Codesigning with women in Kathmandu’s informal settlements for community resilience

Abstract

Women in Kathmandu’s informal settlements near the Bagmati River experience exacerbated difficulties during yearly floods such as a loss of key materials to sustain their lives, menstruation-related difficulties, mental health issues, and undue familial responsibility. These issues are not being addressed by key players in riverfront redesign, which could lead to further disenfranchisement of women and a ripple effect of negative consequences for children and others in informal settlements. This thesis aims to empower women in informal communities in both the immediate future and long-term through a series of hybrid community workshops in partnership with Nepal-based nonprofit Nepal Mahila Ekata Samaj (NMES), which advocates for women in informal settlements’ rights. Emergency preparedness and menstrual health trainings were conducted initially to address women's feedback to NMES on their struggles during and after floods, in order to address immediate needs. Long-term resilience was built through a series of community design workshops. Women’s ideas from workshops were combined with on-the-ground conditions which transpired after workshops, when informal communities were bulldozed, to create a tactical design for a modular park which could be transported to new areas where community members resettle. By conducting design engagement through an immediate and long-term needs assessment, this thesis operates outside of traditional design planning processes to address women in informal settlements’ needs.