Two devastating earthquakes hit Nepal in April and May 2015 that killed nearly 9000 people and left more than 900,000 homeless. Almost a year since the massive twin earthquakes, the challenges faced by survivors continue as the reconstruction work has been rather slow.

Between August to December 2015, Mobile Helpdesks in Nepal conducted a survey, led by Accountability Lab and Local Interventions Group - as part of the Inter-Agency Common Feedback Project. The questionnaire included information on communities biggest problems, concerns, needs and satisfaction in relation to the earthquake response.

Demographics

First, let us look at a few demographics captured in the survey:

Survey Response

Now, let us look at the survey responses by the participants:

Based on the graph above, the majority of people affected by the earthquake did not feel ready for the next season. While landslides are fairly common in Nepal during monsoon, this year was particularly dangerous as the earthquakes destabilised the steep hillsides and subsequent heavy rainfalls triggered massive landslides. With delays in the establishment of a National Reconstruction Authority, rebuilding of homes stalled and many survivors faced harsh winter living in tents or huts made from metal sheets and bamboo. This explains the high percentage of people in the graph above who reported that their main problems, such as longterm housing, were not being addressed properly. In the graph below we look at how this perception changed over time during the month of survey:

As we see from the plot above, the community response changed much slowly with regards to their main problems being addressed. Also, higher rate of response of unpreparedness for the next season makes sense due to monsoon during October and November in Nepal.

Now we look at questions 4 through 6, grouped by gender:

In the plot above, narrowed to the 3 questions of our interest, we see almost half of the participants, regardless of male or female, thought that the access to aid information was not easily available, relief support was not provided fairly and they did not believe that the relief work was progressing. The rest half of the participants thought otherwise and a few answered “Do not know”.

Note: Only 4 survey participants out of 6999 identified as other gender.

Finally, we compare how people from different caste and ethnic background perceived satisfaction with regards to the response provided by the government vs the NGOs. Almost all groups of people (with exception to Muslim community) were not satisfied by the way the government handled relief and reconstruction work when compared to the support provided by local and international NGOs.