Nepal Safer Schools Projects (NSSP)
The Nepal Safer Schools Project (NSSP) is a DfID funded project seeking to increase the safety of approximately 250 vulnerable schools in Nepal and build the resilience of pupils, staff and the wider community to disasters. It is a consortium of Crown Agents, Save the Children and Arup international and NSET is implementing the one of the programme. The project is one part of DFID's wider ‘Strengthening Disaster Resilience in Nepal" programme seeking to build the resilience of vulnerable people and reduce the impact of natural hazards in Nepal.
The NSSP is aligned with the Government of Nepal's School Sector Development Plan (2016-2023) which includes a focus on School Safety and Disaster Risk Reduction, by upgrading physical infrastructure to be more resilient and ensuring the curriculum and teacher training integrates disaster resilience.
Objectives
The objective of the NSSP is to support the implementation of the Government of Nepal’s Vision for Increasing Resilience in Schools in Nepal. It will achieve this in two broad ways.
» Support the implementation of the Comprehensive School Safety framework (Safer Learning Facilities, Disaster Management and Resilient Education) in four districts in the Far- and Mid-West; and
» Support national-level capacity in the Department of Education to further develop policy and guidance to deliver safer schools.
Program Implementation area
The NSSP is to be implemented in province no. 5, 6 (Karnali) and 7 to help retrofit and reconstruct the schools vulnerable to earthquakes. It is to address around 250 schools in the Far and Mid-West of Nepal as the region is considered to be the most at risk of future seismic disturbance. This project will focus on up to four districts in the region. The process for selection of districts and schools is currently underway.
Implementation process
The implementation approach of the NSSP is locally led and internationally managed. Crown Agents is leading a consortium containing the NSET, Arup International, and Save the Children. NSET is to lead for Output 1, with backstopping and guidance on international best practices from Arup International. Save the Children (SC) is to lead for Output 2.
Both organizations will incorporate the requirements of output 3 into their inputs to ensure cohesion between the project and the institutionalization process. However, the NSET will have the overarching responsibility of overseeing and managing output 3. Running across these three outputs, Crown Agents will be supplying overall project management, as well as leading on Public Financial Management (PFM) and Fiduciary Risk Management (FRM).
Intended Beneficiaries
The ultimate beneficiaries of this support will be school children, teachers and their wider communities, who will benefit directly from safer learning facilities, disaster preparedness in their schools, as well as disaster resilience in their education. The NSSP should also pay particular attention to socially excluded and highly vulnerable groups, ensuring through the project "no one is left behind".
Expected outputs of the programme
1 Safer learning facilities, particularly through seismically-resilient retrofitting and rebuilding:
» Capacity built at the local level for managing and conducting resilience construction,
» Improved understanding of schools and hazards in Mid and Far West Nepal,
» Improved Resilience of school buildings
2 School-level disaster management and resilient education
» Improved disaster preparedness procedures established in schools,
» Increased DRR awareness in schools and communities
3 National-level technical assistance on safer learning facilities in which NSET is leading on outputs 1 & 3.
» Increased staff capacity in government for improving school safety,
» Improved access to real time data on schools through technology,
» Improved government regulations and processes for safer schools,
» Relevant stakeholders including government collaborating in improving school safety.
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