Project Background

The Local Adaptation to Climate Change (LACC) project is a follow-up to decades of successful bilateral development cooperation between Nepal, Finland, and the European Union.

LACC builds directly upon the foundation of the Rural Village Water Resources Management Project (RVWRMP), which operated in three phases from 2006 to 2022, and the Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Project in Western Nepal (RWSSP-WN), which operated in two phases from 2008 to 2019.

Rural Village Water Resources Management Project (RVWRMP)

The Rural Village Water Resources Management Project (RVWRMP) was a bilateral project implemented in three phases from 2006 to 2022 across Mid- and Far-Western Nepal that provided clean water, toilets, and home gardens to hundreds of thousands of people while significantly advancing the rights and participation of women.

Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Project in Western Nepal (RWSSP-WN)

The Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Project in Western Nepal (RWSSP-WN) was a development project implemented in Western Nepal that pioneered community-led implementation and participatory planning models to achieve sustainable water and sanitation services.

The legacy of these interventions is defined by substantial improvements in health, livelihoods, and social equity across the region.

WASH and Health

RVWRMP successfully assisted 635,000 people in gaining access to clean household water and enabled over two million people to have toilets, significantly improving regional sanitation.

Livelihood Enhancement

To bolster food security, the project supported 500,000 people in establishing home gardens. It also introduced Improved Water Mills (IWMs), which significantly reduced the time and manual labor burden for rural women.

Participatory Governance

A defining achievement was the development of Water Use Master Plans (WUMP) in 136 Village Development Committees, ensuring that infrastructure priorities were determined through bottom-up community negotiations. This "Step-by-Step" approach, also successfully utilized by RWSSP-WN, remains the core operational model for LACC.

Social Empowerment

These projects were forerunners in Gender Equality, Disability, and Social Inclusion (GEDSI), achieving a milestone where 56% of Water Use and Sanitation Committee members were women. They successfully mainstreamed the participation of Dalits and other disadvantaged groups in leadership positions based on proportional representation.

Today, LACC evolves this legacy by shifting toward a broader landscape approach integrating inclusive WASH services with the urgent need for comprehensive land and forest conservation and management and climate adaptation.

While continuing the community-led procurement and social audit models of its predecessors, LACC now integrates water management with the sustainable conservation of land and forests to address the escalating challenges of climate change.

This evolution ensures that the momentum and technical capacity built by RVWRMP and RWSSP-WN are utilized to enhance the long-term resilience of communities in Sudurpashchim and Karnali.