Rural communities, who are dominantly dependent upon natural resources, have
always been adjusting their livelihood against the vagaries of climate. With the
global climate change, these communities have been placed in greater
vulnerability as the weather and extreme events have become more
unpredictable. In order to formulate suitable policy measures to address their
livelihood, assessment of local level vulnerability is very important. This paper
analyzes the micro-level vulnerability of rural Chepang community in Nepal
utilizing the data collected from 221 Chepang households from four villages
located in four different districts. The analysis is based on indices constructed
from carefully selected indicators for exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity.
The indicators are weighted using Principal Component Analysis. Inter-village
analysis of the vulnerability index indicate that the existing exposure in a locality
is often modified at the household level depending upon the inherent adaptive
capacity of the households to give the picture of overall vulnerability. Using only
the biophysical indicators of vulnerability (exposure and sensitivity) can thus
lead to an erroneous policy implication. Furthermore, inter-household analysis
of vulnerability indicate that poor households with low adaptive capacity are
vulnerable anywhere, irrespective of where they are located. Policy measures
and development efforts should be focused towards improving the adaptive
capacity of the rural households, while keeping the post-disaster emergency
relief measures in place for localities with higher exposure to climate extremes.
The poorest households should be the primary target of any interventions.