Project Overview   

Disaster Risk Reduction – Young Leaders Fellowship (DRR-Fellowship) is a unique six-month experiential fellowship program. Based on the first-hand experience, it provides DRR enthusiasts with an opportunity to gain in-depth experience in DRRM and related disciples. It further creates the next generation of DRR Young Professionals to enhance disaster resilience communities.

DRR-Fellowship is an initiative of Youth Innovation Lab (YI-Lab) with the financial support from USAID’s Tayar Nepal. It aims to build technical capacities of local government to support localization of Disaster Information Management System (DIMS) locally known as Building Information Platform Against Disaster (BIPAD) portal. BIPAD portal brings all credible digital and spatial data available within government bodies, non-government organizations, academic and research institutions into a single platform. The portal allows local governments to host BIPAD portal independently, fostering an effective data partnership mechanism to enhance their preparedness, mitigation, response, and recovery activities. For more on BIPAD portal, visit  https://bipadportal.gov.np/. 

Given the reality that most of the municipalities lack capacities to collect, manage, and use DRR information for informed decision making, DRR-Fellowship aims to address this issue by mobilizing technically trained youths with sound knowledge on BIPAD portal in the local governments. DRR fellows act as a connecting bridge to transfer the technical capacity to run and host BIPAD portal to the local governments. Throughout DRR-Fellowship, DRR fellows will also have exciting opportunities to participate in learning and training events being organized by leading organizations in the field of DRRM including NDRRMA, Tayar Nepal, and project municipalities.

For more information, please visit -  https://fellowship.youthinnovationlab.org.  

Fellowship Duration: Six months   

Project Locations:

YI-Lab is accepting applications for the DRR-Fellowship 2021 for 15 municipalities: (1) Dhankuta Municipality (Dhankuta District), (2) Janakpurdham Sub-metropolitan City (Dhanusha District), (3) Jiri Municipality (Dolakha District), (4) Chautara Sangachokgadhi Municipality (Sindhupalchok District), (5) Melamchi Municipality (Sindhupalchok District), (6) Gorkha Municipality (Gorkha District), (7) Pokhara Metropolitan City (Kaski District), (8) Baglung Municipality (Baglung District), (9) Beni Municipality (Myagdi District), (10) Ghorahi Sub-metropolitan City (Dang District), (11) Madhuban Municipality (Bardiya District), (12) Gurbhakot Municipality (Surkhet District), (13) Chamunda Bindrasaini Municipality (Dailekh District), (14) Tikapur Municipality (Kailali District), and (15) Krishnapur Municipality (Kanchanpur District).     

Eligibility and Selection Criteria   

DRR – Young Leaders Fellows must:   

• Be local from the project municipalities or willing to relocate to the municipality.  
• Be of 30 years old or younger at the nomination.   
• Have a bachelor’s degree in Environmental Science, Environmental Engineering, Geomatics Engineering, Disaster Risk Reduction, Development Studies, Natural Resources, Crisis Management, Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Information Technology, and related field.   
• Have an interest in learning technology and open data.  
• Have knowledge of or interest in disaster/DRRM and related discipline.  
• Be curious to work with municipality and DRR focal person and Information Technology (IT) officers at the local level.   
• Have strong knowledge in technology that includes mobile app, web app, MS office package.  
• Have excellent communication skills in Nepali and English. Knowledge of the local language would be preferred.
• Have outstanding personal character and integrity.  
• Have teamwork and collaborative skills.   

Key Responsibilities of DRR Fellows   

DRR Fellows will be responsible for:  

• Supporting their assigned municipality to administer and operationalize municipal level BIPAD portal.  
• Collaborating with the IT officer and municipal DRR focal personnel for day-to-day capacity transfer.  
• Working closely with the municipal personnel to compile DRR related datasets and standardize and integrate them into BIPAD portal.   
• Working with municipal personnel to map and validate critical infrastructure datasets like education, health, finance, governance, tourism, industry, and communication.   
• Reporting and documenting the progress/challenges and share the case studies.  

Benefits for DRR Fellows  

• Five-day residential training on DIMS and DRRM. 
• Stipend NRP 30,000 per month during the course of DRR-Fellowship.  
• Opportunity to work closely with Mayor, CAO, IT professionals, and Government officials at working station.  
• Opportunity to participate in workshops/training/seminars organized by NDRRMA, Tayar Nepal, and respective municipality. 
• Graduation Certificate of DRR-Fellowship. 
• Potential job placement within YI-Lab, partners, and related organizations.