ISLAMABAD – The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) have signed Letter of Intent (LOI) on Friday for enhancing resilience to droughts and floods.
This collaborative effort aims to develop and implement anticipatory actions to mitigate the impacts of droughts and floods on vulnerable communities and agricultural sectors in Pakistan. LOI is to support the highly exposed and vulnerable people in Pakistan to forecastable hazards through anticipatory humanitarian action through the projects supported by DG-ECHO, “Increasing Capacities and Scale for Anticipatory Action, including through Social Protection Systems” and “Pakistan-Integrated Disaster Preparedness (DP) for Resilience Building”.
National Drought Monitoring and Early Warning Center (NDMC) and Flood Forecasting Division (FFD) of PMD, agreed to work collaboratively in improving early warning systems, through data sharing and mutual capacity development, that is an essential pillar of anticipatory action to help prepare at-risk communities, and to facilitate the activation of anticipatory action protocols ahead of an anticipated crisis.
The signing ceremony, held at the PMD office in Islamabad, was attended by key representatives from both the organizations. Ms. Rolle Florence, FAO representative in Pakistan, and Mahr Sahibzad Khan, Director-General of PMD, signed the LOI on behalf of their respective organizations.
Addressing the signing ceremony, Ms. Florence Rolle, appraised the efforts of PMD team and for informative droughts/floods monitoring products, advisories and alerts to stake holders, media and public.
