Building codes are key instruments for improving the resilience of the built environment to earthquakes and other natural hazards. It is recognized that though many developing countries have established the building control system aiming to prevent casualty and other losses due to natural hazards like earthquake, cyclone etc, it is yet to see the effective enforcement of such regulation in practice in those countries. Lack of understanding of proper building control mechanism among policy makers, inability of local governments to put system in place and other socio-economic factors are, in part, the major factors for such shortfalls in code enforcement.

In order to identify the common problems that hinder the effective enforcement of codes, the United Nations Centre for Regional Development (UNCRD) hold an expert meeting in Kobe in January 2007 under the Housing Earthquake Safety Initiative (HESI). The meeting attended by several international and Japanese building officials and experts pointed out the lack of capacity of national government and local governments to comprehend the necessary requirements and tools for code application as one of the major hindrances in this path. In this context, UNCRD plans to support national and local governments in recognizing the problem areas, identify the appropriate chain of building permit system, planning for human and financial resources for code enforcement through certification and inspection.

In course of HESI implementation, a national consultative workshop is planned for 31st July- 1st August 2007 in Nepal where UNCRD will co organize the meeting with Ministry of Local Development (MLD), Department of Urban Development and Building Construction (DUDBC)/ Ministry of Physical Planning and Works, and National Society for Earthquake Technology -Nepal (NSET).

The objectives of the workshop are:

»		Identify the country context problems in relation to supply and demands of building construction in urban areas.
»		Make the case that building control is the policy problems and requires policy intervention from the decision makers.
»		Workout on development of generic framework for effective building code enforcement by city governments in Nepal.
»		Identify the scope and areas of necessary support to build capacity of local governments for effective Building Code (BC) enforcement.

The workshop will deal with the topics in following themes:

»		Building code as policy issue
»		Development of BC enforcement and dissemination system for local governments
»		Capacity building of local governments
»		Way forward for sustainable and effective BC enforcement and dissemination