ICELI South Asia partnered with the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre to improve urban heat resilience in Rajshahi in Bangladesh and Nepalgunj in Nepal. The overall objective of the project was to provide support to these cities to take substantial and fruitful action before the heat season in April 2021/2022 and to support the respective city authorities to develop heat action plans. However, due to Covid-19 restrictions making stakeholder engagement impossible, the focus of the project was shifted to the generation of knowledge products such as the heat resilience communication guidance note and an Early Warning Early Action guidance note. 

Project activities:

• A thorough desk review was carried out. The key findings include existing literature or studies on present and future heat risks, past events, and impacts in the respective countries in general and the targeted cities, particularly.
• Determined the heat threshold for Rajshahi, Bangladesh and Nepalgunj, Nepal through looking at extreme events, impact limits and exposure.
• Identified the heat hotspots of Nepalgunj and Rajshahi cities using secondary data, satellites images, remote sensing and GIS tools.
• Conducted a South Asia regional workshop on heatwave risks and impacts. The workshop brought together scientists and practitioners working on heat risks in the region to share best practices on reducing heat impacts, and connected them for future collaborative efforts.
• Organised a capacity building workshop on heatwave risks and actions for stakeholders in Nepalgunj including Nepal Red Cross Society officials/volunteers.

Project outputs and outcomes:

• Developed Information, Education and Communication (IEC) material including posters, videos and conducted training programmes. The campaign materials consist of:
• • 13 posters in English, Bengali and Nepali
  • 13 social media posts/graphics in English, Bengali and Nepali
  • 5 educational videos in English, Bengali and Nepali
• A heat threshold and hotspots identification report was developed for Nepal and Bangladesh.
• Developed a Guidance Note on Early Warning Early Actions (EWEA) in Secondary Cities that integrated learnings from hands-on experience and case studies.
• Developed a Guidance Note on Heat Communication to build the capacity of the municipal officials responsible for emergency services in capitalising on the different types of media platforms (e.g. traditional/social media) for heat warning, public messaging, awareness generation and heat-health education to reduce heat risks in the South Asian cities.
• Developed a Policy Brief for each project city (Rajshahi and Nepalgunj) based on a detailed analysis of the national and local level policies/plans/schemes that identified the gaps and also addressed the Key Personnel Interview (KPI) outputs.