Paper short abstract:

Aiming to answer why there are “gaps” between policy and practice of DRR governance exist in Nepal, this study reveals 'real risk governance' and allows an understanding of the role played by policy in shaping, enabling or hindering risk reduction at the local level.

Paper long abstract:

Nepal, being a country always exposed to multi-hazards risks, has been implementing several risk governance policy mechanisms ranging from local specific to aligning international agreements. The institutional structures for risk governance, which are robust legally, have also spread at scales from federal to the community levels (i.e., “thick” policies). Additionally, leaders, bureaucrats and implementing institutions (normatively) agree on the importance of implementing disaster risk reduction or DRR focused activities in their constituencies. But policies are not being materialized in practices as stipulated (i.e., “thin” implementation). Consequently, their implementation has just ritualized in practice sans achieving anticipated outputs. Why such “gaps” between policy and practice exist and what are the “root causes” of their persistence have not been adequately analysed yet. This study, focusing on the Kathmandu Valley and based on interviews with bureaucrats, experts, key informants, practitioners (I/NGOs), local actors and review of policy documents, and getting insights from critical social theories, attempts to answer these questions. Preliminary findings suggest that the gaps and root causes, which hinder achieving policy goals, have to be analysed in two strata. Firstly, the proximate causes of gaps include the lack of financial resources and knowledge infrastructure at scales. An assessment of root causes, however, requires taking the experience of those engaged in on-the-ground development projects as an analytical starting point. Taking this approach reveals 'real risk governance' and allows an understanding of the role played by policy is shaping, enabling or hindering risk reduction at the local level.