Pakistan secures over $ 10.5 bn in flood pledges

Islamabad, Jan 10 (IANS) Pakistan has managed to secure over $ 10.5 billion in flood pledges which would be materialised in three phases -- short-term for up to one year, medium-term for up to three years and long-term for up to five to seven years period -- for the reconstruction of flood-affected areas, The News reported.

The cash-strapped nation clinched the pledges at the one-day International Conference on Climate Resilient Pakistan in Geneva after Pak Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif launched an $8 billion flood aid appeal, aimed at helping the country overcome the devastation caused due to the cataclysmic floods.

The country, with a $350 billion economy, secured commitments worth $8.57 billion by the end of the plenary session I, while it managed to secure over $2 billion in the second session, The News reported.

There were four Strategic Recovery Objectives (SRO). SRO1 includes enhancing governance and the capacities of the state institutions to restore the lives and livelihoods of the affected people. Especially, the most vulnerable SRO1 seeks to rebuild governance-related physical infrastructure that has been destroyed and damaged by the floods, as well as restore and enable a governance structure and system that fosters efficiency, effectiveness, transparency and inclusiveness.

The key will be to enable all tiers of the government to prepare and respond to natural hazards and climate change through gender-informed and community-led, structural and non-structural risk reduction measures, including through ecosystem adaptation and landscape restoration, The News reported.