The First DIPECHO Action Plan for South Asia (hereafter referred to as the Action Plan) was adopted in mid-2001 and covers five countries in the region: Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. This region is characterised by high levels of poverty, very dense populations and is subject to severe and repeated natural disasters. The Action Plan has two main objectives: firstly, to reduce the physical vulnerability of target communities specifically to flooding events, and secondly to strengthen local level management capacities of those institutions responsible for disaster preparedness (DP) and management (DM). One of the strategic approaches adopted by DIPECHO for this Action Plan was that projects should demonstrate best practice in vulnerability reduction and that they should be both practical and reproducible. The Action Plan comprised of eight projects with a total value of €2.8 million1, executed by European non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in conjunction with national and local NGO partners.
