The Government of Nepal officially launched a Post-Disaster Needs Assessment (PDNA) at the Local Development Partners Meeting on May 15, 2015 to determine the impacts of the devastating earthquake on April 25, 2015and a series of aftershocks since, including the powerful earthquake on May 12, 2015.

Supporting the Government’s vision and strategy for inclusive and resilient recovery, the PDNA will build on assessments currently being undertaken at the national and local levels and will include funding implications for the restoration of livelihoods, the economy and services and rehabilitation and reconstruction of housing and infrastructure.  Specifically, it will assess the socio-economic impacts of the earthquakes and identify priority needs for affected households and critical sectors of the economy with a particular focus on resilient recovery and reconstruction activities with indicative costs.  It will review current Disaster Risk Management capacity and identify short term measures in the recovery phase, as well as medium and long term measures in the reconstruction phase.  It will also recommend institutional mechanisms and policy options to be undertaken in support of the reconstruction processes and promoting resilient recovery.

The PDNA will be completed by June 15, 2015, in time to inform the FY 2015-2016 budget and a planned international conference on Nepal’s reconstruction needs in late June.

A high-level oversight mechanism will be set up at the National Planning Commission under the leadership of the Vice Chairperson, Prof.Dr. Govind Raj Pokharel, directly assisted by a core group of Members overseeing i) PDNA, ii) future policies and strategies, and iii) resource implications. Other Members in charge of specific sectors will each assume a lead role in coordinating and overseeing the assessment of their respective portfolios. In addition, the NPC will also have a team of distinguished advisors. 

Core Coordination Group will be constituted under the leadership of the National Planning Commission (NPC) which will be supported directly by PDNA Technical Team with experts from the Government of Nepal and partner agencies.To the extent possible, Nepali participants and experts who have been trained on PDNA exercises prior to the earthquake will be embedded in technical teams to be formed by sector.  

The PDNA will cover all affected districts with a special focus on rural areas and the most vulnerable populations.  It will aim at improving livelihood opportunities and public services and provide a basis for objective resource allocation among competing recovery priorities in a transparent process; prioritize recovery needs that correspond to relative development achievements across regions and districts, as well as persisting disaster and climate risks; aim at a recovery strategy striking a balance between timeliness, comprehensiveness and comparative relevance of needs; and engage development partners and the private sector, to the extent possible, to promote collaboration and resource pooling.The PDNA will also draw on the state of the art technological tools and methods, and provide a forum for creative ideas from spontaneous citizen initiatives.

The PDNA will adopta methodology jointly developed by the European Union, the World Bank and the UN system. The methodology includes an analysis of pre-disaster baseline data to compare with post-disaster conditions in order to assess the disaster impact and to determine the overall recovery strategy.  It combines quantitative data with qualitative information to analyze and to assess the social and economic impacts of the disaster from the community level to the national level.  The PDNA will also be informed by the outcomes of the Third UN World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction, in particular the concept of “Build Back Better.”It will also point out a forward-looking roadmap on the fresh linkages between new civil works and sources of economic activities.

Nepal’s development partners including the World Bank, United Nations, the European Union, the Asian Development Bank, Japan International Cooperation Agency, the Government of Switzerland, United States Agency for International Development, and the Government of Finland have so far expressed willingness to support the PDNA Coordination Team.