Pakistan

Historically, disaster management in Pakistan revolved around floods, focusing on rescue and relief. After each disaster, the government incurs considerable expenditure towards rescue, relief and rehabilitation in addition to the loss of development funding which is diverted to meet critical needs. Based on this, UNDP has been promoting two major changes since 2003 – first the paradigm shift from a relief to a risk management approach to disaster management and secondly, the creation of an institution within the Government of Pakistan to establish a disaster risk management system at the federal, provincial and district levels. To achieve this, UNDP works in close collaboration with the National Disaster Management Authority which leads Pakistan’s efforts to build its disaster risk management capacity.

Some of the major achievements in 2008 include assisting the National Disaster Management Authority in developing a training and curriculum for a course on effective disaster risk management. The training developed local institutional arrangements and capacities to reduce the risks of drought, and earthquakes in three high risk cities and two districts in Pakistan. In areas prone to flooding such as Badin, Thatta and Sialkot, UNDP helped develop a number of mitigation techniques including construction of emergency, shelters, first aid training and the plantation of the mangrove forests, a natural barrier against floods. UNDP also remained committed to helping rehabilitate life in the areas affected by the October 2005 earthquake. UNDP’S Earthquake Recovery Programme (ERP) was actively involved in combating the ongoing issue of landslides NWFP and Pakistan Administered Kashmir (PAK) through implementing innovative and cost-effective techniques of slope stabilization in local communities.