Nicaragua

Nicaragua ranks as the country fourth most vulnerable to flooding and other natural hazards globally. This already high level of vulnerability is increasing in magnitude due to changing weather patterns as a result of climate change. Floods cause severe impacts on people’s livelihoods in rural and urban communities and indirect damage to the production of goods and services, resulting in a decline in Nicaragua’s national economy. The most recent flood in the communities where Plan works occurred in October 2018. In the event of a flood, affected communities are engulfed by streams of water, sand, soil, and collapsed trees. Colossal landslides can be triggered on the slopes of the country’s many volcanoes and hills, ruining roads, and bridges.

Plan worked with approximately 1,500 direct and 2,750 indirect beneficiaries in four communities in the municipality of El Viejo, department of Chinandega. Based on information provided by the Disaster Risk Management (DRM) unit in the municipality, these four communities were identified as being areas affected by annual floods, particularly over the past decade.

Throughout the project, Plan was also an implementing partner of the government in DRM and in climate change adaptation and mitigation measures at the local and municipal level. As Plan is a children’s rights organization with key expertise in gender equality, community development projects with children and adolescents were at the heart of its work in Nicaragua. Together with local partner organizations, a number of different activities were carried out in their communities of intervention. These included founding community response committees and training them in first aid and evacuation techniques; developing communal risk response maps; and constructing and signalling evacuation routes. Plan also supported small-scale infrastructure projects so that local assets are better protected in the event of a flood.