Key points: On 3 November 2023 an earthquake of moment magnitude (Mw) 5.7 occurred in Karnali Province in western Nepal. At the request of the UN Resident Coordinator’s Office in Nepal, the Sajag-Nepal team applied a network-based multi-hazard impacts model that has been developed in the project to estimate the number of buildings that were […]
In late May this year Gopi Basyal and Ganesh Jimee from NSET, along with Anuradha Puri from Social Science Baha, went to Bhimeshwor with a major objective of sharing ongoing project activities mainly focusing on the details of the slope monitoring equipment. As part of the research, slope monitoring equipment has been installed at Phedi […]
The Sajag-Nepal team got an opportunity to be part of the one-day Provincial Humanitarian Coordination and Contingency Planning Workshop at Lumbini Province. The event was funded by ECHO and was implemented by UNDP, UNICEF, and UN Women through the Strengthening Urban Preparedness, Earthquake Preparedness and Response in Western Region of Nepal (SUPER) project. With the […]
Last week Sajag-Nepal team members had the pleasure of joining representatives from NGOs, INGOs, civil society organisations, and UN agencies from across the Asia-Pacific region at the Regional Humanitarian Partnership Week in Bangkok. This was a great opportunity to introduce the project to a broad audience, and to hear about the priorities, challenges, and achievements […]
Amy Johnson, Northumbria University “How are you doing down there, Gopi?” A pair of white chinos and well-worn boots are all we can see of our colleague, Gopi Basyal, a geographer on the Sajag-Nepal team based at the Nepal Society for Earthquake Technology (NSET). At the moment, Gopi is hip deep in a precisely 1.2-meter […]
In March and April 2022, members of the Sajag-Nepal team began working with local government and residents in the four case-study municipalities to identify potential sites for monitoring slope stability. Talking to district- and municipality-level officials as well as groups of residents, the team focused on places where more information was desired on the stability […]
Social Science Baha team’s visit to UK
In April 2023, the SSB team members, comprising Jeevan Baniya, Mukta Lama, Dipak Basnet, Tek Bahadur Dong, Anuradha Puri, and Nyima Dorjee Bhotia, visited the United Kingdom for two weeks. The visit was hosted by the Department of Geography at Durham University. During our two weeks in the UK, we participated in multiple activities, including writing workshops, seminars, conferences, planning sessions, and social events hosted by our Durham and Northumbria based colleagues.
Pic: SSB team with Amy and Katie at Durham University, Durham.
During the first week of the visit, the SSB team spent the initial couple of days in a writing workshop at Durham University. During the writing workshop, we (RAs) got support and guidance from Mukta S Lama, Jeevan Baniya, and Amy Johnson on writing our BNAC conference presentation. This workshop proved to be a valuable opportunity for us—RAs—to enhance our skills in writing conference presentations and also provided us a beforehand opportunity to prepare the presentation as a panel. Besides the writing workshop, we also got to explore and see around the town of Durham and its heritage sites and places. The team also travel to Newcastle to visit Northumbria University where Amy, Katherine and Katie are based.
Pic: SSB team with the UK based Sajag-Nepal members at Durham University
On 24th and 25th April 2023, the SSB team, Amy, and Katie along with Nick and Katherine travelled to Huddersfield to participate and present a panel in 20th BNAC (British-Nepal Academic Council) conference held at School of Human and Health Science, University of Huddersfield. Our panel titled, ‘Sajag-Nepal: Producing Knowledge and Building Partnerships for Critical Disaster Research in Nepal’ was chaired by Anthropologist Ben Campbell. For the panel, Amy presented her paper, ‘Pluralizing Environment in Nepal Disaster Studies: Critical Reflections from the Sajag-Nepal Project’. Nyima and Tek presented their paper titled, ‘Indigenous Knowledge and Practices on Disaster Risk Reduction and Preparedness in Nepal. Anuradha and Dipak presented their paper, ‘Circular Mobility in Post-disaster Resettlement: Negotiating Everyday Practices and Policies’. At the end, Katie presented her paper, ‘Listening for Landslides: Integrating Local and Scientific Knowledge for Landslide Risk Reduction in Rural Nepal’. This panel presentation was well received and initiated good discussion after the presentation of the panel. Furthermore, this participation was also a great opportunity to introduce the project with broader academic participating in the BNAC conference.
Pic: Screenshot of BNAC tweeter acknowledging Sajag-Nepal team’s presentation
Pic: Group photo of Sajag-Nepal team at BNAC conference
After the BNAC conference participation, the SSB team and the UK based colleagues got the opportunity to update and share our respective works. Importantly, SSB team and Amy also assessed the research and activities undertaken to measure progress and find the gaps to chart the way forward. Overall, this was a great opportunity and experience for the SSB team to visit the UK and work along with other members of Sajag-Nepal team.
Pic: SSB team and Amy walking to Geography Department, Durham University.
Pic: SSB team with Amy on the final day of the UK stay