In recent years, the effects of climate change on Pakistan have become more obvious. These include flash floods, droughts and cyclones. This is not surprising, as the country falls within South-Asia’s disaster-prone zone. German Watch’s Global Climate Risk Index 1993-2012 ranked Pakistan 12th on the list of states most effected by extreme climate incidents.
These disasters and climate anomalies have impacted the lives of both men and women. Pakistan already has a very poor score when it comes to gender equality. The World Economic Forum (WEF) designated Pakistan the second worst country in terms of gender inequality in its Global Gender Gap Index.
Addressing the issues of climate change and disaster risk, Pakistan has launched the National Disaster Risk Reduction Policy (NDRRP) in 2013 in considering DRR as a core issue and The National Climate Change Policy in 2012. Both the policies have covered the gender perspective very thoroughly.
These policies recommend “taking steps to reduce the vulnerability of women from climate change impacts, particularly in relation to their critical roles in rural areas in provisioning of water, food and energy’.
But the action plans are not much clear and in line with the spirit of policies. Intersectoral articulation is also vague in both the policies. After the 18th amendment, provincial policies have not been initiated yet. Very limited research is available, focusing on gender equality in DRR and CC in the country and Sindh in particular.
Of Pakistan’s four provinces, the 2010 floods are widely acknowledged to have hit Sindh the worst. More than seven million people were affected including around half of the province’s rural population, and more than 2.5 million acres of agricultural land was flooded. Nearly 350,000 homes were destroyed, leaving at least 1.5 million people homeless, causing massive displacement. The floodwaters also took longer to recede in Sindh than in the other provinces. These two events exposed the weaknesses of the health system to cope with such situations.
Of Pakistan’s four provinces, the 2010 floods are widely acknowledged to have hit Sindh the worst. More than seven million people were affected including around half of the province’s rural population, and more than 2.5 million acres of agricultural land was flooded
Sindh province had high malnutrition rates even before the impact of floods. According to a statement report released by UNICEF before the super flood disaster in 2010, about a third of Pakistan’s children were born with low birth weight. The report further states that children in Sindh province are particularly vulnerable to malnutrition. Even before the floods, stunting rates in Sindh were higher than the national average.
The severity of impact felt in the Sindh province can be attributed to various factors; including poor governance as manifested in the Government’s climate change response. This has affected the livelihoods of the rural communities, women and children’s health and destroyed the basic community infrastructure. Disasters leave the worst impact on women’s’ health. Lack of access to food and poor reproductive health adds to their psychological stress.
Climate change also leaves a bad impact on psychology and people’s behaviour. Sindh province had the highest level of malnutrition even before the floods. Due to floods, women who were involved in agriculture lost their livelihoods because the water receded after a long time. This resulted in poor crop yields for the next year.
Due to poor governance, climate change vulnerability is increasing and the impacts of floods and droughts are greater and having a bad impact on the lives of women and girls in disaster prone zones. A recent BBC Climate Asia Report stated that by and large, people did not trust the government to help them in responding to these challenges.
There is need to revise our policy approach to be more focused on gender perspectives and to develop actions on approaches based on resilience in all manners of social, economic and environment rather than our current response-based approach. These policies and plans must be gender responsiveness in disaster climate resilience.
There is a need research and inclusion the gender perspective to focus planning and interventions integrating in CC and DRR policies and know the level of implementation; based on that to develop a number of actions and recommendations at policies and planning level to improve gender equality with inter-sectoral integration of both policies at the local level.
Writer is social development practitioner can be reached at [email protected]
Published in Daily Times, June 9th 2018.