Managing hazards and building back better is every government’s top priority across the world. Located in one of the most hazard-prone areas, the Mekong River basin countries are frequently exposed to hydro meteorological hazards. However, managing these hazards is becoming more challenging during the COVID-19 pandemic. Hence a multi-hazard disaster risk management perspective should be adopted to strengthen disaster preparedness, response, and recovery. To strengthen livelihood security and resilience, it is essential to quantify them in the form of indices. The project “Capacity building for measuring multi-hazard livelihood security and resilience in the Lower Mekong Basin” funded by the Asia Pacific Network for Global Change Research (APN-Japan) aimed at enhancing the capacities of the stakeholders for evidence-based decision-making and interventions by creating a tool for measuring livelihood security and resilience to multi-hazards. The project was jointly implemented by the Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand; Kasetsart University, Thailand; An Giang University, Vietnam; Royal University of Phnom Penh, Cambodia and the Indian Institute of Technology – Bombay, India.

In the first phase, the project developed the Livelihood Security and Resilience Assessment (LiSeRA) tool for measuring multi-hazards perspectives of the selected communities in selected LMB countries by conducting comprehensive literature review and workshops with experts in the region. Following this, capacity building training workshops were conducted in the project countries, to introduce the concept of livelihoods security and resilience to the stakeholder, enhance their understanding and develop their capacity for adopting the tool in the multi-hazard risk management context.