By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan is expected to seek $16.3 billion in aid from the international community for rehabilitation and reconstruction of flood-hit areas next week in Geneva, an official said on Thursday.
In the monster downpour, last summer that inundated one-third of Pakistan, approximately 1,700 people lost their lives, and close to 13,000 are injured. Around 7.9 million are still displaced. Women and children make up nearly 70 percent of the 33 million affected and one-third of all recorded deaths and injuries are children.
Foreign Office spokeswoman Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said the “International Conference on Climate Resilient Pakistan” is being held in Geneva on January 9 and co-hosted by the government of Pakistan and the United Nations to seek funding for the flood victims.
Baloch said the daylong conference will be based on a UN-supported assessment that indicates Pakistan suffered more than $30 billion in damage.
The conference will be co-chaired by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres.
“The programme will feature a high-level opening segment, where leaders will make supportive statements,” Baloch said at her weekly media briefing in Islamabad.
Pakistan will also present the Resilient Recovery, Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Framework – a strategic policy and prioritisation document that will guide the recovery, rehabilitation and reconstruction after the recent devastating floods in a climate-resilient manner.
Leaders and high-level representatives from several countries and International Financial Institutions, Foundations and Funds are expected to attend the Conference, both in person and virtual format.
The conference would be a demonstration of the international community’s continued support for the flood-affected people of Pakistan, the spokeswoman said.
The conference is taking place as the UN bodies warned that initial support provided was just enough until the middle of January.
The United Nations last month its World Food Organization will run out of funds to feed 2.7 million people by January 15 after its funding appeal received only a third of the target.
Earlier, about a third of funds were provided by the world out of $816 million sought by the UN in its flash appeal for flood victims.
Officials said the country has received around $4 billion in financial foreign assistance to support flood relief activities in the country, out of which $3.64 billion is in the form of loans and $435.03 million in the form of grants.
The summer’s flooding wiped out huge swaths of crops, leaving already impoverished families struggling to obtain food. Farmers and officials warn that Pakistan could now face serious food shortages at a time when the government is strapped for cash and world food prices are high. The waters also wiped out the personal grain stores that many farming families rely on for food yearlong.
Pakistan emits less than 1 percent of heat-trapping carbon dioxide, according to officials.
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