On 8 August 2025, Chandragiri Municipality, in collaboration with the Ministry of Urban Development (MoUD) and with the technical support from UN-Habitat, UNOPS and Cities Alliance, organized an orientation program for ward-level stakeholders on the Gender and Climate Responsive Municipal Urban Planning Guidelines, prepared as a part of the EU funded Cities 4 Women project.

Ward 9 Chairperson Achyut Adhikari inaugurated the program targeting local stakeholders, with three core objectives: ensuring stakeholder ownership of the drafted urban planning guidelines, testing the practical application of the steps and tools proposed in the guideline, and building capacity of ward-level officials, community based organizations and stakeholders on participatory municipal planning processes.

Of the 25 Activities, the session conducted hands-on testing of Activities 14, 15, and 16 (Step 5 of Phase 2), focused on prioritizing actions aligned with the selected sub-sector that contribute to the municipal vision. Participants from wards 8 and 9 engaged in group discussions and testing exercises to assess the guidelines' feasibility and effectiveness at ward level.

The session concluded with interactive presentation by participants, advocating for prioritized actions to accelerate integration of gender and climate responsiveness in sub-sectors, particularly access to safe drinking water and sanitation, access to quality education and educational infrastructure, and protection of culture, heritage and local traditions.

The participants confirmed the relevance of both the process and tools, contributing knowledge building and promoting participatory process through the tools necessary to integrate gender responsiveness and climate resilience into local planning processes.

Pragya Pradhan, Habitat Programme Manager UN-Habitat Nepal, presented on the context, and the process of contextualization of the broader global framework (OurCItyPlan) comprising 58 activities to 25 step planning guideline through extensive consultations with local governments, MuAN, stakeholders and MoUD. Followed by presentation from Urban Planner expert Kumar Dhamala, on the draft guideline, its structure, highlighting the steps to improve local level urban planning.

Mr. Kamal Adhikari, Senior Sociologist at MoUD, emphasized the importance of enhancing technical capacity of the municipal officials and elected representatives on participatory urban planning to take development decisions that is responsive to climate challenge. Further, he reaffirmed MoUD’s commitment to refining and upscaling implementation of the guideline across wider municipalities. 

This orientation marks a crucial milestone in the Cities 4 Women initiative's strategy to strengthen municipal capacity on inclusive planning process. This ward-level session is in continuation to the municipal level session organized on May 09 2025 to test the activities 11 (Phase 1 Step 4) of the guideline in which the municipal stakeholders engaged in hands-on activity at prioritizing sectors and sub-sectors for municipal development The feedback received from ward stakeholders will be instrumental in finalizing the guidelines, ensuring they are technically sound and practically implementable at the ward level.