Commerce Reporter
ISLAMABAD:Pakistan needs at least US$16.3 billion for rehabilitation and reconstruction in a resilient way to support the country’s adaptation to climate change and overall resilience of the country to future climate shocks, said a new report of Post Disaster Needs Assessment (PDNA) launched here on Friday.
The assessment estimates total damages to exceed $14.9 billion, and total economic losses to reach about USD 15.2 billion.
The report shows that housing; agriculture and livestock and transport and communications sectors suffered the most significant damage, at $5.6 billion, $3.7 billion, and $3.3 billion, respectively.
Sindh is the worst affected province with close to 70 percent of total damages and losses, followed by Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab.
The Ministry of Planning, Development and Special Initiatives led the Post-Disaster Needs Assessment (PDNA), which was conducted jointly with the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the European Union (EU), the United Nations agencies with technical facilitation by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the World Bank. The PDNA, in addition to estimating damages, economic losses and recovery and reconstruction needs, also assesses broader macro-economic and human impacts and recommends principles along which it has to develop a comprehensive recovery and reconstruction framework. The report was launched by Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Ahsan Iqbal, Minister for Economic Affairs Division (EAD) Ayaz Sadiq and Minister for Climate Change Sherry Rehman.
Addressing the ceremony, Ahsan Iqbal asked International Monetary Fund (IMF) to soften the conditions on Pakistan government to utilize its own resources. He said as per the IMF condition, the government could not spend 40 percent of the allocation approved under Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) before the last quarter. “I, as a Planning Minister of Pakistan government request the IMF to review such harsh conditionality. “As the support and help will take time from international community, at least the government of Pakistan should be able to mobilize its own resources to help its own people”, he said adding “I think this condition is very harsh and very unjust because we need to mobilize our own resources to be able to meet the needs of rehabilitation and reconstruction”.
The minister expressed the hope that the IMF would reconsider this condition. “The International community will show its commitment and moral obligation in the donors conference that is suppose to be convened shortly to take more responsibility for reconstruction and rehabilitation of Pakistan’s destruction through climate disaster that will show whether the world truly does climate justice or does not to the all of these poor people and turns a blind eye,” he added. Federal Minister for Climate Change, Senator Sherry Rehman said that Pakistan has geared up its efforts to make the case for climate justice at the upcoming multilateral climate forum COP27 in Egypt. “Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif will address the heads of states during the summit. He will also co-chair a high-level roundtable with the Prime Minister of Norway on the theme of climate change and the sustainability of vulnerable communities, said the Minister.
