The project will explore the opportunities and challenges to compliance of safe building codes for disaster resilience in South Asia, focusing on two countries of the region, Bangladesh and Nepal. Recent disasters in both countries highlight that the problem lies in noncompliance to building codes. Such disasters have brought institutional and community awareness of the importance of safe building codes, presenting a germane opportunity to undertake this project. Building codes do exist in the two countries, but compliance is generally lacking or limited, especially in the widespread informal building sector. There is thus a need for understanding how these codes might be more widely adopted to enable disaster resilience. Collaboration between two universities in these countries with experience in this field will address: sharing the understanding that evidence-based knowledge is a critical component in the commitment to local action; institutional and community awareness of the importance of compliance with/barriers to enforcement of codes; fostering communities of collaborative practice; subsequent development of local and international dissemination networks.