The Caretaker Minister for Planning Development & Special Initiatives, Muhammad Sami Saeed on Tuesday chaired a meeting to review progress on Climate Change projects while directing the concerned section to expedite the implementation process of the climate resilient projects.
The meeting was attended by the Secretary Planning Ministry, Member Climate Change & Food Security and other stakeholders. During the meeting, Member Climate Change gave a detailed briefing over the projects initiated by the Planning Ministry particularly under ‘Resilient Recovery, Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Framework’ (4RF).
During a detailed briefing, Member Climate Change highlighted key initiatives taken by the Planning Ministry which include National Climate Finance Strategy (NCFC), Climate Investment Plan and Sustainable Finance Bureau (SFB). Under these initiatives, climate funds set up by multilateral and bilateral institutions will be accessed. She further explained about the functioning of SFB which has been established to provide advisory services to line ministries and provinces to access sustainable finance funds and to provide advisory services to promote financing options such as bonds, insurance, credit enhancement and others.
The minister further directed the concerned section to start the preparatory work for upcoming COP28 to be held in Abu Du Dubai, United Arab Emirates
It is noted that the government devised a comprehensive 4RF framework, which proposed effective coordination and participation arrangements among federal, provincial governments, development partners, donors, international/ national NGOs, academic and private sectors.
Last year Pakistan faced an unprecedented devastation due to torrential rains and flooding in most parts of the country, affecting 33 million people and resulting in economic losses worth $30 billion. In response, the government devised the 4RF framework and under the 4RF framework, the development projects are being executed across the country to make the infrastructure ‘resilient.’
While highlighting the significance of the climate resilient infrastructure, the minister said that the government is committed to adopt a climate resilient infrastructure. Climate change is now a reality which requires continuous work from formulation of an action plan to its implementation.
The minister emphasized the need to increase capacity at the central and provincial levels to deal with natural disasters.
Recently, the Cabinet approved the National Adaptation Plan (NAP) 2023 aimed at protecting communities that are vulnerable to the adverse impacts of climate change. Under the NAP, the government, along with other stakeholders, would take measures to protect vulnerable communities from the adverse effects of climate change and these steps would include early warning systems and effective measures to cope with emergency situations.
Meanwhile, the planning minister chaired another important meeting to review the progress of the National Disaster Risk Management Fund (NDRMF) and its key activities. The meeting was attended by Chief Executive Officer (CEO), NDRMF, Bilal Anwar, Company Secretary Muhammad Mehran Afzal, Deputy Chief Climate at the Planning Commission and other stakeholders were also present at the meeting.
The meeting discussed the four strategic pillars of NDRMF, which include Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR), Climate Change/Climate Finance, Knowledge Creation & Communication and Disaster Response & Resilient Recovery.
Further the CEO gave a detailed briefing on the progress of the pipeline and ongoing projects. He also presented the details of NDRMF’s successful completed project across Pakistan and the feedback from the communities. The CEO presented the financial progress of NDRMF and the upcoming commitments from the International Development Partners / Donors. The minister emphasized that NDRMF should maximize its funding sources for the continuity purposes and special efforts be made for tapping maximum grants instead of loans.
During the meeting, the planning minister appreciated the efforts for successful implementation of its projects and directed3 the NDRMF to focus on community-based work while engaging the communities through their projects in order to facilitate them. Besides, the minister also directed NDRMF to make efforts for tapping funding from the Global Climate Fund (GCF) and other concessional sources of funds for climate change action.
