Background

With over two-thirds of the population living in rural areas, Nepal is highly vulnerable to multi-disaster risks such as earthquakes, floods, landslides, drought, and epidemics. Disaster vulnerability is exceptionally high for communities and schools in fragile settings. A total of 8,242 community schools were affected by the 2015 earthquakes, and about a million children found no school building to return to. During the 2020 pandemic and lockdown, when all schools were closed, only five percent of children in the poorest households had access to distance learning. In Madhesh province, the informal economy and poor sanitation and infrastructure exacerbated the vulnerabilities of communities against shocks. The higher school dropout rate of girls over boys is prevalent, as girls are more likely associated with household chores, helping parents in the kitchen, and babysitting. Female students tend to stay home when they have periods because of the absence of gender-segregated toilet facilities at schools.