KATHMANDU, AUGUST 29 Youth Innovation Lab, with financial support from USAID’s Tayar Nepal, has initiated Disaster Risk Reduction Young Leaders Fellowship programme, to bridge the technical gap for localisation of disaster information management system, called Building Information Platform Against Disaster, at municipal level. In first phase, the project will be implemented at local levels like Damak Municipality, Biratnagar Metropolitan City, Jaleshwor Municipality, Ishnath Municipality, Bhimeshwor Municipality, Neelakantha Municipality, Byas Municipality, Waling Municipality, Tulsipur Sub-metropolitan City, Rajapur Municipality, Birendranagar Municipality, Dullu Municipality, Lamkichuha Municipality, and Godavari Municipality. Those municipal governments were selected based on frequency of disaster in the past. Pradip Khatiwada, executive director at Youth Innovation Lab said the 14 fellows would be stationed in the project municipalities to work closely with municipal DRR/IT officers for five months. Khatiwada added that the fellows would assist in the day-to-day capacity transfer and support the municipalities to collect, digitise and validate disaster-related data sets. The fellows will also support digitalisation of resources such as education, health, and industries available at the municipalities. According to a press release issued by Youth Innovation Lab, the programme will promote a culture of disaster management that is focused on preparedness. A version of this article appears in e-paper on August 30, 2020, of The Himalayan Times.