Achievements
- Establishment of Community Based Disaster Risk Management (CBDRM) Committees
Community-based disaster risk management (CBDRM) is a process in which at-risk communities are actively engaged in the identification, analysis, treatment, monitoring and evaluation of disaster risks in order to reduce their vulnerabilities and enhance their capacities. This means that people are at the heart of decision making and implementation of disaster risk management activities. The involvement of most vulnerable social groups is considered as paramount in this process, while the support of the least vulnerable groups to them is necessary for successful implementation.
Due to the severity and widespread nature of natural disasters in the South East Asia, the need for the institutionalization of CBDRM in government policy-making and porgrammes has been considered as of significant value in the region. The institutionalization of CBDRM is meant to internalize and mainstream the concept in the government policy and planning; and all tiers of the government such as national, provincial, district and village/commune/local should recognize the need for involving communities and community groups in disaster risk management work in their policies and plans, allocate funds for CBDRM activities, assign responsibilities to operational level staff members to provide support to community groups, develop appropriate strategies and program to support community action and establish technical resource centers in the country.
CBDRM Committees were established in 56 Union Councils of 3 Earthquake affected districts. Committees were also provided with stockpiles.
- Awareness Campaign and Trainings
2367 volunteers have been trained through Awareness Campaign and Trainings with help of NGOs/INGOs.
A project namely known as “School Safety Pilot Project” was launched and mock drills were conducted in 37 schools covering 5000 students. Also, has developed Disaster Management module for teachers and students.
- Early Warning Systems for Earthquake (Secty)
Govt. of Azad Jammu & Kashmir in collaboration with Malteser International, an International NGO, has installed Public Earthquake Warning Systems namely SECTY at 6 different locations of District Muzaffarabad and District Bagh. The system will be helpful to ensure safety of lives of the people of the said Districts. The siren of the system will go off few seconds prior to any major earthquake and can be heard in the radius of 2.5 Km from its installation sites. The systems have been installed at Ali Akbar Awan Govt. Boys High School, Upper Chatter and Govt. City Girls High School Madina Market in Muzaffarabad City. The rest of the locations are BHU Komi Kot and BHU Phagwan Dupatta in District Muzaffarabad and BHU Kharal Abbasian and Govt. Pilot Boys High School, Bagh in District Bagh.
The Gender and Child Cell, PDMA Punjab has been functional since end 2011 and was formally notified in March 2012. The GCC aims to ensure that the needs of the most marginalised and vulnerable segments of disaster affected populations are prioritized and integrated into disaster relief and response measures. At present, the GCC is composed of two teams working on
a. Child Protection during Disasters
b. Gender Mainstreaming in Disaster Management and Response.
Child Protection during Disasters (CPD)
The Child Protection during Disasters program of PDMA Punjab has been functional since 2011 in collaboration with UNICEF and seeks to ensure that child protection concerns are mainstreamed across disaster management and response. In this regard, PDMA Punjab has compiled standard operating procedures (SOPs) on child protection during disasters and has been working to strengthen mechanisms for the implementation of these SOPs. A CPD Management and Information system is also being developed to enhance data collection and service delivery in this area. The CPD Program also focuses on building capacities of various stakeholders to raise awareness on CPD issues and advocate for child friendly disaster relief and response.
Gender Mainstreaming in Disaster Management and Response
The Gender Mainstreaming initiative of PDMA Punjab is supported by UN Women and aims to ensure that disaster response and rehabilitation is gender sensitive and inclusive of vulnerable groups. The project is three pronged focusing on 1, Strategic Planning 2, Capacity Building and 3, Gender Disaggregated Management and Information Systems GD MIS).
Under this project, PDMA Punjab and UN Women are conducting workshops on Gender Mainstreaming in humanitarian assistance to raise awareness on problems faced by women in particular in post disaster scenarios and viable strategies to counter these issues. The Gender Disaggregated MIS is a unique initiative of PDMA Punjab focusing on providing gender disaggregated statistics to policy makers to ensure gender sensitive relief efforts.
The problem of floods in Pakistan is not new as it dates back to the year of independence 1947, when the first major flood hit Pakistan. Since then more floods of even greater magnitude in 1954, 1970, 1988, 1992, 2001, 2005, 2007, 2010, 2011 and 2012 have caused heaps of destruction in the country taking the lives of millions of people and leaving billions of them homeless. However the latest flood in 2010 was the most devastating which damaged the infrastructure and economy of the country. The main reason for the 2011 floods was the heavy monsoon rainfall in all four provinces of the country. The severity of the flood could be determined by the fact that one-fifth of Pakistan’s total land area was underwater. The floods took the lives of more than 2000 people and had a direct impact on the lives of 20 million other people by wiping out their property, livelihood and infrastructure.
SDMA responded to Monsoon 2009, Flood 2010 and 2011 & Monsoon 2012, enabling the state in reducing human and infrastructure loss.
In response to the flood crisis, the Government of Pakistan in collaboration with the Provincial Governments set up the Citizens’ Damage Compensation Program to support affected households with cash in their recovery efforts in all four provinces Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh, Punjab and Balochistan, as well as Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir. The Council of Common Interest (a constitutional body headed by the Prime Minister, and including the Chief Ministers of all Provinces) made an immediate one-off payment of PKR 20,000 to the affected families. The Programme was mutually financed by the Federal and Provincial governments under the name of “Watan Card” to support the flood affected families, and provide some relief to the affected people. In Azad Kashmir 11652 Watan cards were issued disbursing Rs. 233 million while NADRA sites were set up in Hattian, Haveli, Mirpur, Neelum and Rawalakot. Overall 13299 flood victims has been disbursed Rs. 500 million via Watan Cards in Phase II. The State Disaster Management Authority aided the issuance and distribution of Watan Cards to help the food victims to cover basic consumption and to recapitalize assets, repay loans, recover their livelihoods and repair housing.
