Pakistan receives only $88m assistance against $816m flash appeal

ISLAMABAD: In response to the UN-Pakistan joint flash appeal of $816 million, Pakistan has received only $88 million support in cash and kind despite securing commitments of $111 million.

Top official sources confirmed to The News the government is going to launch a detailed report of Post Disaster and Need Assessments (PDNA) amounting to $32 billion with expectations that the international donors would make generous contributions in donors conference likely to be organised by French President for Pakistan’s flood-victims.

So far, the response of international community is discouraging. The UN Secretary General’s $816 million flash appeal for rescue and relief operations generated over $200 million verbal pledges. However, the committed assistance was shrunk to $111 million. Of them, only $88 million were disbursed in shape of kinds and cash, said the sources.

Without naming the country, one top official said, one country announced $2 million assistance but it provided goods worth only $0.4 million. Upon inquiring, the country said the remaining $1.6 million were spent on logistics.

Even, the major chunk of $88 million assistance consisted of goods, with little amount of cash, said the sources. However, the cash assistance could be traced through banking channels as it would help to ascertain official inflows received by Pakistan.

In the wake of flash appeals, Pakistan’s ranking in Fragile State Index moved to 30th position from 29th position in 2021. In 2018, Pakistan’s ranking stood at 20th position.

On the other hand, Pakistan received $1.1 billion pledges from multilateral and bilateral creditors mostly from the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank. Of them, almost $850 million were re-purpose of the existing portfolios rendering only $350 million fresh assistance for flood-ravaged areas in Pakistan.

The World Bank repurposed for diverting resources towards calamity resilient infrastructure as 17 slow moving projects might be scrapped. Besides, the ADB is going to approve $1.5 billion Counter Cyclical Fund.