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This study is an effort to contribute to the empirical literature on the diverse patterns of migration, adaptation measures by households facing environmental changes, and the role of migration in augmenting household adaptive capacities in four river basins of the Hindu Kush Himalayan (HKH) region, namely the Gandaki, the Indus, the Upper Ganga and the Teesta
. Recent studies indicate that migration can be a powerful adaptation strategy for populations facing global environmental changes, by increasing the ability of the households to rely on their existing resource base. However, there still exist gaps in empirical findings, particularly quantitative studies investigating migration and adaptation, to fully support this. Migration patterns in the study sites are diverse, ranging from seasonal/circular migration to international migration. However, most migration is internal and international migration is limited mainly to South-South movement. Migration is mostly male-dominated; however, female migration is increasing with women getting more educated and seeking employment opportunities in urban destinations. The major driver of migration decisions is economic, but environmental displacement was also prevalent in the study sites. The reasons for migration were consistent across the study basins, but differed between different streams of the same basin. The adaptive capacities of households in four key sectors are analysed – agriculture, livestock, forestry, and water. The capacity of households to adapt to the negative effects of environmental changes and shocks in the study sites was low, and the adaptation measures undertaken mostly autonomous, except in the case of the water sector. The linkage between migration and household adaptive capacity was found to be positive, but statistically significant only in the agricultural sector. Thus, migration helps households’ adaptive capacity by spatially diversifying household income sources, but this potential is limited at present as remittances are small and mostly invested in meeting basic requirements. Thus, at present, migration is more a response strategy of the households to various changes, including environmental changes and their effects on local livelihoods
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This report demonstrates the utility of this approach by using the Nepal data to rank the relative poverty of the 23 surveyed districts and across these districts
. The analysis gives some important clues about differences in the intensity and composition of poverty across these locations, which will guide decision makers in designing interventions aimed at reducing poverty and vulnerability. The fundamental benefit of this research is that it captures mountain specific indicators of poverty, provides representative data at the district level, and, most importantly, expands the concept of poverty beyond income or consumption levels to capture the multidimensional nature of human deprivation
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Changes in climate, associated hazards, local adaptations in agriculture, and socioeconomic factors affecting adaptation were investigated using data from a large survey of 2310 households (HHs) in the Koshi River Basin (KRB), Nepal
. More than 80% of HHs had perceived changes in climate in the 10 years preceding the survey, and 20–40% had perceived increases in the occurrence of droughts, dry spells, floods, and livestock diseases. Around 36–45% of crop-growing HHs perceived a decline in the production of staple crops such as paddy, wheat, maize, and millets, which was mainly attributed to climate change and related hazards. The decline in local food production meant that HH dependence on external sources for food had increased. Only 32% of HHs had taken some form of adaptive actions in agriculture to address these challenges; actions included not planting certain crops, introducing new crops, changing farming practices, not rearing certain livestock species, and investing in irrigation. The factors affecting the likelihood of a household undertaking adaptive actions included literacy of the head of household, household size, size of owned agricultural land, diversification of income sources, and insurance. Based on these findings, the study has suggested some approaches in the KRB which could contribute to building agricultural resilience to climate change
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This paper examines the role of financial remittances on the adaptive capacity of households in flood-affected rural communities of Upper Assam in India
. Findings reveal that remittances-receiving households are likely to have better access to formal financial institutions, insurance and communication devices than nonrecipient households. This study indicates that the duration for which remittances are received by a household has a significant and positive association with structural changes made by the household to address flood impacts, farm mechanization, the household’s access to borrowing, and participation in collective action on flood relief, recovery and preparedness. The adaptation potential of remittances of remittances can be realized if policy attention is given to attempts to enable gains in financial capital to be translated to gains in other types of capital and how the social element of remittances can be used to boost social capital. For example, by facilitating an increase in financial literacy and skills training, particularly among the poorer households in areas likely to be affected by the impacts of climate change and variability
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Economic burden to households due to out-of-pocket expenditure (OOPE) is large in many Asian countries
. Though studies suggest increasing household poverty due to high OOPE in developing countries, studies on association of multidimensional poverty and household health spending is limited. This paper tests the hypothesis that the multidimensionally poor are more likely to incur catastrophic health spending cutting across countries
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There is a growing consensus among migration scholars that remittances tend to be a counter-cyclical shock absorber in times of crisis
. In mountain contexts of the global South, lack of formal employment opportunities, precarious land rights, subsistence agriculture, along with the lack of access to financial instruments and social protection, severely limit the ability of people to cope with crisis and insure themselves against risks. The extent to which remittances can contribute to climate change adaptation requires further exploration. Previous research has adopted an index-based approach to examine the vulnerability of a country, community, sector, or ecosystem. However, similar methodology has not been applied to explore whether remittances have a role in reducing the vulnerability of recipient households to a particular environmental stressor. Floods are a major environmental stressor in the Upper Indus Sub-basin. However, village level flood preparedness remains low, and household level flood preparedness is comprised of short-term strategies. Remittances are crucial to meet the basic needs (e.g. food, education, healthcare) of recipient households. The findings from the vulnerability assessment indicate that remittance recipient households are marginally less vulnerable than non-recipient households. Remittance recipient households have lower dependence on the environment, better access to formal financial institutions, and are less likely to reduce food consumption during floods. In contrast, among the households engaged in farming, more non-recipient households have made changes in agricultural practices in response to floods than remittance recipient households
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This study attempts to understand local people’s perceptions of climate change, its impacts on agriculture and household food security, and local adaptation strategies in the Hindu-Kush Himalayan (HKH) region, using data from 8083 households (HHs) from four river sub-basins (SBs), i
.e. Upper Indus (Pakistan), Eastern Brahmaputra (India), Koshi (Nepal) and Salween and Mekong (China). The majority of households in SBs, in recent years, have perceived that there have been more frequent incidences of floods, landslides, droughts, livestock diseases and crop pests, and have attributed these to climate change. These changes have led to low agricultural production and income, particularly in Eastern Brahmaputra (EB) where a substantial proportion of HHs reported a decline in the production of almost all staple and cash crops, resulting in very low farm income. Consequently, households’ dependency on external food items supplied from plain areas has increased, particularly in the Upper Indus (UI) and EB. After hazards, households face transitory food insecurity owing to damage to their local food systems and livelihood sources, and constrained food supply from other areas. To cope with these, HHs in SBs make changes in their farming practices and livestock management. In EB, 11 % of HHs took on new off-farm activities within the SB and in SM, 23 % of HHs chose out-migration as an adaptation strategy. Lastly, the study proposes policy instruments for attaining sustainable food security, based on agro-ecological potential and opportunities for increasing agricultural resilience and diversity of livelihoods
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This publication describes the development and application of ICIMOD’s Poverty and Vulnerability Assessment, a household survey tool designed to capture key elements of poverty, vulnerability, and adaptive capacity in mountain contexts for the Hindu Kush Himalayan region
. The tool combines general predictors of poverty with indicators that are particularly relevant in mountain contexts, where factors such as physical accessibility and a lack of access to basic facilities often exacerbate poverty and vulnerability to stresses such as those related to climate variability and change. The PVA tool is particularly relevant in the context of development interventions aimed at building resilience and facilitating adaptation to climate variability and change. The PVA tool provides a vital foundation for the regular monitoring of poverty and vulnerability that will enable the success of development and adaptation interventions by governments and donors to be evaluated in a robust, empirically grounded manner.
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For the Newars of Nepal, the gwaye da tayegu is a ritual announcement of a later, larger ceremony
. This article discusses the rituals carried out in the gwaye da tayegu ceremony which took place on Magh 1, 2035 (January 15, 1979). The rituals served to announce the Samyaka ceremony, which was observed on Magh 1, 2036 (January 15, 1980). The present discussion of the rituals is based on the author's own field observations of the gwaye da tayegu and consultation with key informants who are in charge of the Samyaka ceremony. After describing the rituals, I discuss some of the key elements in relation to other features of religious and social life of Newar Buddhists
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This paper is a preliminary attempt at describing the competence in the learning of Nepali at the primary school level, comparing the competence of those who speak Nepali as a first language (NL1) with that of those who speak Nepali as a second language (NL2)
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