Beyond 'Building Back Better': Strengthening Social Inclusion and Accountability through Community-Led Reconstruction in Post-Earthquake Nepal

This research has coalesced around an ambitious model for post-disaster recovery: the community-led reconstruction programme (CLRP), implemented by ActionAid Nepal and its partners following the earthquakes in Nepal. The CLRP positions affected populations at the forefront of decision making about social transformation, human rights and interactions with government, to produce a reconstruction that goes beyond ‘build back better’ for individuals and society as a whole. The implementation of the CLRP provides a lens through which IAT issues can be investigated, and the contributions of humanitarian actors in the research.

This report employs data gathered through a mixed methods research design, comprising interviews with elected officials and local committees, focus group discussions with affected communities, a perception survey, street drama and video case studies of elderly people. A previous but related piece of work examined the planning and implementation of DEC agencies active in Nepal, using data collected from their own recovery plans and interviews with senior staff in Kathmandu. Data was collected by mixed teams of Nepali and British researchers.

What emerges from these investigations is a complex picture of social change: social conventions of status and identity being re-examined and challenged; a greater influence, and at times leadership, of women; an understanding that communities who work together produce better reconstruction; and an agreement that previously marginalised social groups deserve to be included as integral members of society.