Pakistan floods: With families in limbo, efforts to rebuild lives focus on the longer term
The World Food Program (WFP) is stepping up its support for government assistance efforts by closing critical gaps in helping devastated communities and strengthening long-term resilience, which is becoming increasingly important due to climate change.
"We are working as a team here," said Chris Kaye, head of WFP Pakistan, who said that through a joint effort with the authorities, more than a third of those affected by the heavy rains have been affected. world population. the country. "We built a very strong relationship with the government," he says. "The government is stepping up and showing leadership."
The comprehensive assistance provided by the World Food Program (WFP) and its humanitarian partners includes food assistance, malnutrition prevention and livelihood assistance. WFP also supports a wide range of logistical efforts and helps assess and coordinate where and how aid can be delivered to flood-affected areas.
Scale-out is associated with massively increasing requirements now and in the important months ahead. The United Nations has suddenly appealed for $160 million to support the country's response to what Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called a "steroid monsoon."
Of this, the World Food Program urgently needs $34 million to accelerate emergency relief efforts and provide food, nutrition and livelihoods for nearly one million people.
"Government-led recovery assistance will become more important in two to three months to help people rebuild their lives and livelihoods," Cai said. He added that "we will see a new layer of poverty" in areas that are now heavily dependent on rain-washed crops. "Maybe that's where our influence is strongest."
More than 1,100 people died in the floods that destroyed roads, bridges and entire settlements. The heavy rainfall that began in June is three times the 30-year average for Pakistan and more than five times the historical average for the worst-hit provinces of Balochistan and Sindh.
"Our house, our neighborhood and our village were destroyed by the floods," said Jannat Gulzar, 52, who lives in northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, another disaster-hit area. The impact of flooding could be wider. For example, the World Food Program could block important routes that deliver food to neighboring Afghanistan.
The scale reflects the worst floods in Pakistan's history since 2010, which killed more than 2,000 people. This year's flooding is expected to be exacerbated by continued rainfall. This represents a new challenge for a country grappling with rising food and fuel prices and still reeling from deadly spring tides.
scaling
But the reaction today is very different from 10 years ago. Managed by a government agency that significantly expanded the national social protection system, developed with support from the World Food Program, to provide cash assistance to an additional 4.5 million people affected by the floods.
"This is what the World Food Program (as a humanitarian organization) will do in these circumstances," Kaye said, "but it doesn't have to be." Because the government initiated this mechanism," he said.
However, organizations are filling the gap by providing assistance to remote and flooded areas where cash is tight or food is scarce.
The first deliveries of food and survival aid began earlier this month and have so far reached 300,000 people in western Baluchistan. Food distribution has also begun in the eastern province of Sindh, targeting an additional 18,000 households.
"If we have enough resources, we can take care of a million people," Kai said. WFP also worked with authorities to strengthen disaster preparedness in Pakistan. For example, it provides 4 large blocks of government warehouses equipped with advance relief supplies.
The aid aims to reach people like Saeed Yan, a 45-year-old father of five, who carries mud-covered books from a flood-ravaged home. "Giving food is not enough," says Ian. "I lived an honorable life. We hope that our house will be restored."
What comes next will be just as important.
Thanks to flexible funding from donors, the World Food Program has launched a new initiative to build resilience in countries considered to be among the most vulnerable to climate change, including bordering Afghanistan. "We are already reaching communities in areas prone to drought and flooding, where livelihoods are very vulnerable," says Kaye. "Much of the work of the World Food Program focuses on this very issue: building people's resilience to manage permanent, severe and unavoidable disasters."
Read more: https://reliefweb.int/report/pakistan/pakistan-floods-families-limbo-efforts-rebuild-lives-focus-longer-term
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