USD 150 mn pledged in response for Pak flood victims but only USD 38 mn provided so far: UN

Islamabad:The UN has said that USD 150 million have been pledged so far in response to flash appeals for Pakistan's flood victims but only USD 38 million has been converted into assistance, a media report on Thursday quoted a senior UN official as saying.

Pakistan continues to reel under devastating floods that has so far claimed the lives of over 1,400 people and led to an estimated USD 12 billion in losses that has left about 78,000 square kilometres (21 million acres) of crops under water, the Dawn newspaper reported.

While several countries have come forward to provide aid to Pakistan in such a crisis, Pakistan and the UN have launched a flash appeal for USD 160 million initial funding out of which USD 150 mn has been pledged.

“We have been very successful in our fund-raising drive, and pledges of USD 150 million excellent in the current circumstances. Responding to a flash appeal so far only USD 38.35 million of this amount has been converted into assistance,” Julien Harneis, United Nations’ Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator, was quoted as saying in the report.

The United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Japan, Denmark, Australia, Singapore and others are the main donors besides the Central Emergency Response Fund of the United Nations, which raised USD 10 million.

He said that the funds were sufficient for the initial needs but due to the fast-changing floods situation, the flash appeal may be revised.

Saying that the flash appeal is for six months (September 2022 to February 2023), it is targeted at only six million the most affected people from floods and the UN and its partners were focusing on those people, the report said.

Haneis said that the government has estimated that 33 million people had been affected by the countrywide flooding.

“We are still in early days; not enough has been delivered and we need to speed up the response. UN and NGOs have some reserve monies in hand, those are being redirected to respond to emergencies, but there is a limit on how much we can do. So use against scale, we need money quickly that can be converted into assistance,” the top UN official in Pakistan said.

The UN resident coordinator said that a very significant amount of cash grants was being doled out through the Benazir Income Support Programme.

He said that the UN had an obligation to be transparent financially and accountable so that food aid did not diversify away from the needy people. Every UN agency and all NGOs have internal control and means of monitoring.

Hanies lauded Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s decision to engage a reputed international accounting company to ensure that international assistance was being used properly, and there were no pilferages.

Secretary General Antonio Guterres also made an appeal to world leaders on Wednesday, asking them to “lower the temperature” so as not to “drown” the world, recalling his recent visit to Pakistan.

Guetteres, who recently returned from a visit to flood-ravaged Pakistan, told reporters at the UN Headquarters that in Pakistan, he looked through a window into the future.

“What is happening in Pakistan demonstrates the sheer inadequacy of the global response to the climate crisis, and the betrayal and injustice at the heart of it.” “My message to world leaders gathering here is clear: lower the temperature -- now. Don’t flood the world today; don’t drown it tomorrow,” he said, denouncing “decades of intransigence by big emitters”, particularly the Group of 20 members.