Setting the Foundations

With support from the Humanitarian Innovation Fund, a programme managed by ELRHA, the earthquake risk and remittances research project from Practical Action and the Nepal Risk Reduction Consortium (NRRC) began in February 2014. This research project will look at the possible links between migrant remittances and earthquake risk, particularly through building construction practices. Within this, the research project will also identify how migrant workers receive information and communicate with their households. Most research that has been done in the area of migrants and disasters has focused on post-disaster response. This research project will look at the relationship between migrant workers, remittances and disaster risk reduction. The aim of this research will be to determine whether there is a link between remittances and unsafe building practices and how organizations can best communicate with migrant workers on risk reduction issues.

The first month of the project has been focused on setting the foundations for the research. This includes the recruitment of a qualified research officer, which has been completed. With the research officer in place, the team began to outline the key steps moving forward. In those discussions, the following steps were identified:

• Literature review
• Research material preparation (draft questionnaire, stakeholder review and checklist
• Consultation with stakeholders and workshop
• Amendment questionnaire based on stakeholder consultation
• Identification of respondents for pre-testing of questionnaire
• Finalisation of questionnaire based on pre-test
• Field preparation
• Field Work
• Study analysis
• Preparation of draft report
• Finalisation of draft report (based on stakeholder comments)
• Dissemination workshop

Thus far, a draft questionnaire (for migrant workers, households receiving remittances and households not receiving remittances) has been completed and stakeholder consultations have begun. Identified stakeholders include Government, national agencies, NGOs, UN and INGOs. Several stakeholders have expressed interest in the research topic and requested bi-lateral discussions on how they can support the process. In the 3^rd week of March, a stakeholder consultation will be held. The purpose of this consultation is to share the draft questionnaire and get input from stakeholders on what information is most pertinent (this includes identifying what previous studies have been done). Based on this consultation, a questionnaire for pre-testing can begin.