Managing Risk through Economic Development

Incentivizing Disaster Risk Reduction

Managing Risk through Economic Development (M-RED)

Mercy Corps Nepal is managing the Managing Risk through Economic Development (M-RED) program, supported by Margaret A.Cargill Philanthropies. M-RED focuses on building disaster-resilient communities and aim to accelerate the replication and scale of the disaster-readiness approach in target geographies through a multi-pronged strategy: increasing self-sustaining disaster readiness capacities in target communities, accelerating expansion in new communities, and influencing the enabling conditions needed to promote sustainability, replication, and scale while promoting innovation through early action and localization.


M-RED uniquely work by combining contemporary community-based Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) approaches and livelihood (“nexus interventions”) and provide a strength to the communities by bonding, bridging and linking the communities to different Public, Private and Civil Societies. Also known as one of the Resilience flagships programs of Mercy Corps, M-RED will implement in eight Local Governments of two districts (Kailali and Kanchanpur) in Sudurpaschim Province in partnership with three local-level implementing partners, one technical partner and leveraging work with other donor programs, and key initiatives from the Government of Nepal. The new phase built upon successes and lessons of previous phases, other DRR/CCA programs, but with new and heavier emphasis on localization, transformation, nature-based solutions and early actions.

What is Unique about M-RED?

NEXUS: This is a dual benefit approach that integrates the conventional community based DRR approach with Market system Development. Designing interventions that can simultaneously reduce the disaster risk and at the same time generates income or contributes to economic development.


OUR PRIORITIES

Forecast Based Early Action

Understanding added advantages and challenges to FBEA and how this will help communities and institutions build their resilience for future shocks and stresses. This will explore the potential of creating a scalable model of FBEA.


Localization

Understanding the framework and principles around localization and the opportunities and challenges in operationalizing localization principles in different contexts and what needs to be adapted.


Transformation

Explore best strategies to bring a systemic or transformational change and how enabling environments contribute to building disaster-ready communities and whether a transformative change in these environments helps to sustain DRR efforts in communities.


Nature Based Solution

Explore how we can combine with other nature-based solutions apart from identified nexus crops to achieve disaster risk reductions and what could be those combinations. M-RED is exploring the landscape-level approaches to support disaster-ready community


VISION: DISASTER READY COMMUNITY

M-RED is exploring and trying to understand the 3 – 5 years vision for building a disaster-ready community in a different context.

  • Understanding of the disaster-related risks.

  • Ability to prepare a strategy and position themselves to be better prepared to face disaster

  • Ability to respond to the disaster, or if the disaster hits them, then they are able to recover the losses from their disaster.

  • Connected to the systems at a different level, national or subnational in case of extreme disaster events for accessing external assistance to respond to that disaster or save their life and properties.

  • MRED envisions a disaster-ready community that develops/progresses with the support of different existing structures and actors and would continue those linkages built within the project.

  • MRED promotes building enabling environment to ensure the continuity of the community interventions.

  • MRED promotes a facilitative approach to implementation so that the links developed with Government & Private actors so communities can continue even after the project life cycle.

  • MRED has a vision for coordination/collaboration with different actors such that although our investments are higher in the first year, we expect to see more contributions from the other actors down 3-5 years’ timeline for sustainability.