Pakistan Drought Model

Since 2017, Start Network members in Pakistan, have been developing Disaster Risk Financing (DRF) Systems that allows civil society actors in-country to pro-actively manage disaster risks (such as droughts, heatwaves, and floods). Reducing the impacts of weather extremes and disasters is a fundamental part of building longer-term climate resilience. By quantifying risks in advance of disasters, pre-positioning funds, and releasing them according to pre-agreed plans, enable earlier action and reduce the costs of disasters considerably ensuring that the right assistance reaches the right people at the right time. This is all done through the scientific modelling of hazards, collaborative development of contingency plans and the establishment of pre-positioned financing to enable earlier, more predictable, and better-coordinated assistance to communities affected by predictable disasters.

Contingency planning is central to a DRF system. Contingency plans tend to be developed at a sub-national level: either at district or livelihood-zone level, whichever delineation is appropriate to the context. The process uses participatory and inclusive approaches, working with people at risk and local groups and organisations to design and validate planned actions, and in some places, to enable local groups to have ownership of plan implementation. Contingency plans – held by NGOs in Pakistan – usually reflect three severity scenarios (mild, moderate, and severe at a minimum) including costs, and may also cover one or more windows of action such as preparedness, mitigation, and anticipatory response. The contingency planning process relies on assessment of the vulnerability and impact that the hazard has on communities to ensure that protocols developed respond to and reduce the negative impacts that are likely to be experienced during a disaster event.Start Network members and partners in Pakistan have embarked on an ambitious initiative to build a Disaster Risk Financing (DRF) system. Now in the third year of operation, this Pakistan-led initiative supported by the Start Network team is a key milestone within the wider effort of setting up a hub in Pakistan; Ready Pakistan. The DRF will allow civil society actors in-country to proactively manage disaster risks (specifically droughts, heatwaves and floods) by accessing pre-allocated funding for early action, when pre-agreed scientific triggers are met. This document deals solely with drought. It outlines what needs to be done in advance of season and what happens after a trigger is announced. It is a set of guidelines and pre-agreed plans written for Start Network members, to ensure that members and their partners feel operationally ready for an intervention when a heatwave is forecasted.