SOUMYADEEP BANERJEE/MEENA POUDEL

There is something amiss about the state of adaptation planning in Nepal. As a share of the GDP of Nepal, official development assistance, foreign direct investment, and earnings from tourism are far outpaced by the inflow of remittances. Yet, the role of migrant workers and remittances has not been considered in Nepal’s national adaptation planning and policies. At the same time, the use of remittances by individual households to build their adaptive capacity—the cornerstone of effective strategies for adapting to changing environmental and social conditions—is still limited and unplanned.

In developing countries, the impacts of environmental shocks and stresses, like floods, droughts, and unseasonal rain, further add to existing developmental and adaptation challenges. Financial remittances—money sent home by foreign or domestic migrant workers—can act as a ‘local’ financing mechanism to fulfil the unmet adaptation requirements of households receiving remittances to a certain extent. However, this cannot be accomplished by individual migrant workers or their families on their own. Efforts by government agencies and NGOs to help communities adapt to emerging challenges must complement household strategies to deal with changing situations.

To make the most of the country’s remittances, a policy framework and institutional arrangement that acknowledges the role of migrant workers and remittances in adaptation planning and practice at the local level is needed. These must facilitate access to information on climate and environmental impacts, financial services, and government schemes; and government and NGO efforts should focus on providing technical guidance to invest in low-risk and low-cost adaptive options. These services need to be provided at the DDC and VDC levels, where the remittance receiving households are located.  

At the global level, the role of migration and remittances in climate change adaptation is an emerging policy concern. However, there is a lack of empirical evidence in Nepal on the mechanisms to support migration-related actions and activities—such as the delivery of social and financial remittances—that can build the capacity of households receiving remittances, as well as their origin communities, to environmental shocks and stresses. A limited understanding of the relationship between migration and adaptation practices across the Hindu Kush Himalayan (HKH) region remains a major challenge.

While there are some fledgling discussions about the role of financial remittances in adaptation, public and policy discourse remain biased toward the negative perceptions of migration, identifying migration as a problem, rather than a part of the wider solution. Take for example the National Adaptation Program of Action (NAPA), which acknowledges migration-related challenges, such as the rising urban planning challenges due to an increase of climate-induced rural-urban migration; rise in women’s workload because of male outmigration; or risks of social insecurity and sexual violence against women due to temporary displacement related to flash floods. These risks need to be addressed. But policy discourse tends to overlook the benefits of migration: employment generation, purchasing power, food security, asset creation, livelihood diversification, disaster risk reduction, changes in attitude, skill acquisition, and gender-responsive decision making processes at the household and community levels.  Policy and public discourses should explore means to maximize these benefits and reduce risks to migrant workers, their families, and communities.

The role of labor migration and remittances need to be explored as part of the national agenda on adaptation, sustainable development, livelihood diversification, community resilience, and in the context of gender issues across these agendas. This will require a coordinated effort among all stakeholders to pursue evidence-based policy engagement that encourages and supports the investment of financial remittances and use of social remittances in the major sectors of poverty reduction and adaptation.

NAPA in Nepal provides an opportunity to ‘mainstream’ the role of labor migration and remittances in thematic working groups, including agriculture and food security, water resources and energy, and climate-induced disaster. Financial remittances can increase the purchasing power of the recipient households, which can enhance the food security (both quantity and quality) of vulnerable groups, particularly during the lean period. Financial and social remittances can also support livelihood diversification, including off-farm employment which can compensate for income losses in the farming sector during lean seasons.

With guidance and technical inputs from relevant agencies, remittance-receiving households can invest part of the financial remittances in clean energy sources, such as biogas or solar power. Financial remittances can also be used to procure crop and livestock insurance, support disaster relief, recovery and preparedness, and finance the construction of water retaining structures to cope with the effects of climate change. Some returnees also bring back leadership skills, a changed attitude, and new knowledge that can make them a ‘potential change maker’ or ‘local champion’ in introducing clean technology or raising awareness on disaster risk reduction among their community. Local Adaptation Plans of Action (LAPA), which have been prepared within the overarching framework of the NAPA, need to consider these options.

A better understanding of the relationship between migration and adaptation will increase the ability at national and household levels to foster desirable outcomes when rural communities experience environmental hazards. It is necessary to mainstream the potential role of migration and remittances to build the adaptive capacity of households receiving remittances in Nepal. A flexible, yet inclusive, policy framework complemented by institutions at various levels (i.e., national to local) is necessary to encourage over half of the nation’s households receiving remittances to put them to use to support their own adaptation.

Banerjee is Migration and Population Specialist [[email protected]] at the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development, and Poudel is Senior Policy and Program Advisor [[email protected]] at the International Organization for Migration

Published on: 15 November 2014 | Republica