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Summary

This article looks at the activities of Women’s Empowerment Centres (WEC) in southern Nepal / developed as part of Disaster Risk Reduction and Humanitarian programme (DRR-HP) / and how they are helping to address the root causes of gendered vulnerability to the impacts of flooding. We start by giving an overview of women’s vulnerability to disaster in the flood-prone communities in the southern plains of Nepal, where the majority of households depend on remittances sent home by labor migrants, or on casual labor. We then go on to share the experiences of women in the flood-prone areas where Oxfam in Nepal has been implementing DRRHP, and consider how women are contributing towards building resilient communities. The article is based on a review of partners’ reports, and on analysis of focus group discussions held at 37 WECs, visited at random in different programme districts.