By Sardar Khan Niazi
In furtherance of its efforts for ensuring the earliest rehabilitation of the flood victims, Pakistan joining hands with the United Nations organized a one-day International Conference on Climate Resilience in Geneva, Switzerland.
More than forty heads of government and international financial institutions attended the conference co-chaired by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
The UN Secretary-General strongly pleaded for maximum assistance to Pakistan in its difficult times to express much-needed solidarity with a large number of flood victims.
He emphatically reiterated what he had seen with his own eyes when he had visited flood-hit people in Pakistan.
He reminded the international conference in Geneva that no country should have to endure what occurred in Pakistan and made an appeal for billions of dollars to aid Pakistan in its attempts to recover from the calamity.
The response from the heads and representatives of the governments and international financial institutions to the appeals made by the UN Secretary-General and Pakistani leaders was indeed quite encouraging.
The international community at the Geneva conference reposing trust in Pakistan made pledges amounting to billions of dollars. Up to forty nations, international organizations, and financial institutions have pledged to provide aid to Pakistan.
Congratulating the whole nation for the unexpected response by the international community, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said the pledges were far above their hopes.
Those who made pledges included Islamic Development Bank, World Bank, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, Asian Development Bank, China, European Union, the United States, France, Germany, Japan, the UK, Italy, Canada, Sweden, Norway, Switzerland, Denmark, Netherlands, Azerbaijan, and others.
Special thanks are due to the Saudi leadership for hinting at enhancing the safe deposit to $5 billion and investment to $10 billion. We hope that the timely fulfillment of the pledges will aid in the reconstruction of the country severely damaged by the worst floods in history.
Let us express our gratitude to the international community for its generous financial commitment to Pakistan at the Geneva climate conference. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has rightly said that they would not have pledged around $10 billion of their taxpayers’ money if they had any apprehensions of any embezzlement in funds.
Prime Minister assured the donors that Pakistan would spend every penny contributed by them in a transparent manner, allowing no wastage on any account for assisting the catastrophe victims.
Now it is our responsibility to ensure the successful and transparent execution of the projects to meet the needs of flood survivors. The federal secretaries have prepared an efficient roadmap for the reconstruction and rehabilitation of the flood-affected areas and flood victims.
Pakistan is very aware of the changing global circumstances. It should make the reconstruction projects resilient using modern technology and should spare no effort to achieve the objective with its commitment to transparency through a third-party validation that would send a strong message to the donors.
As to the distribution mechanism of funds, the federating units would get funds considering the flood-caused losses as Sindh suffered the most followed by Baluchistan, South Punjab districts, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and a small area in Gilgit-Baltistan.
Authorities have already transparently distributed around 90 billion rupees among 2.7 million households through the Benazir Income Support Programme.
According to calculations, Pakistan will need $16.3 billion over the next three years for the process of rebuilding and enhancing its resilience to climate change. Donations offered, demonstrate that the international community recognizes Pakistan’s efforts to combat climate change.
Climate change is a fact that will not go away without making genuine endeavors. Unchecked, centuries-long industrial progress comes with a cost, which we are now paying in the form of environmental degradation and climate disasters.
