No plan: gap in flood relief funding rising

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There is 52 percent gap in mobilising funding for emergency relief services of flood survivors in Sindh as the humanitarian coordination mechanism undertaken by the government and the UN relief agency at federal, provincial and district levels has failed in developing comprehensive planning to respond to the disaster situation effectively.
This was disclosed in a flood situation report issued on Thursday by the People’s Accountability Commission on Floods (PACF), a civil society network of flood-affected communities, their representatives, volunteers and activists working for the relief and recovery of the flood-affected population in Sindh.
In the report titled “Critical Humanitarian Funding Situation and Early Recovery Framework Caseload”, it was stated that $356 million were required for the emergency relief but only $170 million were received due to the initial decline and delay of more than one month in launching the appeal for emergency assistance by the government.
It is a matter of grave concern that government and the UN’s OCHA (Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs) failed to mobilise or allocate funds for the early recovery projects for rain-affected people to be initiated in the month of January but as yet no funds have been mobilised despite a two-month delay and the launching of revised appeal of 215 projects and $440 million dollars for 9.2 million rain affected population in Sindh.
Discussing the situation and targeted interventions for recovery and rehabilitation process, it was stated that currently 352,000 families are food insecure, particularly children under five and mothers, whereas 43,187 families headed by females are under severe food crisis.
In the health sector, 9,275,568 people and 2,279,564 families are in dire need of health assistance. Regarding the shelter cluster feedback, 305,827 families in Sindh have their houses fully or partially damaged and are in unavoidable need to rebuild or repair their shelters. In the sanitation sector, 2,240,000 people are facing issues due to the collapse of facilities. The community restoration cluster has targeted 1,020,242 people for safe and resilient recovery of livelihoods of the affected population through restoration of community basic infrastructure. In the education sector, 388,509 children are in dire need of intervention with need of the rehabilitation of 4,810 partially and fully damaged schools in Sindh. In the nutrition cluster, 423,768 children and 75,344 mothers are in need of lifesaving nutrition services while in the protection cluster, 1,459,000 people and 133,000 disable persons are in need of improved safety and security particularly children, women and people with disabilities.
Expressing suspicion over the government’s seriousness in allocating humanitarian funding to meet the targets before the expected coming monsoon, the report said that the situation would further worsen if the same attitude is kept as of emergency response in mobilising the funding from international community.
The civil society representatives were surprised to know that on one hand, National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) Chairman Zafar Iqbal Qadir quoted the rain and flooding situation as “unprecedented” but on the other, unprecedented efforts were not taken to minimise the catastrophe.
“It is beyond logic that initially the government declined in August to appeal for emergency relief assistance for rain-affected people and consequently launched an appeal to the international community on September 18, 2011,” it was said.
The report termed the delayed appeal as the cause of less intervention and unmet needs in the education, temporary shelter, food security and health sectors.
Pointing out the data differences on the number of people and districts affected during the monsoon rains and flooding as lack of well-coordinated effort to mobilise the international community for humanitarian funding, the report stated that the government claims that 9.2 million people were affected, against the finding of 5.2 million survivors based on the Multi Sectoral Needs Assessment (MSNA) conducted by the UN OCHA.
The OCHA’s UC ranking process is also underway in the Ghotki, Dadu, Matiyari and other notified districts that were affected during floods in 2010.
The OCHA has partial concerns over the exercise of UC ranking of partially-damaged districts and huge geographical coverage for recovery interventions which may cause further less humanitarian funding situation in Sindh. The government has not prioritised the fully damaged districts in early recovery framework document.
It would have been rather logical to allocate the internal funds for recovery initiatives in fully damaged districts as Sanghar, Mirpurkhas, Badin, Sanghar, Tando Allahyar, Tando Muhammad Khan, Tharparkar and Umerkot districts of Sindh where 5,829,261 people have been reported as affected.
As per the government’s decision, World Bank and Asian Development Bank have to conduct a “Damage Needs Assessment” for reconstruction and development programme for further assessment of damages and losses to attract the humanitarian funding.
The civil society raised concern over the unavailability of valid data for effective response, whereas the time factor is crucial and yet government has to go for further assessments. Valid data is needed for the mobilisation of humanitarian funding from international community.
According to the report, the civil society was surprised to know that neither the government has yet declared the allocation of funds for the recovery projects nor humanitarian funding has been mobilised or outsourced against the revised appeal for early recovery framework.
The government also stopped relief activities in December 2011 for the start of the early recovery framework from January to the month of September for nine months; whereas the revised appeal was endorsed by the Economic Affairs Division on February 21, after delay of two months.
Now the government is planning to complete all projects of early recovery framework preferably by July before the start of the next monsoon season. Currently until mid of March, after launching the revised appeal of $440 million and 215 projects, no funding has been mobilised foreseeing the impossibility to respond to the case load of shelter, wash, health, education and food security and livelihood assistance.
The civil society situation report is critical to believe that huge case load of 9.2 million people can be addressed until July 2012 and it is also most probable that unmet needs for recovery initiatives would remain unheeded due to the critical humanitarian funding situation.
Currently 2,533 families are in informal camps due to inundation in Mirpurkhas, Tando Allahyar, Badin and Umerkot districts whereas Rabi crops have also suffered due to the lack of agriculture inputs support during emergency phase.
As per the report of Provincial Disaster Management Authority, during last year’s floods a total of Rs 2.281 billions were spent on distributing dry rations, drinking water, tents, plastic sheets, mosquito nets, transportation, dewatering and on miscellaneous heads.
The civil society suggested ensuring an accountability process by unfolding the distribution of the funds in specific districts. Currently, the participation trend in the clusters at district level are minimised due to the 80 percent phase out of NGOs serving for emergency relief services.
Expressing surprise over the UN OCHA that is now conducting vulnerability assessment of UCs, which should have been prepared before launching the revised appeal in February 2011, the report recommended allocation of internal funds for minimising the sufferings of the rain-affected people in Sindh, keeping in view the unmet emergency needs and non-availability of humanitarian funds for early recovery framework.