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

7.3 Cross‐Cutting
IA RTE of the humanitarian response to Pakistan’s 2010 Floods crisis
136. During the assessment, the multi‐cluster assessment tool, MCRAM, was applied which
explicitly targets gender issues. Most interviewees consider the instrument to be a step in the
right direction in terms of placing gender and other cross cutting issues into the agenda of
response activities. There were other positive examples related to gender; funding proposals
under the appeal process were screened in order to ensure that sufficient attention to gender
issues were included (488 proposals were screened using a specific gender‐markers instrument)
and there were efforts to ensure that female health‐workers be involved in health‐sector work,
especially as means to reach out to pregnant and lactating mothers.
137. Notwithstanding, delivery of relief assistance was, at times, characterised by insufficient
understanding or attention to cultural or contextual factors which prevented both women and
vulnerable groups from accessing aid on equitable terms. Widows or female‐headed families, as
well as elderly and undocumented individuals were negatively affected (i.e. did not benefit from
WATAN cards, food distribution, NFIs, etc.). While corrective measures were taken as the
response matured, these did not prevent inequitable access from the earliest stages of the
response. Lack of consolidated monitoring data and SRF has meant that there is not a
comprehensive assessment of how gender issues are and have been addressed. In the Pakistani
context it is essential that standards are agreed upon in order to ensure more gender‐sensitive
responses.
138. The 2010 floods again 38 underlined the need for the GoP to take significant steps to
increase preparedness and early warning measures and address underlying causes of
vulnerability. In an NDMA evaluation related to the 2007 floods, the need for strengthening
national capacities (NDMA, PDMA and DDMA) was highlighted. High risk due to the high
concentration of poor people living in rural areas along river shores, preparedness for upcoming
monsoon season, early warning systems lacking.
Conclusions
139. Now that the emergency is over in most of the country and is transitioning Sindh, the
decentralized hubs in Punjab and Sindh are losing momentum.
140. In these two provinces, decision making processes were not integrated in the existing
provincial government structures
141. Life‐saving clusters (food, health, WASH and shelter + support services such as telecom
and logistics) have been widely praised. The appropriateness of the ‘verbatim’ roll out (or
business as usual) of clusters has been questioned
38
The same issue was brought forward in relation to the 2007 floods by the IASC Inter‐Agency RTE (October 2007)
Riccardo Polastro, Aatika Nagrah, Nicolai Steen and Farwa Zafar
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