Local adaptation plans in Nepal bring women, youth, and Indigenous groups into climate governance (2011–Present)

Launched in 2011, Nepal’s Local Adaptation Plans of Action (LAPA), aims to help communities respond to climate change by putting local people—especially women, youth, Indigenous peoples and marginalized groups—at the center of planning. The policy addresses rising floods, droughts, and landslides by funding small, community-led solutions. It reduces exclusion by ensuring diverse voices shape local plans and receive support. LAPA applies nationwide and is implemented through municipalities, linking grassroots action with government funding and climate policy.

Nepal has been experiencing more intense rains, longer dry spells, melting glaciers, and unpredictable weather that makes everyday life harder—especially for people living in small rural villages. In October 2021, sudden and unseasonal rainfall destroyed crops across the country just before harvest, leading to food shortages in some areas. In the Karnali and Sudurpaschim provinces, communities have faced both floods and droughts within the same year. Many families rely on farming, and when water is either too much or too little, it directly threatens their income and food supply.¹

Decisions about how to confront climate change are often made at the top—by national ministries or international experts—while the communities who live with its impacts every day are rarely included in shaping the solutions. Nepal’s Local Adaptation Plans of Action (LAPA) was created to change that. It puts people at the center—helping villages identify the specific problems they face and providing the tools, funding, and support to address those problems locally.

What makes LAPA unique is not just its funding or projects—it’s who gets to lead. Women now head over 10 percent of user committees across LAPA projects. In some districts, more than 40 percent of all participants in LAPA planning have been women. Youth groups are also deeply involved—especially through programs like PRAYAS, which helped young people draft climate plans in Karnali and Madhesh. Indigenous elders have contributed traditional knowledge, like bamboo reinforcement techniques in landslide zones. And people with disabilities have helped design inclusive paths and water points that work for everyone. By making sure these voices are not just heard but empowered, LAPA is helping reshape who plans the future—and how.² 

What Is the LAPA Policy?

The Local Adaptation Plans of Action (LAPA) is a national policy framework launched in 2011 to help communities across Nepal identify and address local climate challenges. Originally led by central ministries, LAPA has become more embedded in local governance since Nepal adopted a federal system in 2015. Under this new structure, responsibility for implementing LAPAs was formally transferred to municipalities and rural municipalities, making climate adaptation part of their regular planning duties. This shift means LAPA is now institutionalized at the local level—built into official municipal processes, budgets, and development plans—rather than being a separate or temporary project. LAPA is not a single policy but a process. LAPA follows seven clear steps. These steps are practical and participatory, designed to ensure people shape the decisions that affect them:

1. Understanding Climate Impacts Locally

The first step begins with climate sensitization meetings, typically held at the ward level, the smallest administrative unit in a municipality. These gatherings often take place in public schools, community buildings, or open spaces like temples or chaupals. They are facilitated by municipal climate officers, sometimes supported by non-governmental organizations (NGOs) or trained community mobilizers.³ 

Participants include farmers, women’s group members, local youth clubs, elders, forest user groups, and people with disabilities. In the Dang District for instance, a ward-level meeting brought together 60 villagers, including Dalit women farmers and a local teacher, to share changes they observed—such as erratic monsoons, decreased water levels in springs, or increasing pests in maize crops.⁴ 

These meetings are conversational—people talk about how climate is affecting their farming, health, housing, and livelihoods, laying the foundation for later action.

2. Identifying Who and What is Most at Risk

The next phase involves conducting a localized climate vulnerability assessment to identify which areas, livelihoods, or population groups are most at risk. This may include farms lacking irrigation infrastructure, households located near flood-prone rivers, or communities located in landslide-prone zones. These assessments are typically led by a technical team within the municipal government, with support from NGOs or national initiatives such as the Nepal Climate Change Support Programme (NCCSP).⁵ 

The vulnerability assessment process is community-informed. Local residents accompany the assessment team to identify high-risk areas—such as dried-up wells, landslide-prone access roads, or damaged irrigation infrastructure. Women’s groups, including organizations like Aama Samuha (mothers’ groups), often surface gender-specific risks that are otherwise overlooked, such as unsafe routes for girls during flood season or the increased burden of water collection. In Rukum, for example, the assessment process included Dalit communities, who highlighted that their homes—constructed along riverbanks due to landlessness—experienced annual flooding, unlike the homes of higher-caste households. These insights directly influenced the prioritization of interventions in the final climate adaptation plan.

3. Setting Priorities Together

Once the local challenges are mapped, open prioritization meetings are held at the community or ward level. Here, participants rank issues using simple tools like colored stickers, votes, or hand-raising. Everyone is encouraged to speak. Youth club representatives, women from marginalized communities, and Persons with Disabilities Committees (PWDs) are given space to raise their concerns and a facilitator is present to moderate discussions to ensure inclusive participation.⁶ 

4. Creating a Local Adaptation Plan

The drafting of the LAPA is completed by the municipal planning team in close partnership with local stakeholders. This includes ward representatives, women’s cooperatives, Indigenous elders, Dalit community members, and “user groups.”⁷ User groups are small, local committees formed to plan, implement, and manage specific adaptation projects under the LAPA framework and typically include residents who are directly affected by the project, including women, youth. The plan specifies what actions will be taken, by whom, with what resources, and by when. For instance, in Kalikot, a LAPA was co-drafted by the municipal engineer, a local Dalit youth leader, a Tharu women’s cooperative president, and members of the Community Disaster Management Committee.⁸ The collaboration ensures both technical feasibility and community ownership.

5. Linking with Local Development Plans

Once finalized, the LAPA isn’t just stored on a shelf—it is merged with the municipality’s annual development plan and budgeted through the local council. This step is handled by the Integrated Planning Committee (IPC) of the municipality, which includes elected local officials, technical staff, and representatives of civil society. Often, women’s organizations and youth-led clubs lobby to ensure their priorities stay in the budget.

6. Implementing the Projects

Adaptation activities are implemented by local user groups, often with supervision by municipal engineers. These groups are formed for each project and include local residents directly affected by or responsible for the activity. Women’s participation is required in all user committees, with many user groups chaired by women.

7. Tracking Progress and Learning

Local governments and user groups monitor the implementation of development projects, solve problems along the way, and learn what works throughout the process. For instance, in some areas where water tanks were installed, later rounds of LAPAs included water quality testing and maintenance after residents reported issues.

Implementation

Nepal’s Local Adaptation Plans of Action (LAPA) emerged from a key policy shift during the formulation of the National Adaptation Programme of Action (NAPA) in 2010. A major turning point came in 2011, when the government adopted the Climate Change Policy, which mandated that at least 80 percent of climate adaptation funds be spent at the local level. This marked a move away from top-down development toward community-driven planning.⁹ 

Initially, LAPAs were piloted in ten districts with funding and technical support from the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) and the European Union. The success of these pilots led to the creation of a formal National LAPA Framework in 2011, guided by the Ministry of Environment, later restructured under the Ministry of Forests and Environment (MoFE). Implementation responsibility was shared with the Ministry of Federal Affairs and General Administration (MoFAGA), which helped align LAPAs with local governance.¹⁰ 

The LAPA approach gained further traction under Nepal’s new federal constitution of 2015, which decentralized power to local governments. In response, the LAPA Framework was updated in 2019, integrating climate adaptation into the mandates of newly formed municipalities. The Nepal Climate Change Support Programme (NCCSP), funded by UK Aid and implemented by MoFE with support from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), continues to guide LAPA implementation.¹¹ 

Today, municipalities lead LAPA activities, while MoFE provides oversight. NGOs, youth networks, and women’s groups now play formal roles in project planning and delivery, reflecting the policy’s evolution toward broader social inclusion and local ownership.

Investment

The total cost of implementing Nepal’s Local Adaptation Plans of Action (LAPA) is difficult to pin down due to the program’s decentralized nature and its integration into broader development spending. Since 2011, major funding has come from international donors, especially UK Aid, which committed over GBP 23 million (approximately USD 30 million) for the Nepal Climate Change Support Programme (NCCSP) Phase II alone.¹² Local governments are required to contribute a portion of the project cost, typically following an 80-10-10 model, where 80 percent is donor-funded, 10 percent is financed by the municipality, and 10 percent is provided by the community—often through in-kind labor or local materials.¹³ While these figures help frame the investment model, a full estimate of LAPA’s national cost is unavailable, particularly as local adaptation actions are now embedded within municipal budgets and co-financed across multiple sectors like agriculture, water, and infrastructure.

Assessment

The Local Adaptation Plans of Action (LAPA) have had a clear positive impact on people living in areas affected by floods, droughts, and landslides. Farmers in Dang and Kalikot now have better irrigation and water storage systems, which helps them grow crops despite dry spells. In Jajarkot, bamboo crib walls built by local committees have reduced landslides, protecting homes and paths. It also supports everything from building simple rainwater tanks in dry hills to constructing small embankments in flood-prone plains. For example, in Hansipur’s Dang District, residents used their LAPA to install an irrigation canal that helped farmers survive dry seasons. In Jajarkot’s hill areas, communities planted bamboo and built crib walls to prevent landslides, using local materials and skills. These actions are small but meaningful—designed and led by people who know their land best.¹⁴ 

Municipalities with LAPAs are more likely to have disaster preparedness plans and community-led climate projects than those without.¹⁵ The policy enjoys steady political support, especially at the local level, and most communities involved report greater trust in their municipal governments. Implementation has been cost-effective due to local labor contributions and integration with existing planning systems.¹⁶ 

However, challenges remain. Civil society groups have pointed out that in some areas, elites still dominate decision-making, limiting the voice of the poorest. There are concerns that people with disabilities still face exclusion from planning discussions. Additionally, some projects face delays due to limited technical staff and budget gaps, raising questions about long-term sustainability without continued donor support.¹⁷ 

Additional Information

Examples of youth-led initiatives include, in Pyuthan, a youth-led vote prioritizing reinforcing a school’s landslide-prone playground over constructing a new footpath. Women in the group shared how landslides discouraged girls from attending school during the monsoon, adding a social lens to a technical issue. In the Madhesh province, a youth group successfully lobbied for their adaptation project—a tree plantation and shaded rest space for elderly and women in the village center—to be included in the municipal plan after it was initially dropped.¹⁸ 

Examples of women-led initiatives include:

• Bardiya: A Dalit woman led a user group that built raised hand pumps to prevent flood contamination.
• Jajarkot: A young woman teacher headed a project to build an all-weather path to the village school.
• Surkhet: A group of women and men with disabilities jointly led a composting and kitchen gardening adaptation project focused on accessible farming.¹⁹ 

Photo of mountains in Stupa, namche Bazaar, Nepal © Unsplash/Sebastian Pena Lambarri.

Tags

• Asia
• Climate & Environment
• Gender
• Indigenous Peoples
• Land
• Middle-Income Country
• Nepal
• People with Disabilities
• Political & Civic Participation
• Rural Areas
• Social Protection
• South Asia
• Universal