ISLAMABAD: While the pledges exceed $10 Billion, IDB, ADB, WB, and EU contribute the most. The spending of the amount committed is to materialize in phases under the four objectives identified in Pakistan’s Resilient Recovery, Rehabilitation, and Reconstruction Framework (4RF). The short-term phase is up to one- year, the medium-term three years, and the long-term up to five to seven years period.
The four Strategic Recovery Objectives (SROs) and the phase-wise priorities specified under each lays out the task of flood affectees rehabilitation.
SRO 1: governance And Capacity Building
The first Strategic Recovery Objective pertains to improving governance and building the capacities of the state institutions. In its immediate roll out, it aims to restore the lives and livelihoods of the most vulnerable among the flood affectees. SRO1 seeks to rebuild governance-related physical infrastructure damaged by the floods. Besides it also focuses to rebuild the governance structure and systemin a way a that fosters efficacy, transparency and inclusiveness.
It is to enable all tiers of the government to prepare and respond to climate change induced calamity through gender-informed and community-led, structural and non-structural risk reduction measures. The objective also tends to the ecosystem adaptation and landscape restoration.
Under this objective short-term strategic priorities include tend to improving public financial management, public procurement, audit, and anti-corruption measures. The medium-term priorities include undertaking detailed and localized multi-hazard risk assessments and integrating data into local-level decision support systems. While the long-term priorities include strengthening meteorological monitoring and early warning systems and increasing technical capacities of climate change and environmental management agencies at federal and provincial levels.
SRO 2: livelihoods and economic opportunities
Strategic Recovery Objective 2: Restore livelihoods and economic opportunities, SRO2 seeks to restore livelihoods and economic opportunities through a multi-sectoral approach. It has two key pillars: the first promotes livelihoods recovery through agriculture and employment restoration, while the second focuses on boosting economic opportunities through commerce, industry, tourism, markets and financial interventions.
Short -term Strategic priorities include initiating diversified social safety nets, direct cash contributions, in-kind inputs, and cash-for-work interventions as well as restoration of jobs through e-commerce and job guarantee programs; medium-term objectives, such as rehabilitation of damaged public and private infrastructure by using employment intensive approaches and implementing business regulatory reforms; and long-term objectives, such as legal, policy, and institutional reforms for the development of the credit market and provision of interest free loans or community investment funds through local Non-Governmental Organisations (NGO) without micro-finance institutions.
SRO 3: social inclusion and participation
Strategic Recovery Objective 3: Ensure social inclusion and participation SRO3 seeks to ensure that no one is left behind and that mainstreaming approaches are taken so that social inclusion leads to social sustainability. Strategic priorities include short -term objectives, such as the provision of protection services, psychosocial support, adoption of community-driven development approaches; medium-term objectives, such as establishing missing facilities and more robust protection for those more vulnerable to violence, tracking and exploitation; and long-term objectives, such as the acceleration of community-level disaster preparedness activities with social inclusion and gender equality sensitivity, school meals programmes targeting for the most vulnerable, multi-purpose cash grants for the most vulnerable (women and children) and rehabilitation of flood-affected heritage sites.
SRO 4: Restore and improve basic services
Strategic Recovery Objective 4 concerns with restoring and improving basic services and physical infrastructure in a resilient and sustainable manner. SRO4 seeks to restore basic social services for the affected communities and carry out resilient infrastructure rehabilitation and reconstruction, support led by strengthening human capital, institutions, and policies to respond to future disasters.
The short-term priorities outlined under SRO4 include supporting reconstruction and rehabilitation of housing, prioritizing the most vulnerable, repairing and improving existing physical infrastructure, repairing water infrastructure and strengthening weak sections before the next monsoon. The medium-term priorities under this objective include detailed technical evaluation of damaged transport and communication infrastructure, improvement of contingency plans and their performance in the health sector. Long-term priorities include establishment of a regulatory framework and tariff structure for Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) and municipal services. Enhancing the disaster resilience of the energy distribution network, a flood susceptibility analysis of the entire infrastructure network, and climate and disaster-resilient rehabilitation of irrigation, drainage, dams, and dikes.
