Inter-Agency Real Time Evaluation of the Humanitarian ... - alnap

IA RTE of the humanitarian response to Pakistan’s 2010 Floods crisis
done in Pakistan, the main relief efforts had been carried out between August and
December (2010), prior to the visit of the RTE mission in January 2011. When the
evaluation team visited the affected areas, small pockets of relief operations were still
ongoing, but the majority of organisations were preparing, and some undertaking, early
recovery activities;
� Staff turnover – especially among surge capacity, with rare exceptions this meant that
people that dealt in the initial phase of the response could not be interviewed;
� Limited time for fieldwork; the team spent only three weeks in Pakistan. While the team
divided itself at several locations to maximize coverage, the numbers of locations visited
were still relatively limited compared to the geographical spread of the disaster;
� Security: In Pakistan, security represents a major concern were humanitarian actors
operate. The team was required to travel under police escort.
4 ‐ Funding
4.1 Timeliness of appeal and funding mobilisation
20. To date, pledged foreign assistance for the Pakistan flood response reaches a record high
of 3 billion USD 15 . However, more than half of the 3billion USD remains ‘soft pledges’ and have
not been disbursed. In total, 79 donors have contributed to the humanitarian response both
through in‐kind and in‐cash contributions. Most of the funding was disbursed through bilateral
aid channels and through emerging and non‐traditional donors such as Turkey and Saudi Arabia,
the Pakistani Diaspora and the private sector. Enormous amounts of funding and donations in
kind for humanitarian relief came outside of the UN appeal 16 – through private foundations,
charities, religious groups, community groups, and, the Army.
21. Following the request of the GoP, the UN acted in a timely manner by launching the
Pakistan Initial Floods Emergency Response Plan (PIFERP) on August 11 th , requesting 459 million
USD to respond to the immediate relief needs for an initial three months period, concentrating
on four priority areas, namely food, shelter, health and water, sanitation and hygiene. Initial
funding was swift and commitments and pledges reached 67% by the end of the month,
reaching 90% by September 15 th , shortly before the revised Plan was launched on September
15
See EAD http://www.ead.gov.pk/
16
Even in its first edition, the appeal comprised projects from 29 NGOs, nine UN organizations,
and IOM.
Riccardo Polastro, Aatika Nagrah, Nicolai Steen and Farwa Zafar
24