Attachments
The Natural Disasters Consortium (NDC) comprising IOM, FAO, UNICEF, ACTED and HANDS works across the country implementing preparedness, response and recovery interventions. Through multi-sector activities, the NDC works towards building communities’ resilience to future shocks by enhancing household skills, spearheading community initiatives and empowering beneficiaries to reconstruct.
As part of its resilience and recovery programming, the Consortium, through ACTED and HANDS, has supported 6,000 vulnerable households in disaster prone areas of Jhang, Muzaffargarh, Kashmore, Badin, Shangla and Chitral. The multi-sector, integrated assistance provided in these communities includes:
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Construction of disaster risk resilient shelters vis-à-vis administration of Disaster Risk Resilience (DRR) and lime entrepreneur trainings to local masons, beneficiaries, and community focal persons, provision of conditional cash grants and shelter repair kits, where appropriate. Performance-based cash grants are provided to incentivize beneficiaries to ensure expedited construction and provide their own contributions in financial resources and man-power;
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Restoration of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) facilities through provision of conditional cash grants to incentivize latrine construction; rehabilitation of WASH facilities in over 15 schools; repair and installation of community hand-pumps, dug-wells and water pipes; and through hygiene promotion sessions and sessions to facilitate communities in reaching Open Defecation Free (ODF) status;
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Activities to improve food security and livelihoods through provision of customized agricultural packages including seasonal seeds and high-yielding fertilizers, facilitation in making kitchen gardens, engagement of daily labourers through Cash for Work (CFW) activities including on rehabilitation of access roads, irrigation channels and water infrastructure, as well as in-depth trainings in agriculture, livestock and water management.
Similar multi-sector interventions are being conducted for over 3,000 disaster affected families in Kashmore, Badin, Thatta, Layyah, and Shangla.
In Shangla, a shelter construction pilot utilizing vernacular building materials directly assisted 200 households in the construction of earthquake resilient shelters. The shelters were made using lime-stabilized mud and integrated DRR components including the use of bamboo bracings, extended eaves and protected plinths. Beneficiaries of this shelter programme also received solar lamps, and participated in trainings on hygiene awareness and construction of smokeless stoves or chulas, to enhance impact of the project.
In Chitral, UNICEF is conducting large-scale WASH recovery activities including the rehabilitation of the 23 KM long Aranghoon water supply scheme, in collaboration with the Tehsil Municipal Authority, which restored access to clean drinking water for over 80,000 people in Chitral town and nearby villages including over 37,000 children. Further work in Kalash valley on solar-powered dug wells, water pipe-lines, and washing pads is currently underway. To assess the viability of further WASH interventions, UNICEF and FAO will be conducting two joint studies on water accounting and irrigation.
With the technical expertise of FAO, the NDC has invested in building food security and livelihoods, through both life-saving assistance and innovative activity designs. In Chitral, critical support through management of wheat seed distributions and Cash for Work (CFW) activities has benefitted approximately 7,500 families through generation of incomes and rehabilitation of critical infrastructures. In both Badin and Chitral, FAO is also conducting conservative agriculture and adaptive research demonstrations, through the establishment of intercropped agricultural plots using Zinc rich adaptive seeds to train communities in modern, adaptive, agricultural practices. By demonstrating good agricultural practices, these plots, in certain cases, have increased average yields by 25%.