Inclusive resilience: a participatory methodology for self-improving seismic resilience of school communities in Nepal

Well-being of school children lies at the heart of any efficient pre- and post-disaster risk management and hazard mitigation policy. Resilience of educational communities as response to natural and man-made hazards requires the safety and protection being gradually built towards resilience enhancement. Pre- and post-disaster management efforts usually focus on the sustainability of school infrastructure and on policies targeting shelter, recovery, and reconstruction. As a key concept to human welfare, community resilience pertains to every aspect of human existence (psychological, physical, social, financial, and environmental). It results from the synergy among society, infrastructure, economy, and environment within the geographical limits of a specific area. Community preparedness in dealing with shocks and stresses is related to this synergy. Towards this goal, this paper addresses the need to examine community resilience enhancement through a multidisciplinary, participatory, and critical approach. Our methodology is based on a bottom-up inclusion of all major contingents and stakeholders of Nepalese educational communities such as students and parents, teachers, headteachers, and school management committees. The medium for including end-users, decision- and policymakers is a mobile and web-based app developed for mapping resilience according to the level of stakeholders’ experience, knowledge, and preparedness. It is based on a large set of questions that were put together to address different aspects of community resilience, aligned with different weightages for every stakeholder group. Every question is assigned an importance level under a specific resilience aspect category. An automated score resulting from this tool provides an overview of the current school resilience status, which could be received by the school head or the state agency. The bottom-up resilience assessment was well-received by educational stakeholders. It enabled contextualized insights, revealed indicator-based differences between schools and communities, and uncovered communication gaps. The participatory approach enhanced data reliability and highlighted social and cultural dimensions of resilience that could not be identified without a wide participation scheme.