Local response to the COVID-19 pandemic: The case of Nepal

Using MCDA to assist an Intermunicipal community develop a resilience strategy in face of the pandemic caused by the SARS-CoV-2

The topic of regional economic resilience has been the subject of intense debate in the academic and political fields over the past decade and gained a new sense of urgency because of the pandemic caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus as territories faced relevant impacts on their economies and social structures. The economic downturn, the increase in unemployment, and the deterioration of social conditions lead policy makers to search for solutions to make their territories more resilient to this type of event. The current article discusses how multicriteria decision analysis (MCDA) was used to help a Portuguese Intermunicipal Community, formed by 16 councils, develop a strategy to make its territory more cohesive, competitive, sustainable, and resilient. In addition to discussing an innovative application of a MCDA technique, this article illustrates how, through a MCDA approach, it was possible to reach a consensus among several policymakers, despite each of them having their own political agendas.

Impacts of COVID-19 pandemic on the livelihoods of rural households in the community forestry landscape in the Middle Hills of Nepal

The novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has severely affected all sectors of the economy, and the impacts are expected to last-long. One major impact is that migrants return to their original households in rural communities due to loss of jobs. Since rural communities are highly dependent on forest and agriculture for livelihoods, an influx of return migrants likely increases the consumption of forest products and intensifies the agriculture practices, increasing the pressure on forest resources. Based on in-person interview of 215 in 2018 before the pandemic and a phone interview of the same 215 rural households in 2021 at the peak of the pandemic in Kavrepalanchowk district in Nepal, this study addresses the following research questions: (1) Does COVID-19 exert differential impacts among the socio-economic groups? (2) How do return migrants affect the rural land use? (3) Do return migrants put additional pressure on forests resources? The rare before-and-after dataset provide a precious opportunity to assess the COVID-19 impacts on the livelihoods of rural households in the community forestry landscape in the Middle Hills of Nepal. We found that the impacts of COVID-19 were severe on the households with larger family size, those belonging to the marginalized caste groups, having lower number of livestock, low wellbeing index, those who rely on daily wage-based occupation, with low level of education, and the households with return migrants. A significant number of migrants were found to return to their village of origin. As a result, there was a decrease in abandoned land and an increase in the livestock number and forest product use. These findings provide timely insights for the post-pandemic recovery efforts in better targeting needy household with limited resource in the community forestry landscape in the Middle Hills of Nepal.