In 2014, late monsoon torrential rains (from September 3 to 7) caused flooding initially hitting Kashmir (both the India- and Pakistan-administered sides), then moving on to Gilgit-Baltistan and Punjab province. These areas witnessed heavy rainfalls because of well-marked Monsoon Low Pressure Area (MLPA), with the Rivers Jhelum, Chenab and their associated tributaries and million acres of land have been flooded.
Floods created havoc in 5 districts of Azad Jammu & Kashmir, Gilgit Baltistan and many districts of Punjab. The affected districts starting from northern district of Punjab are : Rawalpindi, Mandibahauddin, Sargodha, Sialkot, Gujranwala, Hafizabad, Lahore, Okara, Chiniot, Jhang, Toba Tek Singh, Multan, Muzaffargarh, Bahawalpur, Lodhran, Vehari, D.G Khan, Rajanpur, Layyah, Rahim Yaar Khan and Bahawal Nagar.
358 people have died and about 2.2 million people have been affected, with more than half a million evacuated from the worst-hit districts of Jhang, Multan, Sargodha, Khanewal, Rahim Yar Khan and Hafizabad, among others. More than 3,000 villages in the country’s most populous province have been washed away, according to Pakistan’s National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA).
Flood water receded from flood affected areas and unfolded bitter realities leaving crops destroyed, houses damaged, water contaminated and stagnant water posing serious threats to public health issues to affected population. Stagnant water still can be seen in agriculture fields and low lying open spaces near villages. MIRA assessment report made public by UNOCHA indicated the dire need of early recovery interventions in community restoration, shelters, health, WASH and livelihood support in terms of wheat cultivation. MIRA assessment was conducted in 5 affected districts of Punjab from 16-20 September, 2014 with support from local and international organizations.
Human resources
Caritas Pakistan deployed existing and experienced human resources for the implementation of the project. An orientation session was organized for the staff covering technical sessions on needs assessments, beneficiaries selection criteria, technical guidelines for infrastructure component like installation of hand pumps, repair of latrines and shelter material, protection issues, coordination mechanisms within and outside organization and CI proposal and reporting formats and monitoring mechanism.
The following staff members were engaged in project implementation.
Executive Director at CPNS
Project Manager at CPNS (100%)
Communication Officer at CPNS (100%)
Project Associate at CPNS (100%)
Finance Manager at CPNS (100%)
Emergency Coordinator
Finance Manager
Social Mobilizers
Executive Secretary (20 %)
Driver
Logistics
Due to the adapted strategy and practices, the response remained more cost effective and saved the time and costs of travelling as well. Therefore no major inflation was experienced during the implantation period.
Monitoring
The following mechanism was used to monitor the implementation of the project
At field level
At diocesan level
At national level
At field level; As per requirement of district government, all detail information about the interventions were shared with district government well before time of execution. District governments were very strict in allowing humanitarian agencies to work therefore every activity was properly monitored by government officials of different departments.
At diocesan level, the Diocesan Executive Secretary regularly visited the target areas and monitored the activities on ground. He also took feedback from the beneficiaries about the interventions of Caritas Pakistan, suggestions and recommendations were made on the ground to field teams and all information was shared with national secretariat.
Caritas Pakistan National Secretariat deployed human resources in Diocesan units; one representative from National Secretariat was stationed in each diocesan unit which helped a lot to speed up the process and technical assistance was provided in procurement, implementation and feedback mechanism.
At National Secretariat level, Caritas Pakistan teams comprising of National Disaster Management Coordinator, National Coordinator DRR Communication Officer, Coordinator WASH and Monitoring & Field officer conducted periodic monitoring visits to target areas and also participated in the distribution, awareness raising sessions and structural activities of the project on a regular basis. Suggestions and recommendations were made to diocesan staff for better service delivery.
The National Secretariat team conducted a meeting with CIMOs in county, local government officials and discussed the progress of Caritas Pakistan interventions.
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The evaluation identified the following major lessons learnt from the program:
Involving field staff and communities in project assessment and design contributes to ensuring that an emergency response is appropriate to people’s needs. It is also critical to benefit from the assessment and contextual knowledge of other humanitarian agencies working in the area and assessments carried out by other actors;
Adequate staffing in critical positions and proper HR procedures are very important to ensure an effective and efficient emergency response and to maintain staff morale;
Better preparedness measures, including involving communities in disaster preparedness planning, and more focus on sustainability of programs is a must in countries like Pakistan that have an emergency response almost every year;
As Humanity focused organization should retain and develop its humanity focus from the onset of an emergency.
Strong communication capacity and clear advocacy messaging need to be given more importance to be able to do better and faster fundraising and to maximize coordination with the humanitarian community;
Building relationship with donors, local partners and actively participating in cluster meetings at all (national, provincial, district) levels is crucial to access more funds, avoid duplication, and to reach more beneficiaries.
Bitmatic
