RP TROSA 2.0 - IWMI Mahakali Basin in general, and select local governments situating in Darchula, Baitadi, Dadeldhura and Kanchanpur districts of Sudurpashim province will be the main geographical areas for the research activities to be implemented by IWMI Nepal.  Agriculture —growing wheat, paddy rice, barley, maize, vegetables, potato and garlic in small scale, rearing livestock, collecting and crushing sandsand mines from the Mahakali river and its tributaries, seasonal migration, mostly India, small-scale enterprises,and salaried jobs are the main sources of livelihoods of communities in the areas.  Men are involved as fishers; men and women also gather sand and stones from the river and crush them to produce construction materials (Oxfam Nepal). Most of the trade forthe marginalized communities is from Nepal to neighboring country India, where they sell sand and gravel, fish and vegetables to the larger markets.
o Historical background, Impact, outcomes up to now and their limits (brief about TROSA previous phase work- if applicable).
o Existing capacities (Oxfam and partners)
Data from a scoping study conducted in May 2022 at Federal level through the  NEXUS Gains Initiative of CGIAR, suggests that conceptual understandings to address challenges posed by climatechange in the Water-Energy-Food and Environment (WEFE) are currently limited among WEFE sector actors in Nepal (Buchy et al 2022). Hence, the starting point to develop awareness andthe tools to encourage WEFE actors to work together at the basin scale butalso at Federal, Provincial and Local levels will be to strengthen the capacity of actors.  In addition to knowledge gaps, key informant indicated organisational, attitudinal, and human resource-related challenges. These challenges vary in levels of acuteness across types of actors and issues. To develop and implement aWEFE nexus approach in the Mahakali, capacity building efforts must address each of these key challenges as they pertain to diversegroups and contexts.  Interviews with women professionals in WEFE sectors in Nepal at federal level also show that women working for the GoN continue to be side-lined and overlooked. Although the women interviewed were confident about their own knowledge and skill sets, irrespective of their age and level of seniority, they felt that they needed to constantly prove themselves. Women across all stakeholder groups feel they need confidence building to navigate patriarchal work environments as much as they need to further their knowledge and skills in nexus sciences. They also expressed the need to develop a reflexive understanding of how social norms impede men and women in their work, and how these norms are (often subconsciously) perpetuated.
In addition to capacity issues, respondents at federal level also pointed out the institutional and policy bottlenecks accentuated by the implementation of federalism. Provinces and local governments are responsible for developing some natural resource management policies, but they can’t take leadership in transboundaryissues. Building on the community mobilization done during TROSA 1 we propose to strengthen the capacity of elected representatives and local administrative staff in understanding the challenges posed by the climate crisis especially for women. It is therefore important to map out in parallel to mapping the upstream/downstream conditions within the basin the institutional context along the riparian municipalities of the Mahakali River to assess knowledge, skills, and policy gaps.
We propose for year 1and2 to implement our activity on the Nepal side of the basin but could explore if additional funding was secured and the work in Nepal proved useful to undertake work on the India side with the help of IWMI India in subsequent years.
The insights generatedfrom the institutional analysis, and knowledge generated during TROSA 1, will support the curriculum development of leadership training in line with TROSA’s interest in developing women and youth leadership. IWMI will roll out a leadership trainingcycle at the federal level in 2023 and lessons from this pilot will also be integrated within this proposed training cycle at Municipality level starting most likely towards the end of 2023.