The country is relatively ranked very high in terms of vulnerability to natural calamities. The risk is believed to be increasing rapidly mainly due to the growth in population, especially in urban and urbanizing areas. In Nepal floods create the largest disasters, earthquakes are the deadliest ones, fire causes the largest material losses and civil unrest induces the heaviest economic impede in the country.

Given the above situation, there is a need for United Nations (UN) agencies to be prepared to support the Government of Nepal (GON) in responding to emergency situations in a coordinated, timely and appropriate manner to reduce the negative impacts of a disaster. This Contingency Plan outlines the joint UN clusters’ response to natural disaster as well as complex emergency scenarios.

In international responses to humanitarian crises, some sectors have in the past benefited from having clearly mandated lead agencies, while others have not. Recognizing this, in September 2005 the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) agreed to designate global "cluster leads"– specifically for humanitarian emergencies – in nine sectors or areas of activity. The IASC Principals also agreed that the cluster approach should be applied, with some flexibility, at the country level.

The Cluster Approach operates at two levels. At the global level, the aim is to strengthen system-wide preparedness and technical capacity to respond to humanitarian emergencies by designating global Cluster Leads and ensuring that there is predictable leadership and accountability in all the main sectors or areas of activity. At the country level, the aim is to ensure a more coherent and effective response by mobilizing groups of agencies, organizations and NGOs to respond in a strategic manner across all key sectors or areas of activity. Each sector is having a clearly designated lead, as agreed by the Humanitarian Coordinator and the Humanitarian Country Team.