The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Department of Planning & Development (P&D) held a consultative session with development partners in Islamabad regarding the KP Flood Response Plan 2022, de-signed with support of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the United Nations Development Programme’s (UNDP) Merged Areas Governance Project (MAGP).
The plan – the first of its kind in the country has been designed in the aftermath of the re-cent floods that have left more than 674,000 people internally displaced and destroyed the homes of more than 91,000 families. Through this plan, the KP govern-ment aims to rehabilitate flood survivors and safe-guard them from further vulnerability to climate change by introducing climate resilience and ad-vanced risk governance in the province.
“The world is entering uncharted waters with cli-mate change. Unfortunately, we are at the frontlines despite having a little contribution to the crisis,” said KP Minister for Finance and Health Mr. Taimur Khan Jhagra in his opening remarks. We will stand on the twin anchors of climate resil-ience and financial resiliency.” UNDP Pakistan Resident Representative Mr. Knut Ostby termed the consultative session a “milestone” for the KP gov-ernment in overcoming challenges worsened by the recent flood’s devasta-tion. “This flood recovery plan shows three sys-temic innovations will be re-quired in KP and else-where to improve resilience: resilient infrastructure; institutions that effectively govern climate risk; and district-level preparedness and responsiveness,” he said, urging partners to support the KP government with the mammoth task ahead.
At the event, KP Additional Chief Secretary (ACS) Mr. Shahab Ali Shah gave a detailed presentation on the Flood Response Plan. He said as per initial esti-mates, the provincial government requires $189 million to increase governance resiliency against climate risks in addition to $372 million needed for rehabilitation, emphasizing that additional resources would only prove effective if the institutions in place worked well.
“We intend to model scenarios and possible responses to ensure we are sure-footed whenever the next black swan event happens. Our people deserve a government that not only responds to situations but is prepared for them,” he said. Diplomats from the British High Commission, U.S. Consulate General and Embassy of Sweden, and representatives from the European Union Delegation to Pakistan.
