Nepal earthquake: a rapid review of the response and a few lessons learnt

09/05/2016

On 25 April 2015, Nepal was hit by an earthquake of 7.8 magnitude, its epicentre located 81 km North-West of the capital, which affected rural areas, towns and certain neighbourhoods of Kathmandu. Aftershocks continued for several months. In total, an estimated 8 million people were affected. Even though Nepal was one of the first countries in South Asia to establish laws and policies in the area of disaster management, numerous factors make the response to this type of disaster complex. This article describes some of the characteristics of the operational context and the response, a major concern of the aid sector having been to avoid the errors of the Haiti earthquake response. It presents the lessons learned, and the areas to improve and anticipate in managing similar disasters in the future.