The Small Earth Nepal (SEN) organized an inception workshop for the project “Enhancing Climate Resilience in South Asia and China: Predicting Precipitation Shifts and their Impacts for Disaster Risk Reduction and Resource Security”, funded by Asia-Pacific Network for Global Change Research (APN) on 16 February 2025 at Holiday Inn Express, Kathmandu, Nepal. The main objective of the workshop was to discuss planning and implementation of the project amongst its collaborators from the participating countries.
The workshop brought together 37 participants representing the collaborating institutions from Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan and USA, along with national representatives from government agencies, universities, international organizations, non-governmental organizations, and media. The opening session was chaired by Dr. Madan Lall Shrestha, member of the Scientific Planning Group (SPG), APN and an Academician at the Nepal Academy of Science and Technology (NAST). Dr. Jagadishwor Karmacharya, Joint Secretary, Water and Energy Commission Secretariat (WECS), Government of Nepal was the Chief Guest.
Mr. Bhawani S. Dongol, Executive Director, SEN welcomed the participants. Dr. Dhiraj Pradhananga, Principal Investigator of the project and Chairholder, UNESCO Chair in Mountain Water Sustainability delivered an opening remark provided by Dr. Linda Anne Stevenson, Acting Director/Programme Director, APN, emphasizing on impactful collaboration for meaningful action. Dr. Dhiraj delivered a presentation that informed participants about the details of the project. Dr. Mandira Singh Shrestha, SEN Services introduced the participants to Coordinated Regional Climate Downscaling Experiment (CORDEX), a very important tool for the precipitation analysis for the project.
Chief guest, Dr. Jagadiswor Karmacharya, in his remarks highlighted the importance of integrating AI and machine learning in research and emphasized on sensitization of climate change issues at policy level. Chairperson, Dr. Madan Lall Shrestha, in his remarks highlighted that research should not only give an outcome but also should be useful to people. He further added climate change may not get better given the current global trends so we have to adapt with it in better ways.
Following the opening session, project team members engaged in discussing country specific planning and roles and responsibilities of collaborators for the implementation of the project till 17 February. This workshop came out of the detailed work plan in moving forward with the project implementation in each participating country.
