The ICLEI ACCCRN Process, which was developed by ICLEI Local Governments for Sustainability, with support from the Rockefeller Foundation – particularly for local governments, has now been used by the Kumaon University, Nainital to develop the resilience strategy in the Ramgad watershed area near Nainital.

The toolkit that has successfully been used for 40 cities in South and South East Asia has been used at the watershed level successfully showing the flexibility of the toolkit as to range of use. The toolkit was used under a project supported by the Australian National University (ANU) and Sustineo in two watersheds in Nepal and India. The Tribhuvan University, Nepal used the toolkit to develop the resilience strategy of Panchkhal watershed in Nepal about 30 km from Kathmandu, while the Kumaon University Nainital used it in Ramgad watershed near Nainital.

On 27-28 April, a workshop was organised by ANU in Delhi where representatives from the two universities, Kumaon University, Nainital and Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu, presented their experiences on using the toolkit. The University professors suggested that with a little modification, the toolkit can be suitably used for rural areas of the watershed regions successfully. The benefit of using stakeholder consultations particularly for identifying risks and adaptive interventions was highly appreciated since at the rural and watershed levels, stakeholder consultations could play an important role for increasing acceptability of adaptation measures.