Donors offer over $9b to help Pakistan’s flood recovery at Geneva conference

Dozens of countries and international institutions on Monday pledged more than $9 billion to help Pakistan recover and rebuild from devastating summer floods that the United Nations chief called “a climate disaster of monumental scale.”

The flooding killed more than 1,700 people, destroyed more than 2 million homes, and covered as much as one-third of the country at one point, causing damage totaling more than $30 billion, UN and Pakistani officials say.

Large swaths of the country remain under water, with millions living near contaminated or stagnant waters, the UN says.

Wrapping up a day-long conference at the UN offices in Geneva, Pakistani Deputy Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar said the final tally came in above a target for the international community to meet half of an estimated $16.3 billion needed to respond to the flooding. The rest is expected to come from the Pakistani government itself.

“Taken as a whole, these commitments total more than $9 billion and from what we know so far, these are all additional commitments from what was already given in terms of humanitarian assistance, etc., from both bilateral and multilateral partners,” she said, adding that a number of delegations had also offered up in-kind support.

UN pledging conferences often draw promises of big sums from governments, international organisations and other donors, but those don’t always get fulfilled entirely.

The Pakistani government has announced plans for independent, outside monitors to make sure that the funds go where they are needed.

Earlier, Pakistani Information Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb tweeted that top donors included the Islamic Development Bank, at $4.2 billion; the World Bank, at $2 billion; the Asian Development Bank, at $1.5 billion. She said the European Union had pledged $93 million, Germany $88 million, China $100 million, and Japan $77 million.

The United States announced another $100 million on top of a similar amount already committed to Pakistan. Saudi Arabia’s envoy laid out a pledge of $1 billion.

The conference shaped up as a test case of just how much wealthy nations would pitch in to help developing-world countries like Pakistan manage the impact of climatic swoons, and brace for other disasters.

Pakistani Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif and UN Secretary-General António Guterres attended in-person and other world leaders such as French President Emmanuel Macron and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan took part virtually. “We need to be honest about the brutal injustice of loss and damage suffered by developing countries because of climate change,” Guterres told the gathering. “If there is any doubt about loss and damage — go to Pakistan.

"There is loss. There is damage. The devastation of climate change is real.” Guterres said that people in South Asia are 15 times more likely to die from climate impacts than elsewhere, and his “heart broke” when he saw the devastation left behind from Pakistan’s floods.

“No country deserves to endure what happened to Pakistan,” he said. “But it was especially bitter to watch that country’s generous spirit being repaid with a climate disaster of monumental scale.”

PM Shahbaz likened the flooding to “a tsunami from the sky.” He said the flooding immediately affected 33 million people and destroyed more than 2 million homes, adding that the ferocity of the flowing water damaged over 8,000 kilometres of roads, and more than 3,100 kilometres of railway track.

“Today’s meeting is an attempt to give my people another chance at getting back on their feet,” Shahbaz said. “We are racing again time” to help the victims amid a harsh winter, and in the worst-affected areas where schools and health systems have collapsed, he added.

According to the UN humanitarian agency Unicef, only 37% of a $173.5 million target for supporting flood-affected Pakistani women and children has been met.

Agencies