

Annex 5- Media Coverage- ACT response

Annex 6 -ACT_FINAL EVALUATION NPL151

Annex 7-Final Narrative Report NPL 151

Annex 8- Capacity Building Program

Annex 9- Capacity building -training reports

Annex 10- Case Stories- ACT response

Annex 11 – Interim report iii NPL 161