Project
Community-led landslide resilience
By working directly with communities in Nepal and Ethiopia to co-design landslide early warning systems, we’re helping ensure warnings reach people in time, are trusted, and are built to last – so lives and livelihoods can be protected before disaster strikes.
This project is part of our wider work to strengthen early warning for the communities most exposed to disaster risk. By working directly with communities in Nepal and Ethiopia to co-design landslide early warning systems, we’re helping ensure warnings reach people in time, are trusted, and are built to last – so lives and livelihoods can be protected before disaster strikes.
The challenge
Landslides are a growing threat around the world, especially in mountainous, high-rainfall areas where climate change is bringing heavier storms. Rapid urban growth, deforestation and unplanned building are making things worse.
Nepal and Ethiopia are priority countries under the UN’s Early Warnings for All initiative, but both face rising landslide risk. The people affected are usually rural and marginalised – and the least likely to get a warning in time. In Nepal, only 40% of people affected by disasters received a warning beforehand. In Ethiopia, it’s just 23%, the lowest rate anywhere in the world (World Risk Poll 2024).
Nepal has satellite-based forecasting tools like SAFE-RISCCS, but early warning systems on the ground remain weak. Many don’t use local knowledge or reach everyone, so remote communities are often left with no warning at all. Globally, half of communities hit by landslides or mudslides in the past five years had no warning beforehand.
In Ethiopia, deforestation, intensive farming and extreme weather are driving an escalating landslide and flood crisis. In July 2024, a landslide in Gofa Zone killed 257 people – a devastating reminder of how exposed rural highland communities are.
Our solution
Through our Community-led Landslide Resilience project – that is funded and supported by the Lloyd’s Register Foundation – we’re working with communities to build early warning systems for landslides, designed by and for the people who need them – in seven of the most at-risk communities in Nepal and Ethiopia.
Our members NSET (Nepal) and Light for Generation (Ethiopia) are using data from the World Risk Poll, along with conversations with the communities themselves, to understand what’s missing and what would actually work. Together with local leaders, government agencies and community members, they’re co-designing systems that build on local knowledge, earn people’s trust, and work on the phones and tools people already have. We’re also helping communities build the skills to understand warning signs and keep their systems running long after the project ends.
What we learn here will help shape early warning policy and practice globally.
Project activities
Understanding the risks
We have started with surveys and conversations in each community to understand local risks, gaps and needs – using World Risk Poll data to help choose the seven communities we’ll work with.
Listening to communities
In each of the seven communities, we’ll dig deeper: what’s working, what’s not, and what’s stopping people getting warnings in time. We’ll also look at how well local and national authorities are set up to manage that risk.
Co-designing early warning systems
Community leaders, local government, civil society groups and residents will work together to design warning systems that fit their community – this might mean mobile apps, text alerts, or community-based systems, depending on what works best locally. Every system will cover three things: monitoring landslide-prone areas, setting clear risk thresholds, and getting real-time alerts to people fast. And each will be tested through practice drills and community feedback before going live.
Every community also takes part in two days of hands-on training covering:
- What to do as a member of the local early warning team
- Real-world simulations of how the system works
- How to understand and act on alerts, especially to protect the most vulnerable
- How to avoid false alarms and unnecessary panic
Sharing what we learn
Each community will reflect on how well their system is working during community-level workshops. We’ll also strengthen community capacity through capacity building workshops, participatory planning, and early warning tools, while fostering strong collaboration between local communities and disaster management authorities. We will share these lessons across our network – reaching members in Ethiopia, Nepal, and over 2,000 members in 129 other countries.
What do we hope to achieve?
We want communities in Nepal and Ethiopia to have early warning systems they helped build, trust, and can keep running themselves – backed by strong links with local disaster authorities. Done well, this means people get warned in time, and lives and livelihoods are protected.
What we learn will also strengthen our work with global partners, including the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), the Risk-informed Early Action Partnership (REAP), the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR), and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
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Main photo: Tom Holub
Community stories
Read stories from communities most at risk of disasters – and the members around the world who are working with them to build local resilience.
Learn MoreProject funded by
Lloyd’s Register Foundation
Our Community-led Landslide Resilience project is made possible by the support of Lloyd’s Register Foundation. Lloyd’s Register Foundation is an independent global charity that supports research, innovation, and education to make the world a safer place. Its mission is to use the best evidence and insight to help the global community focus on tackling the world’s most pressing safety and risk challenges.
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