GENEVA: International donors on Monday committed over $9 billion to help Pakistan recover from ruinous floods last year, exceeding its external financing goals and paving the way for a new model on raising funds to fight climate disasters in poorer countries.
Officials from some 40 countries as well as private donors and international financial institutions gathered at a meeting in Geneva as Islamabad sought funds to cover around half of a recovery bill amounting to $16. 3 billion. The meeting’s co-hosts, the UN and Pakistan’s government, said over $9 billion had been pledged from bilateral and multilateral partners. Among the donors were Islamic Development Bank ($4. 2 bn), World Bank ($2 bn), Saudi Arabia ($1 bn), as well as EU and China, Pakistan information minister Marriyum Aurangzeb said.
France and the US also made contributions. “Today has truly been a day which gives us great hope,” said Hina Rabbani Khar, Pakistan’s junior minister for foreign affairs. Achim Steiner, the UN Development Programme Administrator, characterised the outcome of the conference —where pledges exceeded Pakistan’s goal — as “quite unusual”, saying that donor pledges often fell short of objectives.
Waters are still receding from the floods caused by monsoon rains and melting glaciers that killed at least 1,700 people, displaced around 8million and destroyed key infrastructure. Earlier on Monday, UN secretary general Antonio Guterres called for massive investments to help Pakistan recover from what he called a “climate disaster of monumental scale”. Read More