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09-01-2023
By SJA Jafri + Bureau Report
GENEVA/ ISLAMABAD: Pakistan is in dire want of $8 billion from world donors during the next three years to shore up the country’s economy that was mostly laid to waste by extreme floods from June to October 2022, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said in Geneva on Monday.
Officials from some 40 countries as well as private donors and international financial institutions have gathered in Geneva as Islamabad seeks support in what is expected to be a major test case for who pays for climate disasters.
Last year’s floods, which are still receding, killed at least 1,700 people and displaced around 8 million.
Addressing the event, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also appealed to the world to help Pakistan deal with the disaster caused by cataclysmic floods, saying “massive investments” are needed for the country’s rehabilitation which is expected to cost more than $16 billion.
“We must match the heroic response of the people of Pakistan with our own efforts and massive investments to strengthen their communities for the future,” Guterres said in opening remarks.
“Pakistan is doubly victimized by climate chaos and a morally bankrupt global financial system,” he added, calling for creative ways for developing countries to access debt relief and financing.
‘New lifeline needed’
At the moot, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif also launched the ‘Resilient Recovery, Rehabilitation, and Reconstruction Framework’ (4RF).
The framework not only outlines a vision for rehabilitation and reconstruction of the flood-affected areas but will also emphasize the need for global support and long-term partnership to implement it.
The premier called for a sustained international plan to meet the daunting task of reconstruction and rehabilitation of flood-affected areas and build a climate-resilient Pakistan.
He said a new lifeline was needed for our people to power our economy and reenter the 21st century with a future that is protected from extreme risks to human security.
The prime minister said together “we have to rebuild the lives and dreams of flood-ravaged people”.
He said the international community’s solidarity and long-term support to Pakistan at this critical juncture would make the difference between staying unprepared or facing the future with renewed hope and aspirations.
“It is about the solidarity and vision needed to ensure the world’s transition to a sustainable future not on paper but on the ground in schools, in the fields, in business, in industries and in homes.”
The Pakistani premier said his government had prepared a comprehensive framework for recovery, rehabilitation and reconstruction with resilience.
“The first part of this plan reflects priorities for recovery and reconstruction, bearing in mind the minimum funding requirement of $16.3 billion, half of which is proposed to be met from domestic resources and the other half from development partners and friends,” Shehbaz said.
He added the funding gap for minimum recovery was $8 billion which would be needed over the next three years.
“The second part of the framework incorporates flood resilience design and infrastructure projects such as protecting key highways, rail-line networks, an early warning system and capacity building for rescue and relief in future disasters,” the PM said.
He said it was clear that Pakistan’s ability to recover from the colossal flood disaster, restore critical infrastructure and revive rapid economic growth would hinge substantially on the speed of these actions.
“The most important link in this chain will be financial resourcing and if that gap continues to obstruct our recovery and minimum resilience needs, the results will be too catastrophic to imagine,” he added.
France announces $10m, EU €500m
French President Emmanuel Macron, in a video message, announced support for Pakistan in talks with financial institutions and said Paris would in the long term continue to provide expertise and financial support as required by Islamabad.
“France will bring a new contribution of $10 million for Pakistan aid support,” he added.
Speaking on the occasion, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkiye stood by the people of Pakistan in overcoming its flood damages. He mentioned that the country sent 15 planes and two ships carrying humanitarian aid supplies for the flood-struck people of Pakistan.
Erdogan stressed intense efforts and more collaboration to address the climate crisis, adding that Turkiye continued to be in contact with the Pakistani authorities.
In his video statement, Prime Minister of Norway Jonas Gahr Store said the catastrophe had caused matchless damage to Pakistan.
He said as the needs of the flood-hit people remained enormous, the international community should take collective actions to address the challenge of climate change and support its victims.
Store said Norway would continue to join the international community for the cause.
President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen calling the conference a timely initiative said 2022 was a difficult year for the world owing to the pandemic as well as the worst flood hitting Pakistan, putting pressure on the vulnerable people.
She said the scale of the flood-caused devastation was enormous as millions of people remained underwater for months and the children faced a shortage of food.
Leyen said the conference was meant to adopt an ambitious plan to help Pakistan go back on the path to recovery. She also announced €500 million in aid for the country.
Federal Councilor for Foreign Affairs of Switzerland Ignazio Cassis said the international community should support Pakistan in that hour of need.
He said climate change was a global risk which necessitated global actions.
He thanked PM Shehbaz and UNSG Guterres for holding the moot and recalled the Swiss support to Pakistan soon after the floods including sending a team for relief and reconstruction.
Fiscal space, debt sustainability
In his remarks at a plenary, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar said the support from friendly countries and multilateral donors would not only help carry out flood relief and rehabilitation work but also create fiscal space and external debt sustainability for the country and reinforce its efforts to implement the ongoing IMF program.
“Pakistan remains committed to its international obligations and is on track regarding its fiscal reforms agenda which focuses on increasing revenues, decreasing expenditures and creating thereby more fiscal space for the reconstruction and rehabilitation phase which we have to undertake in Pakistan,” the finance minister said.
“Pakistan is carrying out the fiscal reforms necessary for long-term recovery and sustainability but we urgently need short-term assistance to navigate a number of challenges.”
Dar hoped that Pakistan’s friends and partners would always stand with it by providing it with the required assistance during this most critical phase. “Options such as debt swaps by friendly countries would also free up resources to be spent for this noble purpose.”
In his remarks, a representative of UNDP said that apart from reconstruction and rehabilitation, now a gigantic task was the resurgence of hope in the people. He said climate-related disasters were becoming the new normal.
“The world has an opportunity to choose a new direction with a new innovative model of cooperation,” the UNDP official said adding, “Pakistan needs fiscal space to overcome the situation”.
In his speech, Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal said Pakistan needed reconstruction and rehabilitation of its damaged infrastructure. “Besides, we have to re-engineer our built infrastructure to be more resilient and adaptable for future shocks,” Ahsan said.
He said the foundation of the ‘Build Back Better’ strategy was finding a people-centric socio-economic recovery and building systematic resilience against natural hazards and climate change impacts.
Flood-hit Pakistan
Pakistan and the United Nations are holding the conference to mobilize international support to help the country recover more effectively from the devastation caused by recent floods.
Additional funding is crucial to Pakistan amid growing concerns about its ability to pay for imports such as energy and food and to meet sovereign debt obligations abroad.
However, it is far from clear where the reconstruction money will come from, especially given the difficulties raising funds for the emergency humanitarian phase of the response which is around half funded, according to UN data.
At the COP27 meeting in Egypt in November, Pakistan was at the forefront of efforts that led to the establishment of a “loss and damage” fund to cover climate-related destruction for countries that have contributed less to global warming than wealthy ones.
However, it is not yet known if Pakistan, with a $350 billion economy, will be eligible to tap into that future funding.
Organizers say around 250 people are expected at the event including high-level government officials, private donors and international financial institutions.
Pakistan’s ambassador to the UN in Geneva, Khalil Hashmi, said Islamabad was willing to pay for about half of the bill but hoped for support from donors for the rest. “We will be mobilizing international support through various means,” he said. “We look forward to working with our partners.”
